For nearly two years I’ve had an ongoing argument with a friend. She has been obsessed with bullet journals for a long time, purchasing a very expensive dotted paper notebook at the beginning of every year and she spends hours creating all sorts of trackers, grids, and layouts (or, spreads as they are known) that she painstakingly fills in every morning and evening.
With that, she also likes to have a ‘theme’ for each month, decorating the pages in specific doodles and colours. She sent me a photo of her bullet journal ‘shelf’ once, which was filled with different pens – highlighters, fine-liners of all sizes, felt pens – and stacks of washi tape in lots of colours and patterns.
I was inspired by what she created and I tried to do one myself. I spent hours designing and creating a weekly spread which looked great…
… and I lasted about a week before I lost interest.
I have tried to use bullet journals many times since then, and some of the trackers are indeed useful. It’s not that I don’t have the time (I know that there are plenty of minimalist-style bullet journals that don’t take half as much effort that I have seen others put in), it’s just that I don’t have the energy to maintain it and it doesn’t quite suit what I need. A bullet journal is great in that they can be designed for almost anything, but I wanted something that was ready-made and easy for me to just adapt it to my own lifestyle.
So I decided to use a really useful digital planner instead! I found a really great ‘Versatile Life Planner’ from The Daily Planners and I have been using it ever since. This is perfect for being able to keep track of my daily life – and it has made a huge difference.
Here are reasons why I love using a digital planner
1. They are easy to customize. When using paper I have found that errors aren’t easily corrected and I can customize my planner much more often depending on my mood. Sometimes I like to make it much more simple, and on days when I’m in the mood I switch it up and add a lot more in!
2. I can take it anywhere. Yes, a paper bullet journal can also be taken with you, but I found that it was an extra thing to carry. My planner is available on my tech which I would be carrying with me anyway and it is easy to access at any time of day, no matter where I am.
3. It is much more affordable. The digital planner that I purchased is about the same price as a high quality paper journal, but I haven’t needed to purchase pens or items to decorate and customize. This helps with keeping things tidy, saving space and helping to declutter too!
4. I can import things like photographs. I have boxes of photographs, many of them taken on family holidays where there are multiple duplicates of the same thing. Using a digital planner means I can import my favorite photos from my phone and delete the rest.
5. They are easy to navigate. When using a paper planner I colour-coded pages and used washi tape so I could flip back to important pages. I love using my digital planner because I can easily find the pages that I need at the touch of a button!
6.When using my digital planner I discovered something about myself. If there is something that I don’t really want to do, I will write it in my digital planner and then I will do it. I argue with myself about a lot of things, and I usually win!
If you are still using a paper journal, why not think about switching to a digital planner and save yourself some time, money and space!