I’ve felt it coming for a little while now. The spark of joy when making my spreads was a little less, the feeling of it being a chore was a little greater. But I didn’t want to acknowledge that.

I’ve been doing bullet journaling for more than two years (the first time I wrote about it on the blog was here), and, as you know, I’ve been a big fan.

More recently I started posting some of my spreads on Instagram, and it’s always been a nice little boost to see those compliments rolling in. It helped motivate me on the months when I was a little less intrinsically motivated.

You know when you’ve been doing something for so long that your identity is all wrapped up in it? You associate yourself with it so deeply that it’s hard to disconnect, it’s hard to imagine yourself not being associated with it. It might also feel a little like a betrayal, like you’re not being true to what you said before, to what you believed before, to yourself, to the ideology, whatever.

It can be really hard to admit when something isn’t working for you anymore. But things change. Situations change. We change. And when there’s a shift, we can either cling tightly to what we were doing before and close our eyes and sing “la la la” and try to continue forward when it’s clearly not working the same way it was before.

Or we can acknowledge that it’s time to move on. Even though it’s uncomfortable. We can’t grow if we can’t see what doesn’t work for us anymore.

And so, here I am, writing this blog post, a day late, with trepidation, because after all my exhortations of how much I love the BuJo system, and as much as I loved being part of that community, the time had come for me to acknowledge that I simply did not have the time to commit to making the spreads anymore.

I know that there are plenty of printables available to use and put into a bullet journal (like here, here and here, for starters), but it doesn’t appeal to me.

So earlier this month, I went and looked at some Driven Day planners (no, this is not a sponsored post, I wish!). They checked most of the boxes for what I was anyways doing in my bullet journal, and while it was definitely scary to make a commitment after years of saying that pre-made journals just didn’t work for me, I took the leap.

Yesterday it arrived, and arrived in style:

They even included a little note. I loved that personal touch! And it came with a pen! Which I may or may not use, but I appreciated it nonetheless. And that box!!! I love pretty boxes.

It is definitely an adjustment, mentally and physically. I will always be grateful for what Bullet Journaling has given me, and I have great memories, but I’m also excited to see how this new phase of staying organized and inspired goes.

For a trip down memory lane, here are all the BuJo posts I’ve written over the years:

What I Learned From a Month With My Bullet Journal (February 2018)

Bullet Journal Update (March 2018)

Summer Vacation + BuJo Update (June 2018)

The Blessing of Routine (October 2018)

BuJo Year End Update (December 2018)

November Bullet Journal Update (November 2020)

December BuJo plus my New To-Do System (December 2020)

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Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash