2018 Bullet Journal Set-up

Something wonderful happened in my bullet journal life: my last bullet journal ended cleanly on December 31st, a luxury I didn't have last year. So this new bullet journal felt extra special because I got to start it on the first day of the new year! I have been bullet journaling since May 2016 so I have pretty much figured out the spreads that I like to have at the beginning of my bullet journal and any changes made to them are small changes to make them more functional and perfect.

I am on my fifth bullet journal and my third Scribbles That Matter journal. I really love the paper quality in the Scribbles That Matter and they came out with pastel colors in the last half of 2017 so I was very excited to get a pastel color. Many of my spreads are not created 100% by me, I find a lot of inspiration on Pinterest and I use Pinterest so much that it's hard to pinpoint where most of these spreads came from.

I began by filling in the key (one of my favorite features of the Scribbles That Matter since I'm not very creative) and the index as needed.

Something new I decided to do this year was choosing a Word of the Year to base my year and my goals off of. I decided on Discipline because I really need more self-discipline in many areas of my life. It's also fitting to have it as the first page in my journal and in the same spread of the 2018 goals page - which I will be filling out when I have my goals better mapped out.

Next is my future log. I've been doing it this way since my first Scribbles That Matter and I really like it. It's on two pages so it doesn't take up much space and I have enough room for what I need to keep track of - which are birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

I have tracked my reading since my first bullet journal but this year was the first time I decided to do a Reading Challenge. I already have a post about it here if you want to check out my reading goals and what challenge prompts I am doing. I also used to do the bookshelf design for my book tracker, but it never looked that good when I designed it so I just gave that up completely this year.

Next, I have my blog schedule and my blog ideas. Toward the end of last year, I created a blog schedule similar to this and really liked it. I use sticky notes to plan out my posts for the week, what posts I want to do soon, and what posts are currently drafted but aren't going to be scheduled for the upcoming week. I am so happy with how this spread turned out.

I have my all important cleaning schedule and a new side page of different areas of your home to declutter. I like having the cleaning schedule to look back on to see what areas I clean regularly and what to do for each area. As for decluttering, we have accumulated so much junk somehow and it's really piling up so I really need to go through and start decluttering our house. Especially since we will be moving this summer.

I have had a miracle morning spread in my bullet journal since my second one. I rarely follow the miracle morning but some mornings or days when I'm having anxiety or I'm having a really motivated day, I'll follow the miracle morning. So I kept it since it is used sometimes. I used to have a level 10 life spread (both ideas come from Hal Elrod) but I seriously never used it. So this time, I didn't bother making it. I also left the facing page blank because I'm going to put my daily schedule there...once I figure it out and figure out how I want it to look.

Something I always saw on Pinterest that I really liked was the TV Show Tracker. It seemed like a great idea for me because there are a lot of shows that we've started on Netflix but can't finish because Korean Netflix either doesn't have the show at all or doesn't have all the seasons that are out. I also track shows we are currently watching just in case Korean Netflix takes it off. I haven't filled it out and it'll be something I fill out slowly as it can be tedious writing 1-23 over and over.

Next, I have my Seoul Bucket List which feels even more important this year because we only have 6 months left! So hopefully we can cross all these places off before we leave.

Finally, I have our budget planner and my wishlist. We re-did our budget recently so I needed to put our updated budget in an easy to reference place and I updated the way that I set it up so it was easier to follow. I also have my wishlist separated into items we eventually need to get and items that I just want.

I am so happy with how this year's bullet journal came out. I think this is my favorite beginning spreads that I've ever done in five bullet journals.

How are your new year plans coming along?

See you soon :)
Kylie <3

My favorite Bullet Journal Supplies

Bullet Journaling is one of my absolute favorite things to do. I love making lists and filling things out, hence why I have so many trackers in my monthly, you can see a monthly set-up here. Over my year of bullet journaling, I have accumulated a few items that I use every day or even if they aren’t used daily, they're something that’s important to my journaling.

A Variety of Colorful Utensils //

My absolute favorite colorful pens are the Staedtlertri-plus fine liners. They write wonderfully, come in a vast array of colors – especially if you spring for the 42 pack – and they last for forever. I love how thin they write and how vibrant the colors are.

I also use Papermate Flairs and Le Pen, I don’t like these quite as much but I love pens so I buy them every now and again. The Flairs are a bit of a thicker point than the Le Pen and the Staedtler so I mainly use them for outlining.

Crayola Colored Pencils are a classic pencil, while they may not do as well as high end colored pencils they serve the purpose that I use them for and they’re great. Plus, they're cheap.

Crayola SuperTips are a wonderful, cheap way to add a little color or use for highlighting and underlining. I’ve heard you can learn to hand letter with them, but I haven’t had the patience to try.

Zebra Mildliners: A cult classic for bullet journalists. I love that they are double sided and I love the muted but still vibrant colors. They were great for college and they’re still great for just journaling. My only qualm is that they're expensive and hard to find if you’re not in Asia.

My regular writing pens are just Sharpie Pens. I was using a Pilot G-2 but they smeared horribly in my book, even after I waited a few minutes. Sharpie pens also don’t bleed or ghost as bad and they dry instantly. I use a Pilot G-2 pencil for my outlining and a Pentel Clic-Erase eraser, both are long time favorites of mine. I also have a uni-ball style-fit multi-pen with a .32 tip on all 3 pens. It’s super fine and wonderful when you want to write neatly, but super tiny.

Washi, Washi, and More Washi //

I sometimes use washi tape to add little pops of cuteness to my book and to sometimes cover up mistakes. It’s super versatile and comes in hundreds of patterns. I pick up a roll every now and again when I’m at Daiso or ArtBox, they’re kind of expensive (to me) so it’s not something I get often.

6-inch ruler //

I was using a regular 12-inch ruler and decided to spend the dollar and get a 6-inch ruler and I’m so glad I did. The 6in is so much more portable and it fits the notebook better because it is an A5 size and isn’t even 6in across. Such a simple, but a nice item to have.

A Portable Printer //

My husband bought me a Polaroid Zip printer for my birthday and I absolutely love it! I love being able to print pictures of fun things Mark and I do and stick them in my bullet journal as a memory. It makes it so fun to look back.

What are some of your favorite journaling supplies?

See you next week :)

Kylie <3 

July Bullet Journal Set-Up

It's a new month and it's crazy! I feel like I just created my June set-up and here it is - July - we're over halfway through the year and it's unbelievable. Anyway, this is my first time doing a Bullet Journal set-up on my blog and it's about time; I've been doing Bullet Journaling since May of last year and I've been completely obsessed the whole time. As a preface, I take a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and Youtube. So let's jump in.

My first spread is my calendar, general task list, and goals & thoughts for the month. I like doing a more Bullet Journal system traditional calendar in a list format, partly because I like the way it looks and partly because I cannot manage to draw a two-page traditional calendar. So I have all the important dates like birthdays, paydays, holidays, and when bills are due. On the right-hand page, I have a section for general tasks that need to be done during the month but not on any specific day and then a section for any goals for the months or random thoughts that I need to write down.

Then I have my habit tracker and my thankful for page. Although I rarely have a successful habit tracker, I still like having it and doing it. The thankful page provides a nice place to write anything I'm thankful for or quick memories.

Now starts the random trackers. To be honest, these don't really have much true purpose. I create these and do them mainly to have stuff to do in my journal. I'm not super creative so unless I have a lot of trackers, the only thing I have to do is make my to-do list. I love doing things in my Bullet Journal and these trackers gives me more things to do in it and it makes me happy.

First, my health tracker. Every day I rate how my mood was, how much sleep I got, if I exercised and the type, my energy levels, and then I write in the air quality for the day since the air quality in Seoul can be very terrible.

Next, is my cleaning tracker. I like being able to cross things off in multiple places. So this has my weekly cleaning tasks separated by room. I found that I like outlining what room I'm doing on certain days since my husband doesn't work a typical 9-5 Monday-Friday shift and I do any big cleaning on days he works. It helps and it's nice to see when things have been cleaned.

Lastly, I have our budget tracker. I write our income on the top of the page then write all the transactions we do throughout the month. I guess we do a sort of "envelope" system without actually taking out the cash. So we have categories like food, gas, and spending money. I write where we spent it, the category, the amount spent, the account balance, and the category balance. It's nice to see where money is going and we have been able to see where we randomly blow money *cough cough* the Post/Base Exchange.

I plan on doing separate posts for the different trackers and how we do our budget. If you want to know more about bullet journaling check out Ryder Carroll's original idea here and a good source of more creative Bullet Journaling from Kara at Boho Berry here.

Thank you for reading and talk to you soon :)

How to get good grades!

The new school year is in full force now. Most of us have started school within the past month and the work is already piling up and stress is reigning. I always strive to get the best grades that I can and over my 13+ years of school, I've found some tips and tricks that have helped me.

#1 Use a planner!

I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep a planner or calendar of some sort whether paper or electronic to help keep track of assignments, tests, dues dates and activities. I could not live without mine. I use a paper planner from Target that I write all of my assignments that I need to do in the weekly section along with due dates, tests, work schedule, and club meetings. In the month view I only keep due dates, tests, and club meetings so I can glance and see the most important things coming up. Without this I would probably miss meetings and forget about my tests and homework and I would be completely and utterly stressed…then probably fail. We can’t have that.

Whether you use google calendar, a Filofax, a store bought planner or anything else. Something to plan your days, weeks, and months is essential.

#2 Color-code

If you aren’t someone who likes color or someone who works with color well then this isn’t required but I found that it helps a lot! I don’t write my notes in color, I just use a black pen or pencil so that I can highlight and not have the pen color interfere with the highlight color. However, in my planner I love color! I love being able to look at my calendar and see that there are four days with pink, 6 with light blue, 8 with light blue etc. I don’t have to read everything looking for right item. I also have a highlight color-code for my notes so if I’m trying to find something I can look for that color and find it quicker. Here’s my color-coding system. You can take mine, alter it change it, create your own if you want to.

#3 Go to Class

I know this is obvious, but I’m serious. It’s so important to go to class even those dreaded 8:00 AM classes. If you don’t go to class you might miss important information, hand-outs, notes, or even syllabi changes. Make sure you also pay attention in all your classes and take notes. Plus, once you skip class once for no reason, you will continue to skip class and then you will fail. So even on those cold, rainy mornings make sure you get up and go to class.

#4 Utilize your syllabus

In high school, the syllabi you receive aren’t as important as they are in college. In college these tell you the weight of your assignments, due dates, tests and exams, the reading schedule, textbooks and other books you may need, the teacher’s office hours and e-mail and basically everything you need to know for the class. As soon as you get them for all your classes, plan out your semester. Write all due dates and exams in your calendar so you can see how much time you have to prepare for all of them. But after you do this don’t just not look at the syllabus again for the rest of the semester, make sure you continue checking back on it to make sure you are on track and not forgetting anything.

#5 Use a different notebook or binder/binder section for each class

This helps to keep things organized so you don’t mix up notes and handouts from one class with another class. I will later put up a post about how I organize my notebooks and binders. But whichever method works for you, make sure you have one or a section designated to each class so that you can keep track of your notes and handouts.

#6 Make sure to do the reading before going to class

This can be difficult, with so much reading for college it’s difficult to do all the reading before class. But doing this is important, it gives you an overview of what will be said in class, you will already know what topics you understand and what topics you do not understand and you can be prepared to ask any questions you might have. I also like to take notes on the reading and then take class notes in class so that I can see what the teacher though was important and have to different ways the topic was said. While talking about notes, I like to re-write or re-type my class notes after class to fill in any empty spots and get it engrained in my head.

I hope this helped! What kind of tips/tricks do you guys have to get good grades?

Thanks for reading!

Kylie

School Year Goals!

I’m back! This past week has been craaazzzyyy. I went school shopping on the 17 for the last bit of school stuff and dresses for rush week. Then on Tuesday I moved back into my dorm, I’m in an apartment style two person suite, so I have my own bedroom and bathroom (woohoo!). I drove myself to college and it took me like 5 trips to get all my stuff up to my dorm and I only had a few hours before I had to leave for night 1 of rush! We only have four sororities at my school so rush week is only 4 days: 3 days of meeting the sororities and then bid day where hopefully you get into a sorority and hopefully it’s the one you want! It was crazy stressful, overwhelming, and amazing! I found my home and my sisters with Alpha Xi Delta :). Now that all the craziness of moving in, rushing, and getting ready for classes to start I will be posting regularly again!

So anyway, to today’s post! Every year I make goals for the school year and I sometimes make them (like getting good grades I always meet) and sometimes I forget about them and don’t do them. Maybe this year, actually posting them online will help me make sure I do them all!

Goal #1: Make straight A’s

Last year I was an engineering major and I had a horrible time. It was so difficult and I learned too late that I don’t like science so I was struggling like no other.  I was miserable! So at the end of the year I changed my major to English and felt so much better. Even though I didn’t do terrible freshman year (I have a 3.28) I didn’t do as well as I would like. So since I’m in classes I enjoy and I’m excited about school this year I want to make straight A’s to get my GPA up to a 3.5.

Goal #2: Not procrastinate

How many of us make this goal every year and always start out well in August and January but then by the second or third week of school all that motivation to not procrastinate goes away and you find yourself waiting till the night of to do your work? Yeah that’s me every year. Sure I do well anyways, but it’s so stressful. Freshman year of college, at the end of every semester, I would be freaking out because I was scared that I wouldn’t make the GPA cut-off for my scholarship. I don’t want that stress this year. So I’m going to make sure that I don’t leave my essays and homework until the last minute so I don’t stress during finals week (at least not as bad)

Goal #3: Go to every class and be at class 5 to 10 minutes early.

Skipping class is easy, we all go through the cycle of “I’ll just skip this one class today and it’ll be a one-time thing” only to end up never going to that class. Let’s not do that this year, let’s go to all of our classes and even be kind of early!

Goal #4: Get up and to the gym a couple times a week

We have a really nice rec center with a rock wall, a pool, and apparently a sauna. There are also many different classes, I want to go to the yoga class in the morning (7:30 AM…ouch) but I think it would be good for me to go through a relaxing yoga class before going to my actually classes. Plus yoga is good for the mind and body and is actually really toning and strengthening.

Goal #5: Finally, Get involved on campus

I didn’t do anything last year, I didn’t make any friends, join any clubs etc. This year that’s changing, I will be joining clubs and getting involved. The first step for me was going to rush and joining a sorority, so I guess I can like halfway cross this off because being in a sorority means being super involved in college life. We’ll see what else I join.

Tell me in the comments what your goals are for this year? 

Thanks for reading!

Kylie

This week I will...

So I decided this morning that I want to start doing a weekly post on Sundays or Mondays where I write about my weekly goals and possibly cool things about the past week along with how I did on my goals for the previous week. I know it’s Tuesday, but I still want to do it this week. Since this is the week before I head back to school I have a couple school related goals.

Goal 1: Clean!

Since I’m leaving for school next week, I don’t want to leave my room a mess. It also really helps to have a clean room to pack because then you have room to put your boxes and you won’t forget anything. Plus, who would want to pack dirty clothes to school so make sure to do your laundry. I know I have a lot, I have clothes from the past week or so and then my new sheets and bedspread to wash so I can just put them on my bed when I get to school and make my room start feeling like home. I have the cutest bed spread this year so I’m really excited.

Goal 2: Pack!

I am terrified of forgetting something I desperately need at home when I drive back to school, although my parents will be coming down the weekend after or the weekend after that but still…I want my stuff. I have found that every time I pack to go somewhere such as camp, I always forget something. One year it was a hairbrush, another year it was my towel! I created a packing list to help so that nothing will be forgotten click here to view the blog post to get a copy of your own!

I will be going through the packing list and reorganizing stuff to fit the most amount of things in the least amount of space as possible. I will probably do a packing tips list within the next week.

Goal 3: Finish my book!

I have been reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson for a while now and I love it! But I don’t want it to come to school with me because I want my mom to be able to read it too. I also want to read the second and third and I can’t do that if I’m still on the first one! Plus I want to write a review on it so other people might read it and enjoy it too :)

Quote of the Week

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

                                               -Mark Twain

Thanks for reading! What are your goals this week?
Kylie

(Beginning title picture was made on piZap.com)

Back-to-College Packing

     I don’t know about you guys but I am excited to go back to school, I absolutely can’t wait. I’m starting a new major this year, I’m living in an awesome apartment style dorm, and I’m joining a lot of organizations this yearJ.  This is my second year of college and after living in a dorm last year, I have a better idea of the things that are needed and not needed. I also know how stressful it can be to have to pack up everything and move it to your school; so to help keep the stress down to a minimum I’ve made a packing list. I cannot live without lists, I make lists for everything! If I don’t have a packing list, whether it’s for a week-long trip somewhere or a year at college, I will forget something; it never fails (one year at camp I forgot a towel! It was terrible)! I have attached my packing list to this and it comes in two sizes: Letter paper and A5. This is a list of things I need and it may not be the same for you (I have my own kitchen and bathroom) so feel free to take away and add as you believe is needed. I hope you enjoy!

     Here are my top 10 college essentials and are in absolutely no particular order, look at the end for a full packing list!

1) Composition Book                             

These are a classic. I didn’t use them much until I got to college but they are amazing. For one they are super cheap so they won’t break your bank…especially if you’re a broke college student. I also realized that I don’t spiral notebooks because they ALWAYS break! Mine always wrap around each other or get caught on things in my bag or start unraveling and it drives me insane! I love that composition books don’t have that issue and they last forever. I have one that I have all my calc 1, 2 and soon to be 3 notes in one, science notes in another and will continue this trend. I also use washi tape to mark which composition books are for which class. It really helps when I am in a rush.

2) Command Hooks and strips

We can’t use nails, push-pins, double-stick tape or anything of that matter on our walls at my school so instead I use the line of command products. I love them, I use the hooks to hold my purses and anything that needs a hook to hang (maybe an extra towel?). I also use the plain strips to hang up any posters and pictures on my wall. I tried using the regular 1 lb. tested strips to hang everything up, but learned when one of my frames can crashing off of my wall and almost impaled my roommate that I needed something stronger to hold everything up. So I went and looked and found 4, 6, 8, 12, and 16 pound tested strips! I got the 16 lb. just to be safe, I didn't want something to come crashing down again. Everything stayed up really well after that :) .

3) Over the door hooks and closet organizers

Dorms do not come with much storage or space in general. These save space and provide more much needed storage. I like these over the door hooks that I got from target for 3 dollars! I plan on using one for scarves and one for my purses. Also those hanging closet organizers that act as shelves add more space to hold shoes, folded clothing, or anything you think you would want to put in it.

4) Planner

I cannot live without my planner! I have been using a planner for as long as I can remember. In my middle school and high schools they provided planners for us to use. I never liked them much though so I would go purchase my own from Target, Wal-Mart or Staples. When I went to college, I tried a new format: Monthly and weekly but the weekly had a time format. I liked that for a while but then I realized that it wasn't what I was looking for. So my Mom told me about this thing called a Filofax and after watching a billion YouTube videos about them I decided to give it a try and I love it! You can do so much to customize it and you can keep everything in one book, it’s a lifesaver!

5) Colorful pens and highlighters

I love color-coding, I mainly use color pens in my planner to easily see when I have tests, or what homework I have etc. I use highlighters to color-code my notes. For example, in my math classes I use Yellow to highlight the chapter number and title, blue for definitions and important stuff, pink for formulas, green for examples and orange to highlight homework problem; I then use a variation of that for every other class so it stays consistent. My favorite highlighters are the BIC ones, especially since their 5 pack with blue and green is widely available. I am also lusting over the Staedtler Triplus fine liner pens.

6) Rain Boots

My campus floods, not like feet of water but enough inches that if I walk to class without rain boots my feet get soaked. It’s miserable walking through cold rain and having cold feet all day. A cute pair will keep your feet warm and dry but are also very cute! I would love a pair of Hunter Rain Boots, but I just don’t have the cash to afford some. So I am going to have to settle for some cheaper rain boots. Do you know that it is nearly impossible to find plain black tall rain boots that aren't over 80 dollars? Ugh.

7)  Flash-Drives/External Hard-Drive

Things go wrong with computers, it’s inevitable! I have a 16 gb flash drive that I keep attached to my key chain/wallet organizer I got from Barnes and Noble for 6 dollars. I lost a flash drive last year that had everything from all my years of schooling since freshman year of high school! I was devastated L so to keep this from happening again I got one that attaches to my key chain so I won’t lose it again. Remember when we had floppy disks that only held like 128 mb of date

8) Reading Novels

I love books (as I’m sure you can tell from my previous posts) so having a lot of fun novels is a must for me. I read a lot during my free time at school and go through books like nobody’s business. I also always have one in my backpack in case a professor is late, I have off time between classes but not enough to go back to the dorm, or if I go eat and I’m alone. Seriously, this is one of the most important things for me.

9) Water bottle

I drink so much water at school. Well I should drink more, but I do carry a water bottle everywhere I go. It’s nice for class after walking across campus to class, after going to the gym, after eating snack in class (only if your professor is okay with food in the classroom) or eating at the commons. I like ones that have straws, I find that I drink more when I can just sit and drink through a straw, I can even drink while writing notes. Haha, but I can’t live without one; I lost mine a couple weeks ago and I’m dying without one.

10) Laptop

This is my most used item in school and out of school. I have a Lenovo y510p and I love it. It does all I need it to do and never runs out of space. It’s also super powerful so I can play all of my games (The Sims and Skyrim). Now you don’t need a super powerful, expensive laptop but I would definitely say a laptop is a must have. I take mine everywhere on campus (even though it weighs like 6 pounds) and I do everything on it. I also have a wireless mouse because the touchpad mouse’s can get annoying, a laptop fan, a case and a lock. Those aren't essential but are nice to have. 

Here are the two packing lists, since I can't actually upload the files the link will lead you to the Google drive .pdf document. If you want the original or the A5 size in Microsoft Word (any year), comment and I will send it to you via e-mail!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B76oPrrrCybxTjRicmcwemVvMUU/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you guys enjoyed this. What are some of you college/school essentials?

Thanks for reading!
Kylie