Iam one of many at Cambridge who would define themselves as of an anxious disposition, quite Type-A, slightly excessively organised. Knowing this, the fact that I’ve been bullet journalling since I was in Year 10 is not a surprising one: bullet journals, with their calligraphy daily to-do lists, monthly spreads and habit trackers are common tropes of the social media academic and productivity aesthetics. However, the practical and personal significance of these bullet journals that I’ve created over the past four years is larger than this, with my bullet journal playing a notable role in my own wellbeing.

“Bullet journalling, although presented as an intricate craft on social media, is not about perfection, but trial and error and personal development.”

Let’s start with the academic and practical side of things. Bullet journals, although sometimes incredibly intricate and creative, becoming more a work of art than a to-do list, are ultimately a form of planner that can be moulded to the user’s day-to-day routines, duties and goals: they can be used to track errands, longer tasks, or build positive habits, ultimately being completely personalised. Personally, I use my bullet journal for a mixture of planning both my academic and social lives, tracking projects or events, and reflection. As a result, my spreads include monthly calendars, ‘one line a day’ pages, and weekly planners with my academic work for the week, daily schedules, commitments and to-do lists, with some added calligraphy, of course. Ultimately, my whole life is planned out in my bullet journal.

Starting my first bullet journal and using it to organise my studies in a way that suited me - rather than being forced into the confines of a pre-prepared planner or scattered across a multitude of post-it notes - made a significant difference to my academic life. I felt far more in control of my workload as I progressed throughout school, and throughout my first year at Cambridge, I learned to adapt my spreads to better suit the University workload and lifestyle. I’ve added sections, divided by the week of term, to organise each week’s several assignments, based around my own personal essay process. Although this was by no means a cure for the sometimes-overwhelming workload nor those Week 5 blues, the fact that my whole life for each academic week was panned out in one double-page spread definitely made things feel more manageable for my anxious fresher-self.

This relief that I find in my bullet journal is not just linked to Cambridge or academic pressures. The genesis of my bullet journalling habit was a conversation with a Year 11 student who supported me and shared some of the same anxieties as me, during which she stated that starting bullet journalling had helped relieve some of that anxiety. I was quite an artistic student growing up, and had always found solace in the doodles in the corner of my maths book (apologies to my Year 9 teacher), so the prospect of combining creativity with a release from the stress I was feeling seemed almost too good to be true. (I should note here that the artistic side is not essential, and many people create simpler and less artistic spreads and yet yield the same benefits.) Habitually taking time out of my day to draw out the spreads, plan my next day and reflect on what had passed has taught me to pause and take a step back. It wasn’t quite a ‘magic bullet’, but bullet journalling has optimised my productivity during the best of times and kept me grounded during some of my most chaotic and lowest moments.

“Bullet journalling has optimised my productivity during the best of times and kept me grounded during some of my most chaotic and lowest moments.”

The ‘one line a day’ spread is a recent addition, and admittedly is not one that I have completed daily so far: bullet journalling, although presented as an intricate craft on social media, is not about perfection, but trial and error and personal development. This spread was, like others, intended to be grounding and encourage gratitude and reflection, and to put to paper those positive memories, and was inspired by a similar spread in the journal of a close friend of mine (an MMLer, who often writes hers in Russian: I’ve attempted writing mine in Latin from time to time, and I’ve found it rather pleasant if I have the patience for prose composition in the evening.)

Notion is a recent addition to my organisation routine, with my budget tracking and academic notes - which I had previously kept in my bullet journal - being digitalised. At first, I was concerned that this would make my five-years of bullet journalling redundant, but, in reality, it has allowed me to distinguish and detach my academic work and the relief I find within the pages of my journal, and subsequently has enhanced the tranquility it brings.

This ode to my bullet journal is not meant to force conversion to bullet journalling: although I believe that it can definitely have positive impacts, and while I think that everybody could find a way to create a journal that works for each individual, I won’t insist that it is suited to absolutely everyone. I will, however, leave this piece with some gratitude (see, progress!) for my journal, for keeping my life contained and in order in its pages, for the peace of mind its organisation gives me, and for grounding me through all the unpredictable chaos that Cambridge brings.