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Bullet Journal in a Happy Planner: Method
In the previous post, we talked about how to get started Bullet Journaling in a Happy Planner.
In case you missed it, the Happy Planner is a ring notebook that allows you to add, remove, and rearrange pages. It’s often pre-printed with traditional planner pages, but I took those out of mine and put in blank dot-grid pages from the company Talia. Happy Planners come in three sizes (Big, Standard, and Mini)– I recommend the Big size because, with a specialized hole-punch, you can add standard letter size paper. This could be useful for keeping track of important mail, or you can create or buy printables. Your imagination is really the limit here.
One notebook to rule them all?
The Bullet Journal system is designed to consist of one notebook, though there are many variations, and people often find it most convenient to use multiple notebooks for different topics. My Happy Planner Bullet Journal has a variety of different sections, and I use it for all my life administration, but I have additional notebooks for my witch journal (also known as a Book of Shadows or grimoire) as well as my reading journal. (Posts about those are in the works!) I definitely think that having one notebook is my ideal, but you should do what works for you!
Divider Sections
One of the biggest innovations of the Bullet Journal system, in my opinion, is that you just use the next available page for whatever you want to write (or draw, or design) and then add it to your index. However, the Happy Planner has the ability to move pages around. Therefore, I don’t use an index, and use divider tabs instead. When I sit down to Bullet Journal, even when using a regular bound notebook, I flip through every page to see if there’s anything that needs to be written down, migrated, or recorded. (That sounds like a lot, but it only takes me about 10 minutes a day to do this.)
The sections are labeled:
- BuJo. This is where I keep my life administration stuff that I made myself, and this is the section I flip through every day. More on this below.
- Notes. This section is really going to come in handy when I start grad school. Right now, most of my book notes live in one of my other journals.
- Journal. This is where I do my Morning Pages as well as any other long-form writing I might do throughout the day. I do Morning Pages a little differently, and tend to write about what I’m going to do that day. I find more focused writing to be better than just freewriting for me, but everyone’s brains work differently!
- Blog. Self-explanatory.
- Paperwork. This is where I keep things I have hole-punched to add, like important mail and legal information.
- Blank. This is where I keep blank dot-grid pages to add to the other sections.
Bullet Journal Pages
The Bullet Journal section is my main section.
Pages that I find useful include:
- Contact info for if I lose my notebook.
- A future log/yearly calendar with space to write important info, like far-off doctor appointments.
- Monthly calendar in a traditional grid format
- Life focuses (post about this incoming!)
- Task list, both short-term and long term projects. (I might divide this up in the future, but for now I have it all as one list.)
- Weekly symptom recording by day.
- Monthly reviews. This is part of the Bullet Journal method, and consists of asking “What worked and what didn’t?” Traditionally, the scope is within your notebook, but I like to ask the question of both my organization system and my entire life.
- My Points System. Discussed in an old post, this is my system for getting stuff done. I have a points goal for the day, and each reasonably productive activity gets me a certain amount of points depending on effort.
- Habit Trackers.
- Finished books for this year.
- Passwords. I am very careful with my notebook for this reason.
- Things to bring up to the doctor.
- Health appointment log. This is where I write down any notes from doctor’s appointments, like what we discussed and what the results were.
- Miscellaneous Lists.
Coming up soon: my unique Bullet Journal key and how I use it.
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Bullet Journaling in a Happy Planner: Supplies
Unlike the Bullet Journal, the Happy Planner is more of an item than a system. However, it has changed the way I journal and I couldn’t be happier. This is the first post in a series about how I use the Happy Planner as a Bullet Journal.
The Happy Planner is a notebook that is bound in rings, kind of like a binder but better (we’ll get to that in a sec). It looks like this:
Here you can see the rings that keep it together, and some of the pages that might be inside.
Happy Planners are often pre-printed with traditional planner pages, but you can swap out the paper and do almost anything you can imagine!
Is the Happy Planner right for me?
Okay, I’m going to be extra-honest with you. Bullet Journaling can change your life, but Happy Planner stuff can be expensive and lock you into a system that you may not be happy with. Biggest tip in the entire post: if you’re new to Bullet Journaling, test it out in a notebook from the dollar store. Yup, get any old notebook and just start taking notes on your life. Dive into the system headfirst, but not with your money. Find out what works for you and your brain before you buy anything expensive!
If you’re an experienced Bullet Journaler and you’re looking for a notebook that is more flexible, Happy Planner is something I definitely recommend, especially if you’ve considered using a ring binder. Discs are superior to ring binders because the pages don’t rip when you flip them!
What do I need to get started?
- A basic kit with a cover, rings, and page dividers, like this. I recommend getting the “Big” size, which uses 8.5 x 11 paper and has 11 discs. That way, you can frictionlessly add paperwork that’s on standard letter size paper.
- Extra paper, like this. I took out all the pre-printed planner paper that came with my Happy Planner, but you might want to use what it comes with. Either way, you’re going to want extra pages for notes and collections. This link will get you dotted 8.5 x 11 pages.
- A hole punch, like this. Whoa! $40 for a hole punch? Yeah it’s a lot, and it only punches 3 pages at a time, but I find being able to put mail and other paperwork into my notebook is priceless.
Other Things You Might Want to Get:
- An extra kit with cover, rings, and page dividers. I have one Bullet Journal Happy Planner and one Archive Happy Planner, where I keep pages that are no longer relevant in my day-to-day life but I still want to keep.
- A folio cover. I found this to be a necessity in case I’m walking somewhere, with my Bullet Journal in my backpack, and the weather turns bad. If my Bullet Journal got wet, I would be devastated. Therefore, I got a waterproof one.
- Markers. The dots on the paper I recommended are a little dark, so I use markers for my page titles to make them stand out a little bit more.
- A fountain pen. Fountain pens can be cheaper than you might expect, and while they take some maintenance and know-how, they are far more reliable than other pens and I find the approximately $30 investment to be worth it.
Things You Don’t Need?
I do not recommend getting pulled in by the myriad of tempting stickers that Happy Planner offers. They do not actually improve your Bullet Journaling experience at all, and they’re expensive.
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Upcoming Patreon Offerings!
Listen. I don’t blog to make money. I have been there and it sucks. However, I would like to be able to keep hosting this blog. Therefore, download-ables (which I have been planning on making for a while) will be hosted in my Patreon shop. Yes, I have a Patreon! This will help me out with the costs of running the site, as well as ensure you have a safe and secure place to download additional content from me.
Each downloadable/printable/ebook will be priced at the minimum that Patreon allows ($3) and will be worth at least that much. You can buy the ones you’re interested in OR you can become a patron for $5/month and download all of them for no additional cost. (Patreon takes a small cut of each sale or monthly renewal.)
Things I plan on offering:
- Oracle card worksheet based on 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card which will help you get to know every single card of any oracle deck you want to learn to use
- You Feel Like Shit workbook and worksheet based on the popular twine, a self-care guide for everyone who struggles with executive dysfunction. Includes a quick guide that you can print as well as space for your own notes on each self-care activity, like (for example) favorite grounding exercises. Created with permission from the original creator.
- Pagan prayers and devotionals that I have written, which you can yoink directly or use as inspiration for writing your own.
- Meditation scripts that I have written and use in my own practice.
- Zines
- Book notes
If you haven’t already, please check out my Patreon! You can become a member today OR you can hit the three dots in the corner and click “Follow” to be notified when I post something new (for free!)
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Prayers for Pagans
I have been experimenting with prayer in my witchcraft.
I got the idea after downloading a short ebook about death witchcraft from Etsy. It had an all-purpose prayer for those who had passed on to be able to find their destination smoothly. It was not directed at a particular deity, and was more like a well-meaning wish. This really struck me as a great idea, and changed my approach to prayer to realize that it doesn’t have to be for one’s own benefit only.
Obviously, if you have a deity in mind, it follows naturally that you could write one for them. Or several, for the same deity or different ones. I am a poet and lean naturally into devotional poetry, but you can do whatever you want! It could be a request or merely a devotional that describes them and invokes them.
If you don’t have a deity in mind, you could do a general prayer. I find the word “May…” to be very helpful, as in “May people get the help they need today.” It does not invoke a particular entity to help, it merely sends the wish gently out into the world.
If you have the ability, I recommend memorizing your prayer so you can say it/think it at any time. You don’t necessarily need to work hard to commit it to memory; just read it as you say it until you don’t need to read it anymore. In my experience this takes about 15 days of daily repetition.
So far, I have one general prayer that is based on my deities and what I am working on in my witchcraft, but does not speak to them directly, and one specifically for Baba Yaga.
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Baba Yaga: Ancient Goddess?
I have been reading a book (Fierce Feminine Divinities) that posits that Baba Yaga is an ancient earth goddess who has been telephone-gamed into the mercurial witch of the woods from folklore.
I have been working with Baba Yaga in my witchcraft as a representation of complexity. She does not choose between being feral or being domestic: she is both, and that is what I want to embody.
However, I don’t think that she is directly the result of a Slavic goddess getting morphed over time and demonized into a witch. I don’t think we have evidence for that, and it’s very far-fetched. We don’t have any evidence for the goddess that she supposedly was, nor etymological evidence that shows a change over time like that.
I DO think that the old paganism was strong in the Slavic collective unconscious at the time that this folklore was written down, and that there are connections that could be made that could be VERY pertinent to understanding Baba Yaga herself.
However, I have not studied in-depth a lot of the folklore scholars, like Vladimir Propp. Maybe he makes a lot of good points that I am missing out on.
Does anyone have any wisdom on this?
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My Current Witchcraft Practice
This blog is about my thoughts, and I’ve been thinking a lot about witchcraft lately so I want to introduce you to my witchcraft practice.
I have been a witch on and off since I was about 12. Knowing my interest in Harry Potter, some family member or another bought me a (pink) book about witchcraft, geared for pre-teens. I had the thought “OH MY GOD, THEY LIED TO ME! WITCHCRAFT IS REAL!” I was hooked, and spent the next few years diving into the supernatural, especially astrology.
Around age 14, I dated an awful boy who was a Pastafarian/atheist. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but the particular way he went about it was very self-important. In an effort to mold myself to his wishes, I became the same, and eschewed anything that even hinted at the supernatural. While it was absolutely horrible at the time, this thread actually influenced my later practice a lot, and infused a healthy skepticism into everything I do. I now consider witchcraft– at least the way I practice it– to be at the crossroads of the mythical and the psychological. My approach is very Jungian (though I am not as well-read on him as I should be!) and uses ritual as a psychological tool like in Satanism. (LaVey and most of his followers are absolutely awful people, but I have definitely yoinked this idea.)
In my early twenties, I was inspired to get back into witchcraft. By that time, my life had been ravaged by depression for a decade, and all my spells were desperate pleas for the mental illness to end– I figured I could take care of everything else in my life as long as my depression ended. (Newsflash: they didn’t work.) I had a brief stint as a professional tarot reader (for a couple of venues)and decided I hated it because people wanted “facts” about the future when I wanted to explore together what the cards were telling me.
Now, I have a witchcraft practice where I don’t do spells. Leaning into the microphone: a witchcraft practice where I don’t do spells! The way I see it, my willpower has already been bruised by overuse, since I spent so many years trying to bite the bullet and take action when my body and mind were screaming at me to be kind to myself. Anyway, I’m not really sure that I believe that spells are effective (at least for me).
Mainly, I work with deities/archetypes. Does this make me a pagan instead of a witch? Maybe, but I like the word “witch” better. The main figures I work with are Baba Yaga (I am of Slavic heritage), Prometheus, and Robin Hood. I don’t believe them to be deities as in, external existing spirits– rather, to me, they are representations of larger themes that are important in my life. Baba Yaga represents to me the complexity of being a human animal that lives in a domesticated society. Prometheus represents to me the search for knowledge at all costs. Robin Hood, a figure that has been a source of obsession since I could understand narrative, represents to me the drive to help others. I also work with bees in my practice (but not literally like a beekeeper would).
Recently, I got bored of tarot and have been branching out into oracle cards. Posts upcoming include a discussion of how I work with oracle cards and the best methods to get to know them.
In the day-to-day, I do a lot of journaling work, research, and note-taking. I consider this to be a part of my practice, rather than armchair witching.
I have also been writing devotional poetry and baking bread as offerings.
Stay tuned for more witchcraft content!
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New Directions, Graduating Therapy!
I know I said this before, but I’m going in a new direction on this blog.
I have learned a lot and graduated from therapy, and I (maybe paradoxically) no longer feel like I have the expertise to advise anyone in mental health. While I had a lot of KNOWLEDGE about mental health (and especially dissociation), it wasn’t the same as wisdom. Obviously, graduating from therapy doesn’t mean that I am perfect, but I am definitely capable of putting into practice what I have learned– which is mainly that we need to feel our repressed feelings. Mine is generally anger. Even if I struggle, I usually have a much better sense of what exactly I’m upset about, which used to be a big hurdle for me. I would often feel nebulously Upset and be unable to figure out why or what to do about it. Even just figuring out the truth about my emotions and their roots can be powerful, and often neutralizes the emotional problem.
I said before that I wanted to write about masculinity, from the perspective of a trans guy. (Not necessarily the same as writing about being trans.) However, I am not the expert on that either.
So what direction AM I taking?
I’m going to write about whatever I’m thinking about. As someone who used to be a professional writer, I always think that I have to be monetize-able and professional on my blog. Fuck that. That doesn’t mean, however, that I am going to use this as a public diary. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but I am more interested in sharing my thoughts than my feelings. I do a lot of reading and research and I’m interested in sharing that.
Lately, most of what I’ve been thinking about is witchcraft and paganism. If that is something you’d like to read about, stick around!
I’m also going to grad school in January 2024 so I’m sure I’ll have lots of thoughts to share then. My major will be Library Science. I’ve been working in libraries for a total of like 7 years, so I feel pretty qualified to move up; I just need the degree.
Currently Reading: Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (a re-read of a favorite!)
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Why I Stopped Using Tiimo
The short answer: Tiimo delivers exactly what it promises, and it still didn’t work for me.
The scheduling app Tiimo, popular in neurodivergent circles, serves to automate a schedule. Input an event or task, and at the appointed time Tiimo will send you a notification about what’s next on your list. It’s intended for children who really need a routine, but I’m 30 and I gave it a try.
Problem 1:
The first problem, which I mentioned in my original review of Tiimo, is that it’s too complex to input events and tasks. The learning curve is steep, but even once you have it largely figured out, the customizations are so endless that it takes too much time to input even something basic. There are color-coding options and icon options and repetition options and routine options and it quickly becomes too much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing to have all that customizability— it’s just too much for regular use.
Problem 2:
I never stuck to the routines I set up and it began to get frustrating. This is another thing I mentioned in my original review— I never followed my routine exactly, and it began to weigh heavy on my mind that I was supposed to be doing dishes while I finished up a book chapter, or if I went to bed a few minutes late.
For a while, I tried only inputting things that couldn’t be negotiated (like work and doctors’ appointments) but then it’s no different than Google Calendar.
I haven’t been using Tiimo for awhile, because I’ve switched to a points system to manage my days, but I’d be interested to know what other neurodivergent adults think of it! Please let me know in the comments below!
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Thoughts on My Will (With a Capital W)
My psychodynamic therapy journey has focused a lot on my Will. Will is defined, by my therapist, as what I want, but in a way that truly benefits me. It’s not just doing whatever I feel like; it’s doing what’s best for me personally and what matches my true self.
Through a process of questioning, we came to the hard-to-hear conclusion that most of the things that I do, I do to please my abusers. Of course, I don’t do everything my parents would want, to the letter. (After all, I am transgender– my parents are definitely weird about that.)
But yes, this includes my getting better journey. I go to therapy and try my damnedest because I know my parents want me to be more functional and “normal.” (But what kind of a goal is that?)
After therapy, I was given the homework of listening to my body for when it says “yes” to something. It doesn’t happen super often, and my “no” is much louder, but it did happen a few times over the course of the week.
One of the rather strange things I discovered is that I want to do witchcraft relating to bees. I love bees, guys!
This whole thing is actually great news to me. Now that I’ve realized I do so many things in service to my parents, I can start figuring out what I truly want. I am excited to discover more about myself!
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On Turning 30
To be honest, my twenties sucked.
Sometimes, getting out of a shitty environment can be “out of the frying pan and into the fire.” I started out the decade in a four-year-long abusive relationship. Then I moved back home to finish my undergrad degree, where I was also abused by my parents. I started a freelance writing career which was absolutely awful (more about that in this post) and, to get out of my parents’ house, started a situation-ship and moved in with him into a dilapidated church owned by my abuser’s best friend. We went through -11 degree winters with no heat. I continued to try to make a freelance writing career happen, even though I spent most of my time apologizing to clients for handing work in late because I couldn’t make my brain behave. I did sex work despite my history of sexual abuse. And for ten years after I came out as a transgender man, I made no progress in my medical transition.
I have small pangs of regret sometimes when I think about my twenties, as if I had wasted a decade, but my thirties are so far a vast improvement. My environment is much healthier, but more importantly, my brain is much healthier. Nothing is ever perfect, and it would be a waste of time trying to make it that way, but I am surrounded by people who care about me, even if they’re struggling too. My rented house has central heating, and central air conditioning as well. I have a job with a steady schedule, which helps me immensely, and I have plans to go to grad school in the same field and get started with a career I can be proud of. I started testosterone, and I’m working on getting top surgery. Probably most importantly, I have found a therapist who has actually helped me improve.
My knees don’t work, and I still can’t drive, but I am much happier.
Write Mind 