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Yesterday I was at a workshop, sitting at a round table with a few work friends. The day’s presentations were about to get rolling, so I pulled out my journals to get ready for some serious note-taking.
I set my green Leuchtturm1917 bullet journal on the table, and laid my brand spanking new journal, a dotted Lemome, on top of it. But something was still…off.
Oh, right. My lips were dry. (Obviously, we can’t have that.)
I scrounged around in my bag for a few more seconds, found my lip gloss, applied it, and put it back in my bag.
When I looked up again, my classmate next to me had my bullet journal in her hands and was flipping through it.
She had never heard of bullet journals before and was visibly intrigued. She asked me a few questions about how a bullet journal works. Then she asked a really important question – one that I, too, was confused about before I started a bullet journal: what do you do about skipped pages?
This question inspired me to write a post because you may be wondering the same thing.
I’ve tried a few solutions, and I’ve finally found one that works best for me: buying a separate journal.
In this post, I’ll explain exactly why I purchased my second journal not too long after the first. Plus you’ll learn how to figure out if you could benefit from more than one bullet journal!
Pin me to come back to this post later!
Why I Bought My First Bullet Journal
You also know I’m big on productivity and managing what I do with my time. I truly think that you are rewarded for being a good steward of your time.
Anyway, I had been using iNotes and Evernote religiously for everything – brainstorming, list-making, writing, reflecting…And I still do use those apps for lots of things. But I was getting to the point where I felt like I needed to write things down with pen and paper.
* complete customization
* several journal style options
* productivity-enhancing processes
My first bullet journal arrived in March 2018, and I haven’t looked back since.
So where on earth did bullet journal #2 come from?
Why I Bought My Second Bullet Journal
Well, I started to think that maybe I had too many major interests/endeavors to sort them all in one journal.
Don’t get me wrong – it can definitely be done, but I thought it would save a lot of time to just create an entire notebook for my freelance medical copywriting services (especially as I ramp them up over the next few months!)
I really did try to avoid having to go this route though. First, I tried dividing the journal in half. The first half was dedicated to everything except copywriting, and the second half was for copywriting only.
I also tried jumping around and estimating blank pages.
It annoyed me to know that there were random pages being skipped just to start a new section. So I came up with a permanent solution: buy a new bullet journal!
SHOULD YOU BUY MORE THAN ONE BULLET JOURNAL? ASK YOURSELF THESE 4 QUESTIONS.
1. Are there multiple parts of your life that you journal about…a lot?
As a multi-passionate millennial, you probably have a lot of different interests, involvements, and responsibilities. That means the things you’ll be including in your bullet journal won’t necessarily fall neatly into the same broad categories all the time.
For example, I primarily started a bullet journal for scheduling and goal-setting. My regular schedule includes work, blogging, and things I need to do at home.
But I’m also a freelance medical copywriter.
Can you think of categories in your life that might warrant separate journals? Maybe you’d prefer one for school, one for work, and one for home life? Or one for your main job and one for your side hustles? Do you travel a lot? In that case, it may be helpful to have one dedicated entirely to your travel planning and adventures.
Whatever the distinction, it’s up to you whether the subject warrants a separate journal. (But do you really have to think that hard for an excuse to buy a new journal?!)
Okay, next question!
2. Do you want to keep certain things private?
But there’s always a part of me that thinks back to Harriet the Spy (one of my fave movies!) and the drama that ensued when her notebook was found and all its contents put on blast! I’m really not trying to end up like my girl Harriet. (I’m still embarrassed for her!)
It might be more practical to keep one bullet journal for things you wouldn’t be terribly upset about if someone saw, and saving your other one for more private thoughts.
For example, you might use one for scheduling your days, weeks, and months, and the other for spreads like gratitude journaling, habit trackers, etc.
3. Do you have really big handwriting?
Logistically, big handwriting is gonna take up more space than smaller handwriting. You’ll probably run out of space in your bullet journal soon if you have rather large handwriting.
It may make more sense for you to buy a couple of bullet journals upfront since you’ll probably run through them faster.
(By the way, if you only write on one side of the page, the same idea applies. But don’t be afraid to write on both sides. I’ve found that the pages in my second bullet journal are SUPER thick, so there’s almost no bleeding at all *happy dance*.)
4. Do you want one for “work” and one for “play”?
Think about the reasons you started a bullet journal. Did you want to express your creativity through color, art, and doodles? Did you want a very practical system to remain organized? Or was it a combination of both?
If I mix artsy pages with my practical spreads, I’m more likely to be distracted which is exactly what I wanted to avoid in the first place.
If you’re good at self-discipline and managing the time you spend in your bullet journal, you might be able to combine the two styles with no problem. But I know myself, and separating the two would be the best for me from a time management perspective.
I always say I’m going to start a journal but I never seem to. This might just be the push I need!
Hey Meagan (name twin)! Don’t think about it too much – just jump in! 🙂 Is there anything in particular that’s been holding you back?
I have 2… one which i use as a normal bujo with monthlies, weeklies, habit tracker & the occasional arts, while the other is where i do my brain dump, lettering exercise and more personal notes… coz bullet journalling is quite new where i’m from so my colleagues are quite curious about my bujo where they sometimes love to leaf thru mine 😅 so its helpful to have one private bujo where they keep their hands off 😁
Exactly! This is my same experience, haha. It’s a little surprising at first, but the mystique of the bullet journal is just that powerful I suppose 🙂 Glad to know that someone else is using this strategy as well.
I have 4! I started a bujo last year and quickly realized that I needed to modify how I used it. I got my second bujo and tried to plan out sections, but I still had empty pages. I HATE empty pages, and I would fill up one section faster than another, then my stuff was disorganized again. Drat! Then I stumbled upon the Midori travelers notebook. *Sigh* you can have multiple journals in one happy package! They just slip into a band system that holds it in place and now my separate systems don’t have to play together! I have a bujo for personal, spiritual, business, and projects. Oh the joy! When one fills up, I slip it out and replace it, brilliant! Now, I made my own notebook system, Midori is phenomenally expensive, but there are all kinds of travelers notebooks out there that are not quite as expensive. YouTube has a bunch of videos too. Check it out, you’ll love it!
Omg Micha, this is right on time! While I was researching for this post, I saw someone mention a band they used to bind their notebooks together…but I couldn’t find it! (I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for.) But this is exactly it! Now I can totally try it out and write a post about it, haha. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Since you’re 4 bujos in, I think it’s safe to call you a bullet journal guru lol!
You don’t have to skip pages and keep one theme in one portion of the book and one in another, etc. Just start writing on the next blank space and keep going that way regardless of theme. 1. That’s what an index and calendex are for and .2. “Rapid Logging” is part of why Ryder Carroll invented bullet journaling.
Hi Helen! Thanks for dropping by and reading.
I’m pretty quirky in that I love the concept of the bullet journal, but I adapt it for my needs. And one of my quirky needs is to have my content separated by theme, haha! I wish it weren’t so, but alas, it is.
So how do you start the 2nd one? I want privacy and I have huge hand writing. Thought this would work for me. Any advice would be great
Good question Sherrie! I think it depends on why you want a second journal. Since one of your reasons is privacy, it seems to me that the content in your journals would be different.
The one you carry around with you may have different content than your private journal. If that’s the case, I’d recommend writing out what types of content/spreads/etc. you’ll have in each journal. Once you decide what you want to keep private, then you just start with that content!
Did that answer your question?