By now, you may be deciding what is the best method that you can use to stay organized, to better plan and achieve your goals. I myself also constantly strive to be more organized. In the past, I use a dated diary to keep myself organized. For my blogs, I created a blog progress journal out of a notebook that I bought from Mr DIY.
Still, I never stop researching ways that I can improve and create more efficient planning systems….especially in the areas of my personal life.
Through research in YouTube, the trending ways to plan are using planners and/or bullet journals. I quite like the bullet journal method whereby you plan as you go along- there are some simple conventions such as a few symbols, monthly spread and future logs.
But it is up to you to plan and create the system that you want. Just go to YouTube and search ‘bullet journal’ and you would be amazed at what shows up.
Now, if you want to buy a book that is designed for bullet journalling, there are brands that cost between USD15 to USD20- which you can imagine is very expensive after conversion to ringgit. The most popular brands are Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebooks (cost about RM130) and Moleskine notebooks. The investment is a little steep when you are not sure if the method works for you or not.
Personally, I would prefer to look around to find a design of a blank paged notebook that I like and then use it as a bullet journal to try out. There are 3 places that I suggest that you check out:
First place is at Mr DIY outlets- there are a lot of outlets in Malaysia. In the photo above, the 3 books consist of blank page setting and each cost less than RM20. You can choose from those with or without rings. Haha the middle book titled “The Unicorns Made Me Do It” is kinda cute.
The second place is at Kaison. A lot of their items have simple designs but does not look cheap. During this recent trip, I’ve noticed they carry lesser variety of notebooks that they previously did. However, they have also changed to more journal type of books which consists of blank pages.
The books displayed at the photo above all consists of blank pages. For the brown looking ones, they are stitch bound and when you open the book at any page, it would lay flat. This makes it easier to write.
Both Kaison and Mr DIY sell items generally at a reasonable price. And you can also buy washi tapes and stickers from them as well if you wish to decorate your journal.
Another place is also Popular Bookstore which carries quite a large variety of books and planners for every budget. They have blank books as well:
The books above are made from palm pulp which is environmental friendly.
Trial and error to see what works
It is worth to give planning a thought so that you:
- stop feeling so overwhelmed
- anxious that you may forget something important
- really missing important appointments/ birthdays/ anniversary
- do not seems to have enough time
- not achieving goals or ……not even knowing what are your goals
You would be surprised- with just a pen and a book, you can potentially chart and change your destiny.
However, you would probably need to experiment a few times before finding a system that works for you. And different system may suit different areas of your life. Do keep in mind that the most effective book may not necessarily be the most expensive. The format, look and feel of the book must appeal to you to motivate you sufficient to use it continuously.
For me, my favourite book is blog progress journal which I bought from MrDIY for RM8.50 a few years ago. The book is no longer in stock. It is brown in colour and the cover feels soft to the touch.
At the very least, have a book where you write important things down instead of having the information all over the place. Allocate the first 4 to 6 pages for your Index or Table of Contents and then number your pages. It will save you a lot of time – you need not flip through the entire book to look for something.
