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How to Use Reflective Journaling in Your Daily Bullet Journal Spreads for a More Meaningful Life: 4 Ideas
Your daily bullet journal spread doesn’t have to contain lists and agendas.
Though these are, of course, useful.
But I often read the following in planning and journaling groups:
“I don’t have a lot going on, but I want to use my planner!”
“I don’t really use my planner (or journal) for appointments and task lists. It’s so empty!”
“What should I do on the days that I am on vacation? My planner pages are so blank, and then I get discouraged and stop planning.”
I have a hunch that the reason we keep dropping our planning habit is not that something is wrong with us. It’s that we were never meant to be productivity machines.
If you are weary of goals, task lists, and deadlines, you might want to give yourself a break from all of that jazz, and try a more reflective approach to journaling.
Here are some ways to try reflecting journaling.
Reflect In Your Daily Bullet Journal Spread through Memory-Keeping
It doesn’t have to be an essay or a detailed review of the day. It doesn’t have to be several pages about your feelings about everything that happened.
It may be one deep scene from your day, or a finely crafted paragraph.
It may just be a few sentences.
Journaling can sometimes be overwhelming. There are two things I turn to when I want to get back into journaling and I’ve fallen out of the habit:
- A list of three things about the day. They don’t have to be earth-shakingly important. They can be one crafted sentence, a phrase, or a visual snapshot. These each grow your writing muscle.
- Or, I close my eyes for a few moments, then open them and write my observations about exactly what is around me. Sounds, visuals, etc.
Reflect In Your Daily Bullet Journal Spread Through Reframing Your Identity
Writing allows us to reframe our perspective of the world. It’s an incredible gift to be able to change our lives from the inside out (at least, that’s what I’ve found).
There may be nothing wrong with your willpower, discipline, or productivity. Instead, there may be something wrong with the way you believe about yourself. In the book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about telling yourself you are what you want to become (writer, runner, successful businessperson), and letting the habits follow that belief. Flip from “I will write 30 minutes a day on my book to reach a goal of finishing my book” to “I’m a writer, and writers write every day.” Then plan a writing habit that works for you.
It might not be 30 minutes on the next Great American Novel. That’s okay. See section “Reflect In Your Daily Bullet Journal Spread through Memory-Keeping.”
For another example, let’s say you want to be a runner. Flip from, “I determine to run every day,” to “I’m a runner.” Study what runners do, and begin one small running habit. Maybe it’s 5 minutes. Maybe it’s once around the block. If you keep coming back to your belief about yourself, you are much more likely to decide on an atomic habit, record it, and follow through.
That habit is also much more likely to grow.
Write these beliefs about yourself in your daily bullet journal spread.
You can also reframe your perspective on the world, God and yourself all at the same time, such as with this quote.
Keeping a habit tracker is a wonderful idea. But for myself, I think of it not as a performance, but a study of my days and self.
Reflect In Your Daily Bullet Journal Spread through Affirmations.
Affirmations are another way to change the way you think about yourself. For me, it’s helped to craft these affirmations to the places I am struggling most with limiting beliefs about myself in life. I have also noticed that counseling complements this habit, because as I am in counseling, I discover these limiting beliefs, made by old wounds.
For example, I wanted to do some things better than how I had been raised. My parents did things better than their parents, and I don’t want to be the one to get stuck. But so often, I stared in paralysis at my kids, not wanting to do things in the way some of my memories were firing, but having no clue how else to do them.
After extensive counseling, I realized that what I believed was that when I made a mistake, I would always be the Mom that made that mistake. Even, that it was my entire identity. Yell at my daughter? I’m an abusive, horrible mother.
To counteract this belief, I wrote, “I am a growing, changing Mother. I do not have to do things the same way today as I did yesterday.”
And every day I wrote that, perhaps for months, until I saw my actions follow. I became just a little more self-compassionate, and began to bounce back after disappointing behavior more quickly, without spiraling into shame and more failure. If I’m not spiraling into shame and failure, I can focus on repairing and redirecting.
Each day is a chance to evolve. To grow. To discover new frontiers of navigating life with creativity with kindness.
Reflect In Your Daily Bullet Journal Spread through Quotes
Quotes are a beautiful way to fill a page in a way that adds meaning to your day. I especially love this one, as I’ve used it many years to remind myself that I am healing, that healing takes time, and to embrace peace.
Here are some favorite quotes of mine.
“Nightmares are crushed under the weight of peace” — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
“We’re all hungry for a map to joy, and when someone is courageous enough to draw it for us, we naturally follow.” — Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference
“In most cities, when all goes to hell, you want a cop. In London, it’s a cabdriver you look for.” — Ava Glass, Alias Emma
One of my favorite blog posts about daily bullet journal spreads is this mouth-watering daily bullet journal spread idea blog post.
For more ideas, check out Ditch Hustle, Embrace Joy: Building a Life You Love.
Read this for my most popular post about insanely simple daily bullet journal layouts that include all of the above.
For more on daily bullet journaling, check out these two posts: