Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together
by Rachel Wilkerson Miller
Published: July 31, 2017
Genres: Self Help
Format: Paperback (240 pages)
Source: Library
Organize your life, record what matters, and get stuff done!
What the heck is a dot journal? It’s a planner, to-do list, and diary for every aspect of your life: work, home, relationships, hobbies, everything.
Early adopter Rachel Wilkerson Miller explains how to make a dot journal work for you—whether you find the picture-perfect examples on Pinterest inspiring or, well, intimidating. You decide how simple or elaborate your journal will be, and what goes in there:
- Lists of your to-dos, to-don’ts, and more- Symbols that will make those lists efficient and effective- Spreads to plan your day, week, month, or year- Trackers for your habits and goals (think health, money, travel)- Accoutrements such as washi tape, book darts, and more!
I devoured Dot Journaling in one day. It was funny and easy to read. No really, I laughed while reading this. My favorite quote is the author explaining why you need to bother making an index.
It may seem like a hassle to keep updating the index, but in a few months, when you’re flipping through your journal trying to find something important that you could swear you wrote down–and when your brain keeps telling you “Just type it into the ‘search’ box!” and you realize that computers have ruined our damn minds–you will be glad you have an index.
-Rachel Wilkerson Miller, Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide pg. 24
Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide explains the process of bullet (or dot – they are the same thing) journaling quickly and gives a lot of examples so you can make a customized bullet journal just for you. I didn’t feel like I had to be an artist to try this out. I’ve seen all the pictures on instagram of bullet journaling and even though they were gorgeous, I felt intimated to do my own because mine would never look that amazing. This book will cure you of that! The examples are simple, elegant, and still instagram worthy without taking tons of time or artistic talent to make. See below :)
About 2-3 hours later, I set up my own bullet journal and I love it! It combined my planner and my journal that I was already doing in two separate notebooks. I also added my book reviews in my bullet journal which I was doing in a third notebook. Three notebooks in one! I spent most of my time deciding how to lay things out. I spent a lot of time erasing and rearranging things. I used sticky notes to help me set it up. I wrote a sticky note for each of the main layouts – future, monthly, weekly, and daily – with what information I wanted in that layout. Then I experimented with the layout ideas in the book with pencil until I found a layout that could hold all the information I wanted.
Brainstorming my bullet journal
I thought it would be really time consuming to set up my plans since it’s a blank notebook instead of a pre-printed planner like I had been using before. But it hasn’t been any more time consuming than using my old passion planner. In fact, I like the flexibility of a blank notebook more. I found myself “hacking” my planner so much to get it to do what I wanted that I dreaded using it. And it took forever to change all the printed spreads to do something else. Starting with a blank notebook and tweaking layouts as I go along has created the perfect planner for me and it’s a joy to use now.
Dot Journaling was inspiring to me because Rachel Wilkerson Miller focused on function and not how it looked. There were great quotes about journaling, examples of how people have kept diaries in the past, and reasons why you should keep a diary. The back of the book had simple embellishment and doodle examples, pen reviews, marker reviews, and a supply list. In addition to layout ideas, she had great list and collection ideas – a lot of which I used in my bullet journal. I loved reading her tips from her experiences like erasing pencil marks before the ink has dried leading to “so many smeared layouts. Do not be like me. (pg. 83)”
If you have ever thought about starting a bullet journal, go get this guide and get started!
Book Review of Dot Journaling on a Post-it
I post reviews like this on Instagram. Be sure to follow me there!
About Rachel Wilkerson Miller
I started blogging in 2005; after I graduated from Michigan State University’s journalism school, I moved to New York where I began my career at ELLE Magazine. I’ve written primarily about weddings since early 2013, but I also write about health and fitness, feminism, food, beauty, race, social media, and home life. (Smart “women’s lifestyle” content is my jam.) My work has appeared on The Huffington Post, Yahoo! Shine, SHAPE.com, Birchbox, The Nest, and A Practical Wedding.
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
This seems like something I might like to read even though I gave up doing my bullet journal. I keep wondering if I need to pick it up again. Maybe after I read this.
Aw sad. I didn’t know you quit it. You had such a cool bullet journal. I totally copied your books read page in my bullet journal :)