Bullet Journal 101 — Should You use a Practice Journal?

Whether you’re just starting out with bullet journaling, or you’ve been at it for years, using a practice bullet journal is something a lot of people do to help stay motivated and creative. Why? Because drafting spreads, layouts and collections without fear of “messing up” your bullet journal can keep you journaling!

Perhaps you feel intimidated by the amazingly perfect layouts and lettering you see on Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest and you don’t know how to start. Or you found a new layout and you’re itching to try it out but you don’t quite have a spot in your journal just yet. Or maybe you just aren’t getting the hang of spacing out your boxes or headings and it’s causing some frustration.

To prevent the common paralysis that can come from staring at a blank page and wondering how to get the layout in your head onto the paper, give yourself somewhere to draft and practice!

Before we get to the tips, I want to take a moment to say that while I personally do enjoy planning out my layouts in a practice bullet journal, I have the utmost respect for anyone who does NOT need to have their journal evenly spaced or whatnot. There is a lot of pressure out there in the community to have a pristine “perfect” journal and I am NOT trying to feed into that.

What I am suggesting is how to practice layouts and lettering, just as you would practice if you were learning to play the guitar or learning to cook. Your journal is for YOU and you alone. The purpose of this post is to say it’s okay to practice and plan your layouts if you need to get over feeling “stuck” or you are striving to have your journal also be an expression of your creativity.

How to Use a Practice Bullet Journal

Here are some super quick tips on starting and using a practice journal:

• Buy something inexpensive that is similar to what you’re using now. I used to practice on regular printer paper but then I switched to a second bullet journal and that made all the difference. I could feel the binding under my wrist and I could understand spacing. Michaels, Walmart and Amazon all have inexpensive options.

• Use pencil first. Again, the whole idea here is to get you over the fear of making mistakes and to get your creative juices flowing. If you start in pencil, you can erase to your heart’s content. I often come up with my best layouts by trying things on the page and erasing until I have an “ah-ha!” moment.

 

• Use a ruler or straight guides. When you first start out, you won’t have an instinctive feeling for how much space you need for weekly boxes or columns (for example). Use your ruler to map out even spaces. You’ll also be more happy with your lines (and trust me – you’ll learn how to draw straight lines without a ruler later!)
• Play with color. I am notoriously terrible at picking colors for anything – outfits, home decor, etc. I use my practice journal to try different colors together to see if they look nice or completely clash. I also have pages of color swatches I can reference!
• Find your favorite pens. I use my practice journal to write and draw with different pens and then separate those out into my “favorite” pen case. Some pens are amazing for certain things like bold lettering, but terrible for everyday writing. Some pens roll along the page like butter while others feel sharp and weird. This is the journal to help you test them out and see what works for you. Keep in mind that paper in your practice journal may be different than in your main journal, so you should also have a page or two in the back of your main journal for pen tests.

Now that you’ve drafted your page in the practice journal, you can start the process again in your main journal! I recommend starting in pencil again. I use pencil a lot in my main journal because I still like to get my spacing right. I also use it throughout the day to add “ticks” or numbers to my trackers that will change as the day progresses.

Here’s a before and after of a simple weekly layout I was trying out this week. I had a couple of tweaks in the practice journal before I found the spacing I liked and the colors I wanted to use. You can see I refined it a bit in the main journal, which always feels easier to do after drafting.

And guess what? The “practice” journal may feel more natural and you may actually appreciate the unrefined look! It’s perfectly okay to just keep going in your “practice” journal if that feels good. Do what feels right for you.

I hope this has given you some ideas on how to use a practice bullet journal and I’d love to hear your own thoughts and ideas! Do you use a practice bullet journal? Email me and let me know!