2022 Planning + Journaling: Bullet Journal Setup + Digital Apps

Last year, when talking about my 2021 Bullet Journal, I said, “So in 2022, I’m challenging myself to go in with the free reigns and creativity of blackout journals, and seeing where I go from there.”

And I fully intended to utilize the blackout journal because they’re uber cool, and I had a great time making layouts. But then I stopped. And I abandoned bullet journaling for the second time. sad trumpet noises

I did not stop planning, though (consistency might not work for me, but there’s some sense of organized chaos to appear put together and provide me a guide at least). 2022 started out with bullet journaling, but it was also a foray back into using digital apps, all of which I’ll mention in this post and how I use them.

(I’m aware posts like these are generally posted in January, but I truly could not bring myself to write it earlier, so here we are nearly at the end of March.)

Blackout Bullet Journal

2022 was a lot of figuring out what works best for me in a bullet journal, so surely 2023 will be a little easier because I’ve figured out exactly what layouts I want? I went from an A5 notebook to a B5 one, and it is so very spacey and roomy (especially when creating my media consumed layouts – there was a lot of consumption in January since I was stuck in my room waiting for my COVID test) and I was overall very excited to jump into the year.

Switching to a blackout journal (where all the pages are black instead of white), was challenging in its own way, but also fun, because I figured out what I wanted, mostly. I got to play with gradients here and there (you can see it in action with the bit of purple I attempted in my 2022 cover above, which didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but it wasn’t terrible) and really got to use my white gel pens to fully play with minimalist styles. I also upgraded from 120gsm to 160gsm for my journal, which wasn’t something I was looking for since 120gsm doesn’t bleed for me, but it was handy to have in case I pressed just a little too hard.

Honestly, I preferred the blackout journal over the regular white layout journal that most people use and what I used in 2021 – I love that the colors just pop without having to do too much, but I can also be elaborate as well if I wanted to. Personally, I played with outlines rather than coloring them in when creating my layouts, and I opted to not use any washi tape or stickers since 1) I keep forgetting they exist and 2) my current collection doesn’t go well with a blackout journal.

I will say having a blackout journal isn’t exactly budget friendly, though, and there are a lot more options available in terms of pens and journals if you opt for a regular bullet journal instead. But if you’re looking to do something different with bullet journaling, I think it’s well-worth the try if you have the budget and means to do so (I’ve also shared links to them on Amazon if you want some recs to start out).

Unfortunately, it also didn’t work out too well, because in true Sophia fashion, I stopped bullet journalling around March. To be fair, 2022 was the first year that we also switched to a hybrid environment at my work, and because of that, I also got internet access at home. I originally went into bullet journalling because of the lack of internet access, and now that was no longer the case, I didn’t think I needed it anymore, at least for now (there were other reasons, too). I do plan on continuing to use the rest of the pages in the journal for other things, though (I will not waste these pens!), and possibly for future planning as the need arises (or if I feel like going analog again).

I started using more digital tools available on my work laptop like the built in sticky notes to keep track of everything, so all of it was right in front of me, and just overall adapted to whatever resources I had right in the moment. My bullet journal was across the room, and it felt like a little too much effort to get it.

(These days a lot of things feel like effort though.)

Habitica in Place of the Bullet Journal

Habitica and I are like those exes that get back together and have an on and off relationship. I can’t tell you how many times I’ll pick up Habitica and then just promptly abandon it months later (sounds like me with bullet journalling and a lot of things).

I first discovered Habitica back in 2016 when I looking for gamified to-do list apps, and I thought it was the coolest concept ever (even if the UI isn’t the best). I stopped after a few months, but then I picked it back up in 2018, along with a few other blogging friends, before we all dropped it one by one. And then around April 2022, Clo mentioned Habitica again randomly during one of our many daily conversations (and we roped a few blogging friends as well), so it is now Try Three and, as the saying goes, maybe third-time is the charm.

I will say that this try is lasting longer than the others so far, though I will admit I’ve been looking for alternatives since a situation cropped up around December and morally, I’m not okay with it, nor am I keen on supporting Habitica further given the way things were handled.

Unfortunately, I haven’t exactly found an alternative yet (I do use it less now, though), but I could very well go back to the good old bullet journal method with my Rocketbook Everlast Mini* I found after forgetting I had one I got for college to carry around for quick to-do lists (right now I’m using it for quick work notes). It’s small and the whiteboard storage I have does not fit on my shiny new desk that I got in February due to health reasons, but Rocketbook kind of operates like a whiteboard but in notebook form with the addition of sending it to various digital places if I so choose (I have a habit of forgetting this function exists, though. It will bite me one day.).

*It looks like they’ve since rebranded this to the Rocketbook Mini and Rocketbook Core for the bigger executive and letter sizes.

What I Use Habitica For (and Changes I Made This Time)

For my third try, I opted to keep things relatively simple (because that seems to work out well for me, or at least better), though it definitely doesn’t look like it from the screenshot of my current setup.

• I abandoned dailies (recurring tasks – they actually changed it so you can do it weekly or even monthly now, which I love) mostly unless I was absolutely sure I would do something, like following up on tickets for work (at least until we moved, then I turned it off), reading (also turned this off), journalling, a list of monthly bills, etc.
• I still used habits, mostly so I could keep track of my subscriptions and learn to use them instead of abandoning them (unless it was Netflix, since my mom uses this), but also so I could remember to promote blog posts once in a while even though per my 2022 Book Blogging Stats Transparency post, I would be fine without it.
• To-Dos were ones I used often, though I reserved it mostly to keep track of the books I’m reading, the dramas I’m watching, and when I need to go in the office according to the schedule (plus remember to make tea for the long drive and restock snacks in my desk drawer as needed because it would be tragic to be without snacks).

Finch for Self-Care

Habitica isn’t for everyone, if my on-and-off relationship is any indication. Kal introduced me and the others in our Habitica party to another app called Finch, which promotes self-care with a virtual pet (a penguin). Finch is adorable, and I think it’s an excellent combination to use with Habitica, especially if you find the Dailies function not your thing. There’s also a journalling option for self-reflection with prompts.

How Habitica essentially works in a party is if you miss a daily or two (or more) and there’s a quest to fight a boss, everyone in the party is punished, not just you. It can make things high tension if someone gets mad at another person for missing their dailies and doesn’t understand that shit happens. Finch doesn’t punish you for missing any tasks, which I really love, and your pet doesn’t die if you decide to abandon the app for a few months.

Habitica doesn’t kill you if you abandon the app for a few months or years since it starts with checking in from the previous day, but I can imagine someone taking a huge hit and losing all of their gold and a piece of equipment if they last exited with say, 11 health points. Anything that I would normally miss on my dailies (and some that I flat out copied over), I moved to Finch. The few times I did take a break from Habitica, I noticed I still used Finch, even if I do sometimes take breaks from that as well. It’s just so wholesome and brings a small, daily dose of joy.

(They even send half-birthday and birthday messages. 😭)

I personally hate that it’s mobile only (both iOS and Android) and doesn’t have a website version, though, but maybe this is something that will change in the future as they seem to have started in recent years so it’ll be a bit unrealistic to expect a small startup to have the whole nine yards.

Notion for Blogging and Webtoon Tracking

I first tried Notion when it was all the rage and had the entire book community (and world) in a chokehold, but I also found it had terrible lag on mobile (no internet at the time) that grated on my patience and the mobile version had limitations. All of the cool stuff was on the website version, which, given that my reliability was my mobile hotspot, didn’t work out well, and I decided Notion was not right for me (at the time).

So in March 2022, I gave it another try, because surely the lag would’ve improved (even marginally), right? I can’t confirm this exactly, though (at least in terms of mobile connection), since I got internet access and it’s pretty decent, but I notice there’s still some lag when loading up images.

Unlike (seemingly) many people who put their entire lives on Notion (hey, no judgement; you do you), I opted to just put my blogging life – editorial calendar, some basic blogging tasks, keeping track of review copies, and end-of-year favorites (should I choose to do a post for it). Basically, all I wanted from my Notion was this:

• Something simple – nothing elaborate or fancy.
• Something that still gives a bit of a personal flair – a pop of color here and there, favorite book quotes, etc.
• Something that doesn’t require me to check it daily, because I originally just wanted to keep track of blog tour dates that were pushed back and changed around due to supply chain issues (and I didn’t want two stops to end up on top of each other). I wanted to not check it often and it’ll be fine even a month later (aside from maybe putting in a few things for updating).

A small part of me wanted to change the layout around late 2022, but then I decided not to because I saw nothing I wanted to change. Everything that I currently have in the layout works perfectly fine, though I might change a photo or two sometime this year for a somewhat new look.

I did end up making a webtoon tracker, though, because I read so many in December, there was no way I could keep up with them all (I need to update it soon, oops). My webtoon tracker is even more simple than my blogging one, and I also learned some basic formulas before my brain started sputtering with complex ones and I gave up to customize a few things.

Another part of me also wanted to start slowly putting my bullet journal (minus journalling, which I use a separate app and don’t even have in my analog bullet journal) on Notion as well, but I opted not to in the end because while it’s nice to have everything in one spot, I also think I’ll just overwhelm myself and abandon it, even if the layout would be just as simple.

Additionally, my routines are extremely simple and I know it like the back of my hand; there’s little change, and that’s probably why bullet journalling didn’t work out for me: because there’s really nothing for me to track exactly (which is also why normal planners never worked either). I know the entire purpose of bullet journalling is making it all your own, but my brain has the tendency to overthink and all that free space doesn’t help too much. I feel like I should have more. There’s a chance I’ll come back to it later if/when circumstances change, but for now, that’s not happening.

Journey for Journalling

I love journalling. There’s something extremely therapeutic about venting into the void of space and time; it’s kind of like a quiet way of standing on the balcony of a tower screaming in the night air. If there’s one thing that I could say has been consistent throughout my entire life, it would be journalling.

At first, it was through a regular notebook, disguised like the ones I used for class (the cheapest spiral-bound ones at your local major retailer). This, unfortunately, also didn’t have any privacy, so I always had to curate my thoughts in case someone (like IDK, a school bully) picked it up because they were curious and wanted to know what pre-teen me was thinking about when I just wanted the solace of my thoughts and not punch someone in anger.

Eventually I graduated to an OpenOffice document password-protected on my laptop (I know anyone can break into it; I’d rather it be broken into only in some cases, not “oh, let me see what she’s thinking!” on a random Friday night). Around 2018 was when I looked for a journalling app because the death of my first laptop meant I couldn’t look back on those entries (not that I want to) if I wanted to do so. I had a few requirements when looking for journalling apps (none of this has changed over the years):

• Notebook wouldn’t work. At all. There had to be some sense of privacy, at least in an illusioned way. I know using a cloud-based solution means I can’t be 100% truly private, but I also have nosy household members. There is no privacy in this house (unless I’m in the bathroom; obviously no one will barge in unless something is on fire), and sometimes I wish to be a person in Existential Crisis in peace.
• It had to be portable and can sync across different devices. Working in the service industry can take a huge toll on mental health, and I needed a place to vent quietly if it’s a rough day at work during my breaks because not doing so meant there was a much higher chance of me breaking down.
  • This wasn’t a surefire way to 100% prevent it, but I felt infinitely better and in a much better mindset after spending even two minutes writing a quick thought or two on my phone.
• It had to be available offline. This was the single most important thing (along with the above) that I looked for, because nothing is more awful than needing a place to let out my anger, only to find out I don’t have a place to do so safely.

The moment I heard about Journey was the moment that I instantly wanted to try it, because it met every single one of those requirements and offered a few additional features I didn’t care for either, but handy to have if I wanted to use them down the road (tags, photos, location, mood tracker, etc.).

The free version worked out well (if limited), but I subscribed to their annual membership after trying it for a few weeks, and got a lifetime one when they finally implemented one because I used the features enough that it was well worth the cost. (Plus, I hate Notion’s lag as much as I like it and use it.)

Using an app for my journalling also proved to be advantageous later on because of my wrist injury. I can be extremely wordy in my entries, and hand writing things for too long causes my wrist to hurt even if I have both braces on to ease the pain a little, which is another reason I don’t add a journalling section to my bullet journal and keep it separate (besides nosy household members).

Final Thoughts and Continuing Into 2023

2022 was a lot of bouncing around for me, and 2023 so far is a relatively similar layout so far minus the bullet journal. I’ve yet to sit down and find some time (and energy) to figure out layouts for my Rocketbook and what I want bring over from digital back to analog, but I’m hoping this will happen at some point (if life stops low balling me for once).