Bullet Journal For School

School was drawing near so I decided to turn my new Personal Planner notebook into my school bullet journal. I have now completed my set up and can share it with all of you! I’ve mentioned before that my previous bullet journal was being re-purposed to keep all my collections in there, and so, this new notebook was going to be my every day planner/school bullet journal. I absolutely love this inspirational notebook cover. As someone who is constantly stressed out and anxious about school, it is a good reminder that no matter what is going on in my life, I can still be capable of accomplishing what I came here to do.

I set up my bullet journal like any other bullet journal, starting with an index page and a goals page. My index page differs from most index pages because I have split it into two columns: Calendars and Collections. Since the majority of my collections are in my Moleskine, the collections in this journal are all school-based. The goals I have chosen for my goals page are all goals that I want to reach by the end of this next school year. They range from school related goals, to financial, to blogging and extracurricular goals.

Failures are only failures when we don’t learn from them…because when we learn from them, they become LESSONS. – Jay Shetty

This next page is my Fall Semester Calendex. This layout was inspired by Carrie Crista on YouTube. She has been one of my biggest inspirations for bujo layouts and learning about how to begin bullet journaling. I love her videos and when she posted a video on how to use your bullet journal for school, I knew this was the method I wanted to try out for the next semester.

As you can see, the months are vertically displayed and the horizontal lines indicate when a week has ended. I started my weeks on the Monday to stay consistent with the way school is structured. On the right corner of the page, I have a small section for goals for the first semester. Underneath that is the key for all my symbols. Each course has its own colour so when there is an exam for the blue History course, I write in my calendex an E in blue. It is pretty self-explanatory but if you still do not understand it, check out Carrie’s video because she does a great job of explaining how to use a Calendex, especially for school.

The next spread I have is my class schedule for the school year. I feel like that explains itself hahah. You basically take the schedule that your school has already generated out for you and copy it into your bullet journal. Simple enough right?

On the right, I have a program planning spread. I am aiming to finish with a Honors Specialization in Psychology. There are so many classes and requirements we need to take that trying to remember which courses you have taken and which ones you want to take can get a little daunting. On your university website, there should be a section that tells you what courses you need to complete your degree. If you can’t find it, talk to an academic counselor and they can help you figure out what you need to complete your degree. I wrote out all the courses that I was interested in taking (or in this case, the courses that I have already taken). To ensure that I didn’t miss any courses, I highlighted the course and the corresponding requirement in the same colour. On the (blurred) right hand column, I wrote down the grade I finished the course with in order to quickly calculate my average. On the next page, I repeated the same method for tracking the courses I needed to take for my History Minor.

After my two program planning spreads, I wrote down the lecture schedules for each of my 5 courses this semester. Starting with the course code and course name at the top, I added the class information and the information for contacting or meeting my prof below it. I included the course breakdown and any important dates. Then I copied the lecture schedule for the course syllabus so I would be able to easily refer back to this page when searching for the required reading for each week. If there was still room at the bottom of the page, I would include a grade tracker so I can see what grades I was receiving and how I need to improve for the final exam.

Lastly, I created a spread for my daily breakdown and study plan. While I will not be using the daily breakdown every day, it is a quick reference for me to see my day at a glance. I can quickly figure out when I am usually free and schedule in appointments where appropriate. Since this is just an overview of my week based on my school schedule, it was not meant to be a daily planner. I plan on using this spread as a reference when I make my weeklies for things such as scheduling times when I can go to the gym, or when I have time to make food. The study plan spread shows me which days are dedicated to studying for which courses. This way I can stay on top of my readings and notes without feeling too overwhelmed. While this may not be a permanent study plan, it is a good start for me to organize and give myself enough time to prepare for the following week.

I have a couple other spreads that I have not currently made yet since school is only beginning. Those include an essay planning spread and an assignment check-list. If you would like to see those spreads, leave a comment or like this post and I will make a part two for this post. Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires you for using your bullet journal for school!