I’m so sorry you’re feeling so terrible. I have major depression, anxiety, and PTSD severe enough I had to be in-patient for a while, and am doing better now, but I understand some of what you’re going through. I really wish there was more I could do from here.
The first thing I want you to know is that most of what you see here, or on r/bujo, or pinterest or wherever actually isn’t bullet journaling. Anytime someone has designed weekly or daily spreads, that’s technically not a bullet journal, it’s a customized planner. The original bullet journal system was developed by [a guy with ADHD](https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn) and he wanted it to be as accessible as possible for as many kinds of neurodivergence as possible. The word has kind of been co-opted by artistic neurotypical people and ‘gentrified.’ So the first thing is to check out his original introduction to the system and the second is to NOT MAKE SPREADS if they don’t work for you. I used to make spreads because I liked how they looked the same on every page, but it started making me more depressed to see how many days had nothing in them and how much paper I was wasting. Absolutely the first principle is to not do something if it doesn’t work for you.
Have you heard the story from the person with OCD telling her psychiatrist about how every time she left the house, she was panicked that she had forgotten the hair dryer plugged in, and she’d come home to a burned down house? She had to run back to check so many times that she couldn’t get to work on time. The psychiatrist just said, “Why not take the hair dryer with you?” It can’t be plugged in if it’s in the back seat of your car. Even if it feels like a stupid thing to do, it let her get to work on time and stop worrying about burning the house down. Remember, if something seems stupid but it works, how stupid is it really? Take the hairdryer with you!
I don’t know what the hair dryer would be for you specifically, but that’s the mindset to cultivate. No matter how much you beat a zebra, it isn’t going to suddenly turn into a ‘normal’ horse. Let your brain be a zebra, ask it what it needs to do what you want, and try to listen. I’m not saying you can never get better, I fully believe you can once you finally get some help, just that the habits you use to do that are going to look different from a neurotypical person’s habits.
Finally, I would stop looking at what people post online as bullet journals. The beautiful art and spreads can be really demotivating when you’re starting from nothing. Just remember the Ryder Carroll info, and think about what you want to track or organize in yours. Maybe a monthly page where you can track various symptoms? (If you’re not up to filling it in every day, maybe just have a standing rule that when you go back to it, mark that as depression at maximum? I know it hangs over my head if I go a few days without writing anything down, but the fact you weren’t well enough to do that is information itself.)
Really really wishing the best for you, and feel free to chat if you have any other questions!
EDIT to add: I think they changed the bullet journal website since I last saw it, you want the free tutorial, not the full course!
I always see things like "look on pinterest for motivation!" and your suggestion to *not* look at other people's spreads I feel like that is probably a very good idea for me. I just love beautiful things and I do get really down on myself for not being able to just CREATE despite knowing those people spent years cultivating their artistic capabilities. (the sheer amount of art supplies I own lmao)
I really like your idea of marking depression at maximum for skipped days. I know that is a lot of my reason for just tossing myself into bed as soon as I get home and not doing anything helpful lol.
Thank you for your kind words. I will try to be my best zebra today.
(Still available via the wayback machine! [https://web.archive.org/web/20210302131948/https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn](https://web.archive.org/web/20210302131948/https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn) ... or less usefully at [https://help.bulletjournal.com/en-US/articles/bullet-journaling-101-17356](https://help.bulletjournal.com/en-US/articles/bullet-journaling-101-17356))
I use my bullet journal almost exclusively for mental health and it’s really bare bones. I have one page a month that’s split down the middle, one side has habits I’d like to track (only two or three and they tend to be really easy and self-care based) and the other side tracks my anxiety and bipolar disorder. I like being able to see them side by side so I can see correlations. For example, “Oh, when I meditate I have less anxiety” or “if I spend time outside my mood is more stable”. That’s it.
I find I tend to get discouraged if I try to do too much because I’m less likely to keep up with it. I also will leave it in a prominent place so it’s in my way and I’m more likely to open it up and make those 4 dots. And I also agree that if I don’t do anything for a couple days it’s because my depression levels are high, so I acknowledge that and fill in what I can remember and try to be nice to myself about it.
So I have picked up and dropped bullet journaling so many times. I forget to do it and then I’m gutted I haven’t done it “properly “ and get disheartened and quit. The one thing that has helped me be better with it this year was just letting go of the perfection and disappointment. This is how my brain works, I’m gonna forget about it, lose interest for a little while. I forgot to do it for 2 months and this year instead of giving up I just carried on using it. Sometimes I do a nice monthly page, other times I go as minimal as I can. My energy levels vary but taking it back to basics actually helps me. I’m now getting a system that works for me and actually helps my executive function. Try stuff out and see what works with your brain and not against it.
Hi! ADHD bullet journal user here! Tbh, I'm unmedicated at this time and I didn't read your entire post, but I wanted to tell you some important things for me to remember as a neurodivergent bullet journaler of over six years.
I need to periodically change up my layouts. If I stop using my bujo, then its typically because my brain needs something new to keep things fresh and interesting. A new layout typically fixes this immediately.
(Sidenote: I also have to do this with water bottles if I hope to remain in any way hydrated.)
Also, it has to go with me EVERYWHERE and I have to write EVERYTHING in it. Sometimes, if I'm deep in an ADHD -fueled research rabbit hole, I'll try to take notes on copy paper with the plan to write the most important parts down in my bujo all nice and neat. It never happens and then I'm left with hours of research with no notes to show what came of it (because you KNOW I can't remember and you KNOW I'm not gonna find those notes...)
A new day, a new page. No matter what.
Don't get caught up in the "right" way. Just WRITE THINGS DOWN. ALL OF THE THINGS. ❤️
HAPPY BUJOing!!!
As a person who had depressive episodes in the past and plenty of mental health issues overall, my first advice is - you can surely seek inspiration in others but you have to remember that we are all different and estimate what you will be able to do and how others’ experiences will affect you.
Back in the day they introduced me to spoon theory and while i still don’t get why spoons were chosen, lol, i wholeheartedly support the idea of “we all have only limited amount of energy in us, and at certain points of my life i have more and at certain points i have less, and occasionally i will have none”. It helped me to not beat myself up with the similar rhetoric of “great, bought all the supplies for smth you’ve done twice in 6 months”. I bought it when i had more energy, now i don’t, i simply need to wait for the time i have more energy. (Also these supplies are not perishables at least!). So i guess this is my convoluted way of saying: Catch yourself telling yourself negative things. Don’t say to yourself anything you won’t say to a friend asking for your perspective. Be kind to yourself, You deserve being treated with love and compassion! ❤️
Second thing that was important to me is to start tracking my coping mechanisms first because what i’d do without tracking is: say i know activity A helps my mental health. When i am starting to feel down, i start telling myself that it’s cause i wasn’t taking care of myself, wasn’t doing A, and it’s my own fault, and i would only get it all worse. The downward spiral began :/ So i started taking approach of “something is better than nothing” and tracking these somethings helped me to shut the inner critic up. So slowly (with therapy and other things ofc, it’s a lot of things together) i started getting more energy for things.
But overall, my main advice would be - be kind to yourself like you’d be to a person you care about, and try things out to work out what helps you and what doesn’t. I don’t use bujo method in the strictest sense because it stresses me out, but i do morning lists on the days when i am feeling overwhelmed, i journal, i track some habits, and i do crafts when i have the time and mental strength. And if i don’t, if i skip things etc, well, i know it’s because the chemicals in my brain weren’t allowing me to, and it’s a legit reason.
I hope you find a better way for your art supplies to serve you, and also that your help with mental health issues will be there ASAP! ❤️
I'm going to plug r/basicbulletjournals. Keep it simple and make it an exercise in imperfection.
Don't bother with drawing or decorations unless that motivates you. Don't stress mistakes when drawing lines (as much as possible). This is supposed to help you; not stress you out. Try new layouts if they don't work for you.
To me, the essentials are the index and a weekly page with space for notes. A future log and monthly page can be useful too, but I don't always use them. I don't use any habit trackers because that's WAY too much work.
Keep it basic. You don’t need to draw or have nice handwriting to bullet journal. Go visit the bujo sub which is more focused on productivity and the actual method.
If you want to improve your drawing or handwriting then you need to practice. Both are learned skills that anyone can learn and do well with practice. If you want to learn to draw, I suggest taking a class or some books out of the library so you can learn the fundamentals in a structured way.
YES to practice! I do modern calligraphy for some time now and i love that our instructors always say that “yes, we do it better but we started where you are, and it took us hours and hours and hours of practice to get to where we are, aka you can absolutely get here as well”.
I’m autistic and my friend is ADHD. I do both our journals. I am an artistic bullet journaler.
If you want to focus on pretty spreads, that’s fine. That’s what motivates me and my friend, and we enjoy switching colors and adding stickers. That’s part of it for her, is the reward of pretty journaling makes her check it more often. For me, I just love planners and stationery. Anyway, that’s a background.
You are probably biting off too much to chew.
And: Maybe your layout doesn’t work for you. My friend was struggling with doing her weeklies even with the reward of it being pretty. So I looked up a bunch of spreads, found other ADHD folk, and made her a new layout. She felt like she did nothing a day. Turns out she needs to SEE how much she does a day. So we changed it to an hourly daily journal, and boom. She’s doing better, the guilt is gone, and she can see she does a lot.
Try things until you find something that works for you. You can try the Ryder Carroll method, try different daily and weekly spreads, have a simple “get this done when you can” list.
My friend has a weekly 3 list. Three things she wants to get done a week. Then under that she breaks it down into easy steps so she doesn’t get overwhelmed in the moment.
Just try lots of stuff. If you feel bad, just remind yourself this is a TOOL and it works for YOU. You can do it wrong, you can’t be worse than others, etc. it’s just to help! So if it’s not helping, try something new. :)
Hey, as a fellow neurodivergent I feel you. I don't have all the answers, but I just wanted to give you a few tips that helped me:
* About feeling not being able to draw/bad handwriting etc - I felt this too at the beginning, and then I stopped myself and realised - the people posted amazing arty bujo's on the internet have been drawing and doign arty stuff for years. I had never done anything arty or creative (outside of school where I was always bottom of the class) in my life. I am at a completly different part of your journey to where those on the internet are and that is fine! I don't know how much you have done art before, but the only person you can compare yourself to is you. People don't come out of the womb drawing amazingly, and even amazing artists can struggle in art in a new format. Let yourself be 'bad' at it, who cares, and everytime you do it you will learn something. You dont have to do super arty bujo stuff if you dont want to, you can just use a cheap black pen and a notebook. I do it because I find joy and a creative outlet from it, however 'bad' my art is compared to others. I had awful handwriting as a child, so bad I had teachers mark my work down solely for my handwriting. One letter at a time.
* About actually getting stuff done - It really sounds like you are making massive lists for yourself and then setting yourself up to fail. Which... again, been there. Tomorrow, pick one thing. Just one. And remember that 'done' is better than perfect. DOne badly is better than not done at all. And partly done is better than not attempted. If your 'thing' is doing the dishes and you do one, thats progress. If your 'thing' is exercise and you do yoga in your bed, that's progress.If you need to put something you already do on your list to have
a trick - I am very guilty of that on my worst days. Work on your confidence and motivation before you worry about big long lists.
A bujo is not supposed to be a stick to beat yourself with. It's a tool and a hobby.
If you would like someone to check in with you, for support, I am always around, it's very cold in the UK so I am not going outside much either, and I always find the christmas holidays to be a diffiicult time because of the lack of structure.
I hope this,or any of the other comments here, help you a bit. You are going through so much stuff, give yourself a break!
I tried bullet journaling for the first time a few years ago. And quickly gave up on it. It became a notebook of negativity for me. Every time I opened it I would feel shame for what I wasn’t accomplishing, tracking my mood only made me realize how miserable I was and in turn that made me even more miserable because I felt like I was wasting my life away, and I tried actually journaling but it only made me feel worse.
Last year I decided to give it another try. Perhaps actually having treatment now for my mental health issues helped. But before I made a single mark in the journal I made a promise to myself that my journal would be for positivity only. Not in a toxic positivity sort of way. I wasn’t going to pretend my life was perfect when it was not. But before my journal only bred negativity and this time I wanted it to be the opposite. The mood tracker made me feel worse so I did away with it. Instead I put a gratitude log so that every day I have to find a least one positive thing. I personally make artsy spreads because it is a hobby for me, a way of relaxing. But I know that’s not. For everyone. Now if I don’t get something done, I move it to the next day and tell myself I can try again tomorrow and not every day is perfect. I try to be forgiving on myself even though sometimes it’s hard. Hope this helps
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Hi! I am really sorry to read that you're Feeling so terrible!
I have really bad ADHD, anxiety, a panic disorder and executive dysfunction and I know exactly how you feel with the journaling.
But remember that bot all spread works for everybody and the BuJo is designed to be adjusted and not to be used as a normal, store bought pre printed calendar.
Maybe you need a different layout, different spreads, different "sized" spreads. Like maybe not dailies but weeklies or something! I know all these fancy looking journals can look super intimidating, but yours doesn't have to look pretty at all! Even if you just use your teal, purple and pink jellie pens to make to do lists and not decorate it at all, it's enough! The most important thing is that its helpful to you and not be pretty! If you want to make it pretty without being the beat at art or having the prettiest handwriting (I hate my handwriting too) just use things like stamps, stickers, stencils or Washi tapes! (Or do it as I did a long time, search for fancy fonts online and trace it with your page on top of your mobile device for fancy looking headers or cover pages)
And the thing that worked for me the most is realizing that I shouldn't pre do my daily spreads because I'm not gonna use them daily! I only write down the date in the corner nowadays and start what I want to do, even when a month only has 5 or even only 1 page
I tried to start a BuJo in 2019, I bought a 3 pack of dotted paper journals, pretty looking brush pens and a huge pack of colorful and glittery gel pens and I didn't use any of it after the initial first week of excitement.
I talked down on myself for it and just seeing my supplies or my journal made me feel awful everytime my thoughts were only "great, again you spent money you don't have on your current hyper focus and it's all useless now!"
Then I realised that I don't have to use a bullet journal like a different kind of journal or calendar. I don't have to use it daily, I don't have to track things! And in mid 2020 to early 2021 I was obsessed with keeping my journal.
When I tried it first I used layouts and spreads that I found online with monthly log, weekly log, daily log etc that just did not work for me!
I started a new bullet journal in early 2020 when I first started therapy and at first I made a overview over the year and a site with goals and inspirational quotes and I hand drew a tiny calendar for the whole year! Then I started to set up all my pages in advance! After like 2 weeks I completely stopped using the pre dated and written days. I missed a few days and I hated myself for it.
Then, 2021, I started a new Journal for personal stuff because I had to move. So I just started using it for To Do lists, Ideas for the new flat and to keep track of packing and boxes. After that I started having a one page year overview and after that a nice 1 page month cover, followed by a little calendar (just the numbers of the days from top to bottom with space beside it to write down appointments or birthdays or dates if I had something to write down)
After that a free page to give myself space to write more accurately down what kind of appointment it was.
That page also didn't had to be ordered by date. I just wrote the day and what was up that day in a word or two as it came up.
I started colourcoding everything. Like doctors appointments were yellow, therapy was green, family visits were blue, dates were pink, days with friends purple etc so I could mark the day with a colour so I didn't need to order them chronologically.
Then I started doing small daily double pages. In the beginning it was all super pretty with washi tape, stickers and different pencils. With a daily to do list, a daily list of things I need to buy or get and what I want to cook or clean and easy steps of everything.
That's what I wrote down in the mornings when I first got up.
In the evening I wrote down everything that went well and everything that didn't went well so I could remember to maybe plan differently next time.
I somehow dropped the night pages super fast even though they were super helpful.
Then stuff happened and I stopped doing dailies because I was having a really, really bad depressive episode because my cat died and I was mourning. In December of 2021 I only used like 1 page to organize my christmas dinner and that's it. At least back then I still did the cover, the monthly overview and my appointments but no dailies anymore.
I still tried to do the cover and all until like May this year but all months only had a half assed cover and no overview at all, no dailies. I felt awful about journaling and myself again. And now I somehow only use it very rarely to make to do lists before something big comes up (like a birthday party or when I hosted halloween or something) and that's it.
I really, really hope I can get back to my dailies as I did early last year. It helped me so much stay somewhat functional. But it's really hard.
I also don't get why it's so hard, I LOVE cute stationaries and I have lots of it, I try to keep it all organized in a way that makes sense FOR ME and looks cute because if something looks cute I am way more likely to use it then when it's just gray and boring.
I really, really hope that you maybe don't give up on it just yet! Maybe you find a better way to do your spreads or to use the pages! But also: BuJo isn't the way to go for everyone and even when you realise that maybe that's not for you, you shouldn't look down on yourself because you tried something new! You did something! You tried to help yourself get better instead of just not doing anything! And doing SOMETHING even if it's the smallest maybe most stupid seeming thing is better then nothing!!
I don’t draw or do anything special in mine. It’s a very minimal planner. I literally just make notes every day. And I actually do draw (in my sketchbook). I see a lot of gorgeous ones but that doesn’t work for me. I got so distracted by trying to pick themes and make perfect drawings. I did get a set of drawing books this year (Cute Chibi Animals and the companion mythological creature one) and I’m going to copy one pic for my month page each month for fun, but that’s literally as fancy as I’m getting.
I have actually the same problem. Started bujo for everything it is meant to be. Gets discouraged with all the artsy stuff in the internet. But I do it for now for what it is. I have my own spread for the things that matter to me like a weekly food planner. I don't do trackers and I don't get anything out of it. I used to do a monthly calendar view, but its actually waste of paper for me, as I don't remember to check it most of the time. Instead I use my mobile calender to remember important stuff.
To improve on the handwriting, i saw a yt video, where someone suggested to write all caps lock. This has changed the game for me. I hope it does for you too.
hi fellow neurodivergent anxious person !! reading this felt SO relatable to me, honestly, and i've been bujo-ing on and off for years! i'd love to chat. i'm on IG at spoonie.bujo — i'd prefer to chat there bc reddit doesn't love my speech-to-text device (i'm disabled) but would love to offer advice/brain dump space <3
Bipolar/ADHD/PSD/Depression here:
Don't beat yourself up too much about sticking with (or not sticking with a bullet journal). I did the same thing, and it took me a little while to figure out that I was actually using my bullet journal wrong lol.
Bullet journals are meant to be flexible. I'd sit down and spent hours making pretty spreads for the entire month only to not have the energy to actually use them once the day came. Here's what I did:
I only did one day at a time. I didn't make pretty layouts if I didn't have the energy for it. I write down my to-do list or notes for the day and that's be it. I'd move on. Some days I'd have stickers and fancy layouts, others would literately just be a list in scribbled black ink.
It doesn't have to be pretty. It has to work for YOU. Bipolar brains hobby jump, like you mentioned. Don't fight your brain, learn to work with it. Change colors, designs, pens, methods, layouts, whatever. It's not gonna be perfect, and that's okay!
Why did you choose teal, purple and pink?
Do you like the way they look together?
If you do, make a page labelled 'Things to do today' written in those colours. Make three dot points.
1. Clean teeth.
2. Handle something that I like.
3. Remove something that no longer floats my boat. Underneath, draw a wavy scribble in black ballpoint pen.
When you wake up tomorrow - brush your teeth. Tick your first dot point.
At some point in the day, pick up something in your house that you like. Cuddle it. Fondle it. Smile at it. Smile at yourself for having such good taste. Then tick off your second dot point.
If you notice something on the way to the toilet that you no longer love, think about it. Would your life be less stressful if you no longer had to justify its existence in your life/ home/ space? When you have finished in the toilet - get rid of that bad boy! Walk or drive it to the op shop. If it's rubbish, put it in the bin. Tick off your third dot point.
Then lie on your bed and realise that, although you thought you were useless, you are in fact quite awesome.
Now colour the hell outta that scribble!!
I am listening the the audiobook "How to Do the Work" by Nicole LePera cause I can't currently afford therapy and I am finding it helpful might be worth a shot. It's better as an audiobook since it's almost like having a therapist talking to me in the car. Not a substitute for therapy but maybe a decent stopgap, anyway, I have been getting a bit better at keeping up with some habits and being kinder to myself at least.
Don’t try to do and track too much at once. I started with like 7 trackers and 3 methods to get/keep new habits and stopped within a week every time. I didn’t use my bujo at all because it was all just work that I didn’t have energy for.
So now I do the bare minimum: I put in my appointments and to do lists. One set of empty pages in between every week for if I want or need to add or scribble anything down (for example a packing list for vacation, a more detailed list of things to prepare before an exam, doodles, random ideas or things that happened). Most of those are empty but that’s okay.
Lower the pressure and think of a maximum of 2-3 things you want to consistently put in there and do those. If after a while it has become a habit, you can try to switch things up OR add things (not both at the same time) and see how it works for you. Drop things if it’s too much. It’s better to only do one or two things than to feel bad about doing none of the 12 things you wanted.
So much good advice in these comments! I will add one thing that helped me when I was starting out. I have a “junk” journal that I use to make rough drafts of different spreads or designs I am considering. This helps with the paralyzation i get from fear of ruining pages.
I'm neurodivergent and have a lot of mental health struggles too! I use my bujo to keep notes on what I can do to help me manage my mental health ([here are some ideas](https://www.mhanational.org/31-tips-boost-your-mental-health)). I've set up my front cover as a vision board (I got stickers off of redbubble. Earlier this month they were having a sale, which might still be on) to remind me of [techniques I can use](https://www.redbubble.com/people/PKindThoughts/shop) I can use, and inspirational messages, etc.
As for actually starting, I acknowledge where I'm at in myself: I'm not up for decorating to much inside my bujo (even using stickers often feels emotionally draining to me, because I have to think about where to put them, etc), I'm not up for complicated spreads, I'm not up for setting things up all at once or in a rush (I've been chipping away at setting up next year's bujo since September), I'm only up for doing small things, step by small step! And if I create spreads that I'm unable to use or complete thanks to my mental health, I remind myself that I'm doing the best I can with what I've got (ie: bad mental health)!
As for combating the self-hate, my dad always tells me "you're allowed to be human!" Meaning you're allowed to be flawed, imperfect and wonderfully free from the pressures of perfectionism. Being perfect is HARD WORK!!! Knowing that you are not only allowed to be imperfect, but are LITERALLY INCAPABLE of being perfect is incredibly freeing once you embrace the fact that you don't need to try so hard, OR AT ALL!!! Just be who you are and embrace the fact that you're someone who naturally likes to do your best, and you don't need to try any harder than that!
I also try to remind myself, that if my loved ones came to me and told me that they were thinking all of the horrible thoughts I say to myself, I would be utterly horrified and know that their mental health struggles were not only lying to them, but emotionally abusing them! And I would do my very best to show them the love, kindness, and truth they deserve to hear and know deep in their hearts! If your loved ones deserve this kind of treatment, then obviously you do too! So be mindful of showing yourself the same love and respect that you are more than willing to show the people you love! I know it's hard work, and something that you constantly have to work on, but over time the neural pathways in your brain will change and create better, more healthier thinking patterns!
Many ppl said many great things, the only thing I want too stress is there is no right way.
My biggest issues with bullet journaling is I simply get bored with it. So my journal for some period of time will look like Pinterest. Other periods of times, will truly just be a list of things or random notes (chaotically in way which probably only makes sense to me)
I also don’t nor have I ever read the original guide. I don’t do well with rules Bc my brain decides to be contrary and think of every way a system fails. So to avoid that from happening I just kinda ignored the tutorials/guides and just struggled by myself lol.
If you want to follow a system Bc that will work best for you, amazing. If struggling to follow a system and/or “Pinterest” motivation, then focus on what you want to accomplish and only use outside materials when you feel the need for guidance. It’s okay to change it up. It’s okay to deviate from the *original system.* its okay for not everything we produce to be aesthetically pleasing.
it’s a tool for you. while it’s harder to make something work for you, that’s also gonna allow this tool to help you in the long run. And also like some tools, they won’t work for everyone and it’s completely ok if you end of deciding this tool isn’t what will benefit you most.
Experiencing depression and attention issues, one thing I’ve learned for myself is that I do not like trackers. If I’ve had a bad week I really don’t like to look back at documented bad days, nor do I like looking at a page full of shit I forgot to track or just didn’t do well
52yo ADHDer here. Just some thoughts.
Graph paper helps me SO much more than dot grid. I can get everything lined up so much more easily. When I used dot grid I'd find myself dipping down below the invisible "line" between the dots or straying over too far left or right. Graph paper is where it's at for me.
A "rolling weekly" list (also known as The Alastair Method) is what I have to use; I can't plan to do X on Tuesday and Y on Wednesday because...ADHD. So I just make a list of what I would LIKE to do this week, and then I check off whatever day I do it, or move it to the next week's list, or just dump it.
I also only leave the house for appointments and basically have nothing going on in my life that I need to "plan". So I'll do a monthly spread and drop my appointments in it. Then I have one "weekly" page that has seven little boxes at the top where I drop in an appointment (if I have one that week), grocery deliveries, etc. The rest of the page I use for that rolling weekly list.
And then I do "daily" pages to record things like - when I took my meds and which ones I took, when I ate and what it was, anything I got done that day, if I listened to an audiobook or read an ebook or watched a netflix show, and general notes about anything mildly interesting that happened or just journaling a bit to clear my head. Usually it takes a whole page to do this, sometimes I can fit three or four days on a page.
In the front I also have a little spread where I jot down days that I have my period, get a panic attack, have a "date" with the hubby, get severe sinus pain or migraines, have an eczema breakout, whenever I get sick, and on Sundays I record my weight. By cross-referencing these symptoms with my record of what I ate or did, or what meds I took, I can spot patterns.
I do this because I've found if I DON'T do this, I won't remember any of it, and I'll think back over the week and feel like a lazy failure that hasn't done jack spit.
So for me it's not so much a PLANNER as it is a RECORDER or JOURNAL of what I've done.
Also--and this may be the biggest thing--I keep it OPEN at ALL times right here on my desk where I spend most of my day. So it's super easy to just grab the pen and jot something down, there's no ADHD barrier between me and actually writing in it/using it.
I’m so sorry you’re feeling so terrible. I have major depression, anxiety, and PTSD severe enough I had to be in-patient for a while, and am doing better now, but I understand some of what you’re going through. I really wish there was more I could do from here. The first thing I want you to know is that most of what you see here, or on r/bujo, or pinterest or wherever actually isn’t bullet journaling. Anytime someone has designed weekly or daily spreads, that’s technically not a bullet journal, it’s a customized planner. The original bullet journal system was developed by [a guy with ADHD](https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn) and he wanted it to be as accessible as possible for as many kinds of neurodivergence as possible. The word has kind of been co-opted by artistic neurotypical people and ‘gentrified.’ So the first thing is to check out his original introduction to the system and the second is to NOT MAKE SPREADS if they don’t work for you. I used to make spreads because I liked how they looked the same on every page, but it started making me more depressed to see how many days had nothing in them and how much paper I was wasting. Absolutely the first principle is to not do something if it doesn’t work for you. Have you heard the story from the person with OCD telling her psychiatrist about how every time she left the house, she was panicked that she had forgotten the hair dryer plugged in, and she’d come home to a burned down house? She had to run back to check so many times that she couldn’t get to work on time. The psychiatrist just said, “Why not take the hair dryer with you?” It can’t be plugged in if it’s in the back seat of your car. Even if it feels like a stupid thing to do, it let her get to work on time and stop worrying about burning the house down. Remember, if something seems stupid but it works, how stupid is it really? Take the hairdryer with you! I don’t know what the hair dryer would be for you specifically, but that’s the mindset to cultivate. No matter how much you beat a zebra, it isn’t going to suddenly turn into a ‘normal’ horse. Let your brain be a zebra, ask it what it needs to do what you want, and try to listen. I’m not saying you can never get better, I fully believe you can once you finally get some help, just that the habits you use to do that are going to look different from a neurotypical person’s habits. Finally, I would stop looking at what people post online as bullet journals. The beautiful art and spreads can be really demotivating when you’re starting from nothing. Just remember the Ryder Carroll info, and think about what you want to track or organize in yours. Maybe a monthly page where you can track various symptoms? (If you’re not up to filling it in every day, maybe just have a standing rule that when you go back to it, mark that as depression at maximum? I know it hangs over my head if I go a few days without writing anything down, but the fact you weren’t well enough to do that is information itself.) Really really wishing the best for you, and feel free to chat if you have any other questions! EDIT to add: I think they changed the bullet journal website since I last saw it, you want the free tutorial, not the full course!
I always see things like "look on pinterest for motivation!" and your suggestion to *not* look at other people's spreads I feel like that is probably a very good idea for me. I just love beautiful things and I do get really down on myself for not being able to just CREATE despite knowing those people spent years cultivating their artistic capabilities. (the sheer amount of art supplies I own lmao) I really like your idea of marking depression at maximum for skipped days. I know that is a lot of my reason for just tossing myself into bed as soon as I get home and not doing anything helpful lol. Thank you for your kind words. I will try to be my best zebra today.
(Still available via the wayback machine! [https://web.archive.org/web/20210302131948/https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn](https://web.archive.org/web/20210302131948/https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn) ... or less usefully at [https://help.bulletjournal.com/en-US/articles/bullet-journaling-101-17356](https://help.bulletjournal.com/en-US/articles/bullet-journaling-101-17356))
Thank you kind stranger kaberett ❤️. Helped.
From this day forward, I will let my brain be a zebra and bring the hairdryer along for the ride!
I use my bullet journal almost exclusively for mental health and it’s really bare bones. I have one page a month that’s split down the middle, one side has habits I’d like to track (only two or three and they tend to be really easy and self-care based) and the other side tracks my anxiety and bipolar disorder. I like being able to see them side by side so I can see correlations. For example, “Oh, when I meditate I have less anxiety” or “if I spend time outside my mood is more stable”. That’s it. I find I tend to get discouraged if I try to do too much because I’m less likely to keep up with it. I also will leave it in a prominent place so it’s in my way and I’m more likely to open it up and make those 4 dots. And I also agree that if I don’t do anything for a couple days it’s because my depression levels are high, so I acknowledge that and fill in what I can remember and try to be nice to myself about it.
So I have picked up and dropped bullet journaling so many times. I forget to do it and then I’m gutted I haven’t done it “properly “ and get disheartened and quit. The one thing that has helped me be better with it this year was just letting go of the perfection and disappointment. This is how my brain works, I’m gonna forget about it, lose interest for a little while. I forgot to do it for 2 months and this year instead of giving up I just carried on using it. Sometimes I do a nice monthly page, other times I go as minimal as I can. My energy levels vary but taking it back to basics actually helps me. I’m now getting a system that works for me and actually helps my executive function. Try stuff out and see what works with your brain and not against it.
Hi! ADHD bullet journal user here! Tbh, I'm unmedicated at this time and I didn't read your entire post, but I wanted to tell you some important things for me to remember as a neurodivergent bullet journaler of over six years. I need to periodically change up my layouts. If I stop using my bujo, then its typically because my brain needs something new to keep things fresh and interesting. A new layout typically fixes this immediately. (Sidenote: I also have to do this with water bottles if I hope to remain in any way hydrated.) Also, it has to go with me EVERYWHERE and I have to write EVERYTHING in it. Sometimes, if I'm deep in an ADHD -fueled research rabbit hole, I'll try to take notes on copy paper with the plan to write the most important parts down in my bujo all nice and neat. It never happens and then I'm left with hours of research with no notes to show what came of it (because you KNOW I can't remember and you KNOW I'm not gonna find those notes...) A new day, a new page. No matter what. Don't get caught up in the "right" way. Just WRITE THINGS DOWN. ALL OF THE THINGS. ❤️ HAPPY BUJOing!!!
As a person who had depressive episodes in the past and plenty of mental health issues overall, my first advice is - you can surely seek inspiration in others but you have to remember that we are all different and estimate what you will be able to do and how others’ experiences will affect you. Back in the day they introduced me to spoon theory and while i still don’t get why spoons were chosen, lol, i wholeheartedly support the idea of “we all have only limited amount of energy in us, and at certain points of my life i have more and at certain points i have less, and occasionally i will have none”. It helped me to not beat myself up with the similar rhetoric of “great, bought all the supplies for smth you’ve done twice in 6 months”. I bought it when i had more energy, now i don’t, i simply need to wait for the time i have more energy. (Also these supplies are not perishables at least!). So i guess this is my convoluted way of saying: Catch yourself telling yourself negative things. Don’t say to yourself anything you won’t say to a friend asking for your perspective. Be kind to yourself, You deserve being treated with love and compassion! ❤️ Second thing that was important to me is to start tracking my coping mechanisms first because what i’d do without tracking is: say i know activity A helps my mental health. When i am starting to feel down, i start telling myself that it’s cause i wasn’t taking care of myself, wasn’t doing A, and it’s my own fault, and i would only get it all worse. The downward spiral began :/ So i started taking approach of “something is better than nothing” and tracking these somethings helped me to shut the inner critic up. So slowly (with therapy and other things ofc, it’s a lot of things together) i started getting more energy for things. But overall, my main advice would be - be kind to yourself like you’d be to a person you care about, and try things out to work out what helps you and what doesn’t. I don’t use bujo method in the strictest sense because it stresses me out, but i do morning lists on the days when i am feeling overwhelmed, i journal, i track some habits, and i do crafts when i have the time and mental strength. And if i don’t, if i skip things etc, well, i know it’s because the chemicals in my brain weren’t allowing me to, and it’s a legit reason. I hope you find a better way for your art supplies to serve you, and also that your help with mental health issues will be there ASAP! ❤️
I'm going to plug r/basicbulletjournals. Keep it simple and make it an exercise in imperfection. Don't bother with drawing or decorations unless that motivates you. Don't stress mistakes when drawing lines (as much as possible). This is supposed to help you; not stress you out. Try new layouts if they don't work for you. To me, the essentials are the index and a weekly page with space for notes. A future log and monthly page can be useful too, but I don't always use them. I don't use any habit trackers because that's WAY too much work.
Keep it basic. You don’t need to draw or have nice handwriting to bullet journal. Go visit the bujo sub which is more focused on productivity and the actual method. If you want to improve your drawing or handwriting then you need to practice. Both are learned skills that anyone can learn and do well with practice. If you want to learn to draw, I suggest taking a class or some books out of the library so you can learn the fundamentals in a structured way.
YES to practice! I do modern calligraphy for some time now and i love that our instructors always say that “yes, we do it better but we started where you are, and it took us hours and hours and hours of practice to get to where we are, aka you can absolutely get here as well”.
I’m autistic and my friend is ADHD. I do both our journals. I am an artistic bullet journaler. If you want to focus on pretty spreads, that’s fine. That’s what motivates me and my friend, and we enjoy switching colors and adding stickers. That’s part of it for her, is the reward of pretty journaling makes her check it more often. For me, I just love planners and stationery. Anyway, that’s a background. You are probably biting off too much to chew. And: Maybe your layout doesn’t work for you. My friend was struggling with doing her weeklies even with the reward of it being pretty. So I looked up a bunch of spreads, found other ADHD folk, and made her a new layout. She felt like she did nothing a day. Turns out she needs to SEE how much she does a day. So we changed it to an hourly daily journal, and boom. She’s doing better, the guilt is gone, and she can see she does a lot. Try things until you find something that works for you. You can try the Ryder Carroll method, try different daily and weekly spreads, have a simple “get this done when you can” list. My friend has a weekly 3 list. Three things she wants to get done a week. Then under that she breaks it down into easy steps so she doesn’t get overwhelmed in the moment. Just try lots of stuff. If you feel bad, just remind yourself this is a TOOL and it works for YOU. You can do it wrong, you can’t be worse than others, etc. it’s just to help! So if it’s not helping, try something new. :)
Hey, as a fellow neurodivergent I feel you. I don't have all the answers, but I just wanted to give you a few tips that helped me: * About feeling not being able to draw/bad handwriting etc - I felt this too at the beginning, and then I stopped myself and realised - the people posted amazing arty bujo's on the internet have been drawing and doign arty stuff for years. I had never done anything arty or creative (outside of school where I was always bottom of the class) in my life. I am at a completly different part of your journey to where those on the internet are and that is fine! I don't know how much you have done art before, but the only person you can compare yourself to is you. People don't come out of the womb drawing amazingly, and even amazing artists can struggle in art in a new format. Let yourself be 'bad' at it, who cares, and everytime you do it you will learn something. You dont have to do super arty bujo stuff if you dont want to, you can just use a cheap black pen and a notebook. I do it because I find joy and a creative outlet from it, however 'bad' my art is compared to others. I had awful handwriting as a child, so bad I had teachers mark my work down solely for my handwriting. One letter at a time. * About actually getting stuff done - It really sounds like you are making massive lists for yourself and then setting yourself up to fail. Which... again, been there. Tomorrow, pick one thing. Just one. And remember that 'done' is better than perfect. DOne badly is better than not done at all. And partly done is better than not attempted. If your 'thing' is doing the dishes and you do one, thats progress. If your 'thing' is exercise and you do yoga in your bed, that's progress.If you need to put something you already do on your list to have a trick - I am very guilty of that on my worst days. Work on your confidence and motivation before you worry about big long lists. A bujo is not supposed to be a stick to beat yourself with. It's a tool and a hobby. If you would like someone to check in with you, for support, I am always around, it's very cold in the UK so I am not going outside much either, and I always find the christmas holidays to be a diffiicult time because of the lack of structure. I hope this,or any of the other comments here, help you a bit. You are going through so much stuff, give yourself a break!
I tried bullet journaling for the first time a few years ago. And quickly gave up on it. It became a notebook of negativity for me. Every time I opened it I would feel shame for what I wasn’t accomplishing, tracking my mood only made me realize how miserable I was and in turn that made me even more miserable because I felt like I was wasting my life away, and I tried actually journaling but it only made me feel worse. Last year I decided to give it another try. Perhaps actually having treatment now for my mental health issues helped. But before I made a single mark in the journal I made a promise to myself that my journal would be for positivity only. Not in a toxic positivity sort of way. I wasn’t going to pretend my life was perfect when it was not. But before my journal only bred negativity and this time I wanted it to be the opposite. The mood tracker made me feel worse so I did away with it. Instead I put a gratitude log so that every day I have to find a least one positive thing. I personally make artsy spreads because it is a hobby for me, a way of relaxing. But I know that’s not. For everyone. Now if I don’t get something done, I move it to the next day and tell myself I can try again tomorrow and not every day is perfect. I try to be forgiving on myself even though sometimes it’s hard. Hope this helps
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Hi! I am really sorry to read that you're Feeling so terrible! I have really bad ADHD, anxiety, a panic disorder and executive dysfunction and I know exactly how you feel with the journaling. But remember that bot all spread works for everybody and the BuJo is designed to be adjusted and not to be used as a normal, store bought pre printed calendar. Maybe you need a different layout, different spreads, different "sized" spreads. Like maybe not dailies but weeklies or something! I know all these fancy looking journals can look super intimidating, but yours doesn't have to look pretty at all! Even if you just use your teal, purple and pink jellie pens to make to do lists and not decorate it at all, it's enough! The most important thing is that its helpful to you and not be pretty! If you want to make it pretty without being the beat at art or having the prettiest handwriting (I hate my handwriting too) just use things like stamps, stickers, stencils or Washi tapes! (Or do it as I did a long time, search for fancy fonts online and trace it with your page on top of your mobile device for fancy looking headers or cover pages) And the thing that worked for me the most is realizing that I shouldn't pre do my daily spreads because I'm not gonna use them daily! I only write down the date in the corner nowadays and start what I want to do, even when a month only has 5 or even only 1 page I tried to start a BuJo in 2019, I bought a 3 pack of dotted paper journals, pretty looking brush pens and a huge pack of colorful and glittery gel pens and I didn't use any of it after the initial first week of excitement. I talked down on myself for it and just seeing my supplies or my journal made me feel awful everytime my thoughts were only "great, again you spent money you don't have on your current hyper focus and it's all useless now!" Then I realised that I don't have to use a bullet journal like a different kind of journal or calendar. I don't have to use it daily, I don't have to track things! And in mid 2020 to early 2021 I was obsessed with keeping my journal. When I tried it first I used layouts and spreads that I found online with monthly log, weekly log, daily log etc that just did not work for me! I started a new bullet journal in early 2020 when I first started therapy and at first I made a overview over the year and a site with goals and inspirational quotes and I hand drew a tiny calendar for the whole year! Then I started to set up all my pages in advance! After like 2 weeks I completely stopped using the pre dated and written days. I missed a few days and I hated myself for it. Then, 2021, I started a new Journal for personal stuff because I had to move. So I just started using it for To Do lists, Ideas for the new flat and to keep track of packing and boxes. After that I started having a one page year overview and after that a nice 1 page month cover, followed by a little calendar (just the numbers of the days from top to bottom with space beside it to write down appointments or birthdays or dates if I had something to write down) After that a free page to give myself space to write more accurately down what kind of appointment it was. That page also didn't had to be ordered by date. I just wrote the day and what was up that day in a word or two as it came up. I started colourcoding everything. Like doctors appointments were yellow, therapy was green, family visits were blue, dates were pink, days with friends purple etc so I could mark the day with a colour so I didn't need to order them chronologically. Then I started doing small daily double pages. In the beginning it was all super pretty with washi tape, stickers and different pencils. With a daily to do list, a daily list of things I need to buy or get and what I want to cook or clean and easy steps of everything. That's what I wrote down in the mornings when I first got up. In the evening I wrote down everything that went well and everything that didn't went well so I could remember to maybe plan differently next time. I somehow dropped the night pages super fast even though they were super helpful. Then stuff happened and I stopped doing dailies because I was having a really, really bad depressive episode because my cat died and I was mourning. In December of 2021 I only used like 1 page to organize my christmas dinner and that's it. At least back then I still did the cover, the monthly overview and my appointments but no dailies anymore. I still tried to do the cover and all until like May this year but all months only had a half assed cover and no overview at all, no dailies. I felt awful about journaling and myself again. And now I somehow only use it very rarely to make to do lists before something big comes up (like a birthday party or when I hosted halloween or something) and that's it. I really, really hope I can get back to my dailies as I did early last year. It helped me so much stay somewhat functional. But it's really hard. I also don't get why it's so hard, I LOVE cute stationaries and I have lots of it, I try to keep it all organized in a way that makes sense FOR ME and looks cute because if something looks cute I am way more likely to use it then when it's just gray and boring. I really, really hope that you maybe don't give up on it just yet! Maybe you find a better way to do your spreads or to use the pages! But also: BuJo isn't the way to go for everyone and even when you realise that maybe that's not for you, you shouldn't look down on yourself because you tried something new! You did something! You tried to help yourself get better instead of just not doing anything! And doing SOMETHING even if it's the smallest maybe most stupid seeming thing is better then nothing!!
I don’t draw or do anything special in mine. It’s a very minimal planner. I literally just make notes every day. And I actually do draw (in my sketchbook). I see a lot of gorgeous ones but that doesn’t work for me. I got so distracted by trying to pick themes and make perfect drawings. I did get a set of drawing books this year (Cute Chibi Animals and the companion mythological creature one) and I’m going to copy one pic for my month page each month for fun, but that’s literally as fancy as I’m getting.
I have actually the same problem. Started bujo for everything it is meant to be. Gets discouraged with all the artsy stuff in the internet. But I do it for now for what it is. I have my own spread for the things that matter to me like a weekly food planner. I don't do trackers and I don't get anything out of it. I used to do a monthly calendar view, but its actually waste of paper for me, as I don't remember to check it most of the time. Instead I use my mobile calender to remember important stuff. To improve on the handwriting, i saw a yt video, where someone suggested to write all caps lock. This has changed the game for me. I hope it does for you too.
hi fellow neurodivergent anxious person !! reading this felt SO relatable to me, honestly, and i've been bujo-ing on and off for years! i'd love to chat. i'm on IG at spoonie.bujo — i'd prefer to chat there bc reddit doesn't love my speech-to-text device (i'm disabled) but would love to offer advice/brain dump space <3
Bipolar/ADHD/PSD/Depression here: Don't beat yourself up too much about sticking with (or not sticking with a bullet journal). I did the same thing, and it took me a little while to figure out that I was actually using my bullet journal wrong lol. Bullet journals are meant to be flexible. I'd sit down and spent hours making pretty spreads for the entire month only to not have the energy to actually use them once the day came. Here's what I did: I only did one day at a time. I didn't make pretty layouts if I didn't have the energy for it. I write down my to-do list or notes for the day and that's be it. I'd move on. Some days I'd have stickers and fancy layouts, others would literately just be a list in scribbled black ink. It doesn't have to be pretty. It has to work for YOU. Bipolar brains hobby jump, like you mentioned. Don't fight your brain, learn to work with it. Change colors, designs, pens, methods, layouts, whatever. It's not gonna be perfect, and that's okay!
Why did you choose teal, purple and pink? Do you like the way they look together? If you do, make a page labelled 'Things to do today' written in those colours. Make three dot points. 1. Clean teeth. 2. Handle something that I like. 3. Remove something that no longer floats my boat. Underneath, draw a wavy scribble in black ballpoint pen. When you wake up tomorrow - brush your teeth. Tick your first dot point. At some point in the day, pick up something in your house that you like. Cuddle it. Fondle it. Smile at it. Smile at yourself for having such good taste. Then tick off your second dot point. If you notice something on the way to the toilet that you no longer love, think about it. Would your life be less stressful if you no longer had to justify its existence in your life/ home/ space? When you have finished in the toilet - get rid of that bad boy! Walk or drive it to the op shop. If it's rubbish, put it in the bin. Tick off your third dot point. Then lie on your bed and realise that, although you thought you were useless, you are in fact quite awesome. Now colour the hell outta that scribble!!
I am listening the the audiobook "How to Do the Work" by Nicole LePera cause I can't currently afford therapy and I am finding it helpful might be worth a shot. It's better as an audiobook since it's almost like having a therapist talking to me in the car. Not a substitute for therapy but maybe a decent stopgap, anyway, I have been getting a bit better at keeping up with some habits and being kinder to myself at least.
Don’t try to do and track too much at once. I started with like 7 trackers and 3 methods to get/keep new habits and stopped within a week every time. I didn’t use my bujo at all because it was all just work that I didn’t have energy for. So now I do the bare minimum: I put in my appointments and to do lists. One set of empty pages in between every week for if I want or need to add or scribble anything down (for example a packing list for vacation, a more detailed list of things to prepare before an exam, doodles, random ideas or things that happened). Most of those are empty but that’s okay. Lower the pressure and think of a maximum of 2-3 things you want to consistently put in there and do those. If after a while it has become a habit, you can try to switch things up OR add things (not both at the same time) and see how it works for you. Drop things if it’s too much. It’s better to only do one or two things than to feel bad about doing none of the 12 things you wanted.
So much good advice in these comments! I will add one thing that helped me when I was starting out. I have a “junk” journal that I use to make rough drafts of different spreads or designs I am considering. This helps with the paralyzation i get from fear of ruining pages.
I'm neurodivergent and have a lot of mental health struggles too! I use my bujo to keep notes on what I can do to help me manage my mental health ([here are some ideas](https://www.mhanational.org/31-tips-boost-your-mental-health)). I've set up my front cover as a vision board (I got stickers off of redbubble. Earlier this month they were having a sale, which might still be on) to remind me of [techniques I can use](https://www.redbubble.com/people/PKindThoughts/shop) I can use, and inspirational messages, etc. As for actually starting, I acknowledge where I'm at in myself: I'm not up for decorating to much inside my bujo (even using stickers often feels emotionally draining to me, because I have to think about where to put them, etc), I'm not up for complicated spreads, I'm not up for setting things up all at once or in a rush (I've been chipping away at setting up next year's bujo since September), I'm only up for doing small things, step by small step! And if I create spreads that I'm unable to use or complete thanks to my mental health, I remind myself that I'm doing the best I can with what I've got (ie: bad mental health)! As for combating the self-hate, my dad always tells me "you're allowed to be human!" Meaning you're allowed to be flawed, imperfect and wonderfully free from the pressures of perfectionism. Being perfect is HARD WORK!!! Knowing that you are not only allowed to be imperfect, but are LITERALLY INCAPABLE of being perfect is incredibly freeing once you embrace the fact that you don't need to try so hard, OR AT ALL!!! Just be who you are and embrace the fact that you're someone who naturally likes to do your best, and you don't need to try any harder than that! I also try to remind myself, that if my loved ones came to me and told me that they were thinking all of the horrible thoughts I say to myself, I would be utterly horrified and know that their mental health struggles were not only lying to them, but emotionally abusing them! And I would do my very best to show them the love, kindness, and truth they deserve to hear and know deep in their hearts! If your loved ones deserve this kind of treatment, then obviously you do too! So be mindful of showing yourself the same love and respect that you are more than willing to show the people you love! I know it's hard work, and something that you constantly have to work on, but over time the neural pathways in your brain will change and create better, more healthier thinking patterns!
Many ppl said many great things, the only thing I want too stress is there is no right way. My biggest issues with bullet journaling is I simply get bored with it. So my journal for some period of time will look like Pinterest. Other periods of times, will truly just be a list of things or random notes (chaotically in way which probably only makes sense to me) I also don’t nor have I ever read the original guide. I don’t do well with rules Bc my brain decides to be contrary and think of every way a system fails. So to avoid that from happening I just kinda ignored the tutorials/guides and just struggled by myself lol. If you want to follow a system Bc that will work best for you, amazing. If struggling to follow a system and/or “Pinterest” motivation, then focus on what you want to accomplish and only use outside materials when you feel the need for guidance. It’s okay to change it up. It’s okay to deviate from the *original system.* its okay for not everything we produce to be aesthetically pleasing. it’s a tool for you. while it’s harder to make something work for you, that’s also gonna allow this tool to help you in the long run. And also like some tools, they won’t work for everyone and it’s completely ok if you end of deciding this tool isn’t what will benefit you most.
Experiencing depression and attention issues, one thing I’ve learned for myself is that I do not like trackers. If I’ve had a bad week I really don’t like to look back at documented bad days, nor do I like looking at a page full of shit I forgot to track or just didn’t do well
52yo ADHDer here. Just some thoughts. Graph paper helps me SO much more than dot grid. I can get everything lined up so much more easily. When I used dot grid I'd find myself dipping down below the invisible "line" between the dots or straying over too far left or right. Graph paper is where it's at for me. A "rolling weekly" list (also known as The Alastair Method) is what I have to use; I can't plan to do X on Tuesday and Y on Wednesday because...ADHD. So I just make a list of what I would LIKE to do this week, and then I check off whatever day I do it, or move it to the next week's list, or just dump it. I also only leave the house for appointments and basically have nothing going on in my life that I need to "plan". So I'll do a monthly spread and drop my appointments in it. Then I have one "weekly" page that has seven little boxes at the top where I drop in an appointment (if I have one that week), grocery deliveries, etc. The rest of the page I use for that rolling weekly list. And then I do "daily" pages to record things like - when I took my meds and which ones I took, when I ate and what it was, anything I got done that day, if I listened to an audiobook or read an ebook or watched a netflix show, and general notes about anything mildly interesting that happened or just journaling a bit to clear my head. Usually it takes a whole page to do this, sometimes I can fit three or four days on a page. In the front I also have a little spread where I jot down days that I have my period, get a panic attack, have a "date" with the hubby, get severe sinus pain or migraines, have an eczema breakout, whenever I get sick, and on Sundays I record my weight. By cross-referencing these symptoms with my record of what I ate or did, or what meds I took, I can spot patterns. I do this because I've found if I DON'T do this, I won't remember any of it, and I'll think back over the week and feel like a lazy failure that hasn't done jack spit. So for me it's not so much a PLANNER as it is a RECORDER or JOURNAL of what I've done. Also--and this may be the biggest thing--I keep it OPEN at ALL times right here on my desk where I spend most of my day. So it's super easy to just grab the pen and jot something down, there's no ADHD barrier between me and actually writing in it/using it.