Last Updated on August 7, 2024

There are so many different organisational systems available to us to help us organise anything in our lives that need organising. From paper and pen, to digital, to a combination of both, it’s hard to decide which organisational system is best for you.

It’s perfectly normal for one type of organisational system to suit you at one stage of your life, and then change what you use as your life changes.

Whatever you use to organise your life, it has to be something that benefits you, enables you to get things achieved, and maybe even work towards any goals that you have.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how to use a paper and pen organisational system to organise your life, then this post details two of the main types of paper and pen organisational systems in use by many people, myself included.

These planning systems are a bullet journal and a planner. I’ll explain what each one is, as well as the pros and cons of each, and how to choose which one is right for you.

Firstly…

WHAT IS A BULLET JOURNAL?

Until late last year a bullet journal was what I used to not only plan my year, months, weeks and days, but also plan holidays, make notes, and set goals.

A bullet journal is a 100% customisable organisational system that can be used as an appointment keeper, a space to brainstorm, make future plans, set goals, make lists, or plan your days – it can be anything you want it to be.

If you’d like to know more about bullet journals then please visit this post the complete guide to starting and setting up a bullet journal, or the official bullet journal website.

USING A BULLET JOURNAL, THE PROS AND CONS

The pros of using a bullet journal include: 

• It’s 100% customisable, you’re in total control of how to set it up
• It can be used to plan your to dos, as well as a place for lists, reminders, appointments, master to do lists, goal setting – anything
• All you need to get started is a notebook, which can cost as little or as much as you like
• They’re a great way to express your creativity due to the addition of collections

The cons of using a bullet journal include:

• They take up a lot of time to set up due to their customisable nature, and set up is an ongoing process
• You can get bogged down in the details, and the number of different ways to set up a bullet journal can put you off starting all together
• It can be frustrating if you keep trying layouts that don’t suit your needs
• There’s a lot of pressure for bullet journals to be perfect and for a certain type of supplies to be purchased

WHAT IS A PLANNER?

A planner is a notebook, binder, or refills that you put into a binder that have pre-printed pages on them, allowing you to fill each page in with things you need to get done or plans you need to make.

There are a wide variety of planners available, but as an example of what a planner looks like and what I mean by pre-printed pages, here’s the current planner that I’m using by Plum Paper.

USING A PLANNER, THE PROS AND CONS

The pros of using a planner include:

• They save you time planning as they have pre-printed pages
• They come in a variety of formats, i.e. you can buy a planner with weekly, daily, or hourly pages
• They make time blocking easy as you can schedule your days by the hour
• It’s easy to make plans in the future, just go to the date and enter your plans or to dos
• There’s a planner with a style element (e.g. fancy fonts, certain colours) to suit any tastes

The cons of using a planner include:

• They are bulkier than a bullet journal
• They’re not 100% customisable, you have to fit your planning needs into their pre-printed pages
• There’s limited space to breakdown tasks or write a long task list for any particular day
• If you don’t need to use a section of it, then you may have many blank pages

BULLET JOURNAL VS PLANNER, HOW TO CHOOSE WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU

There’s an element of trial and error when choosing an organisational system that’s right for you, and that suits your particular stage of life.

To help you choose, my advice is, that if you’d prefer to design your own organisational system from scratch and not be confined by a pre-set layout, then try a bullet journal first.

Or, if you prefer structure and want an organisational system you can use straight away without having to think about how to set it up, then try a planner first.

WHAT’S BETTER A BULLET JOURNAL OR PLANNER?

There really is no better option, both options suit different needs.

I started using a planner in September last year after using a bullet journal for a few years, and at this stage in my life a planner suits me perfectly.

I was finding that I wasn’t using my bullet journal every day as I had to design my weekly planning pages, and as I have a three and a half year old, I just couldn’t find the time to set the pages up each week.

This isn’t to say I won’t go back to a bullet journal at some point, I may, and that’s the beauty of these two types of organisational systems, you can chop and change when it suits you.

Do you use a bullet journal or planner, or which one sounds like a great starting point?