People of Georgian: Bullet journaling spurs creativity during pandemic

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The Georgian community is full of unique, inspiring perspectives —and we’re sharing them as part of an ongoing series.

People of Georgian: Meet Jessica Pfluegl

I was always a planner person, thanks to my mom.

She had a Filofax organizer for a long time. At the start of every January she’d sit down and write in everybody’s birthday and all that stuff.

It was always something I saw her do and I was like, “I want to do that, too.”

My mom got me my first planner in high school, and all through university it was the only way I could keep on top of things.

A person with long, curly brown hair, clear glasses and a black shirt with pink and blue flowers all over it, stands and smiles while holding a grey notebook with a blue rainbow on the cover.

Then one day I was looking at planners in a store and I couldn’t find one I liked.

I thought, “I don’t like this. I want to try something else.” So I ended up in the realm of bullet journaling from there.

Basically, bullet journaling means I make my own planner every month.

People generally use dotted notebooks, so they don’t have lines in them, they’re just little dots and you can draw in squares.

A person holds up a notebook outside in front of a tree. The book is open to a page with a black and white drawing of a ghost floating through a forest. It says "October" on the page.

I design it, try to do calligraphy, and I might include some stickers and craft paper to add a different texture.

I just like being able to have the organization that I like and being able to completely customize it to how I’m feeling.

“It’s kind of like adult colouring books. You just sit and colour and take your mind off things.”
Jessica Pfluegl

Generally, I work on it on Sundays so I can organize my week. Sometimes I want it really simple and I just draw lines for the days, and other times I want to go all out so I design a whole page and make it have pictures and a theme.

I really like being able to spend the time and relax and draw.

It’s kind of like adult colouring books. You just sit and colour and take your mind off things and maybe listen to TV in the background.

Bullet journals boost organization, spark creativity

A lot of other people do scrapbooking or junk journaling with their bullet journals. It all kind of depends on what you like, which is honestly the thing I love so much about it. It looks different for everyone.

Bullet journaling was originally created by a guy named Ryder Carroll as a way to organize his to-do lists.

In the past few years it’s gotten very, very popular, and now it feels like a lot of people are just doing it for views on Instagram and YouTube and they don’t really use the pages they create.

For me, bullet journals help me stay organized and spark my creativity.

A notebook sits on a table, opened to pages showing a pink, blue and purple watercolour painting of clouds and the word "April."

Bullet journaling is something you can use to think about ideas. You might be like, “Hey, this month I’m going to do a sunflower theme” and then you figure out exactly how you want it to be laid out.

It’s relaxing. It’s one of the things I’ve been really passionate about the last couple years during the pandemic.

Jessica Pfluegl, Customer Service Representative at the Georgian Library at our Owen Sound Campus.