Ultimate Guide on How to Bullet Journal for Students in Online School

December 20, 2024 byElizabeth Preston

5 min to read

Bullet journaling can be a great way to set goals, track progress, keep assignments organized, and create a record of fun memories throughout the school year.

Learning how to bullet journal is easy! Explore some of the different methods for building and organizing your own student bullet journal.

What is Bullet Journaling?

A bullet journal, often created on dot grid paper, is an open format journal designed to be highly customizable to best suit a person’s individual needs. Students have the option to create free-form calendars, lists of goals, trackers to record progress toward their goals or track assignments, or build a future log to write down future activities, events, or deadlines.

Bullet journals don’t have to be all work and no play, though. A bullet journal can include diary entries, creative writing excerpts, affirmations, meditations, or just about anything!

Who can Benefit from Bullet Journaling?

Bullet journals are a fantastic option for minimalists who want a space to briefly jot down important information or track progress without the pressure to go into elaborate detail.

Conversely, bullet journaling is also great for maximalist visual learners who feel better organized with color-coded labels, stickers, illustrations, and aesthetically pleasing, hand-drawn calendars.

In short, a bullet journal’s open structure allows students to use it in the way that best meshes with how they think and process information, rather than locking them into a rigidly outlined planner with limited space for individuality.

Most important to remember, though, is that a bullet journal is only as beneficial as the effort put into it. Because there is no structure that students must follow, they need to be self-disciplined enough to keep up with consistently filling the pages. Luckily, guided bullet journals or premade templates can help students who may be a bit overwhelmed at first get into the rhythm of bullet journaling.

What are the Benefits of Bullet Journaling for Students?

Bullet journaling is a great organizational method for students specifically because of its flexibility. Whether a student is balancing extracurricular activities like clubs, jobs, or sports in their calendar, or if they are reflecting on their homework by writing book reviews for their assignments in English class, or they start tracking their spending as they learn about budgeting and saving, bullet journaling can help.

But bullet journals aren’t just about setting goals for the week, they can also be used to reflect on how a student spent their time. By tracking the details of a student’s life, they can get a comprehensive look at how their month or week went without overlooking any details they may not have remembered.

For example, if a student didn’t do as well as expected on a test, they can look back in their bullet journal to see what their general mood was like the day of the test. Did they get enough sleep the night before? How many hours did they spend studying?

Bullet Journal Ideas

There is no right or wrong way to keep a bullet journal, but it can be hard to know where to get started when staring at that dotted page. Here are just a few ways to set up, organize, and get the most out of a bullet journal.

1. Create an Index

Index a bullet journal by making a table of contents. Start by leaving the first and second page of the journal blank, and then write the page numbers where specific sections or lists live.

For example:

Homework – pg. 10
Events – pg. 12
Goals – pg. 14

Flip to the corresponding pages from the index and label them. Some even find it helpful to attach a small tab of washi tape on the edge of the page for quick access.

Don’t worry about not anticipating each page ahead of time or even running out of pages. Bullet journals don’t have to be perfect.

2. Spreads

In a bullet journal, spreads dedicate a whole page to a singular purpose, such as a specific topic or a calendar. There are tons of different ways to lay out a bullet journal spread based on what they’re tracking and how, so they can switch it up from month to month or project to project. A basic spread usually summarizes the month’s activities with higher-level tracking and planning for the month or year and are typically followed by other pages more focused on weeks, days, or individual projects. Spreads are commonly used as section dividers.

3. Trackers

Trackers can be useful for visualizing progress with lists of daily tasks, events, and deadlines.

For example, if a student wants to go for a run at least three times a week in a month, they can draw a 3x4 grid and mark off each square whenever they go for a run.

Students can track anything from accomplishments, what they ate that day, how many hours they spent on unproductive screen time ... anything!

4. Collections

A collection is a chunk of a bullet journal devoted to a specific topic or category. Students may find collections useful when they organize their schoolwork. Like using a multi-subject binder, they can create a collection around a research project or group notes and test review details together for a specific subject.

5. Threading

You never have to worry about running out of space with bullet journaling, especially if you utilize threading. Threading is a method of connecting pages that have similar information but aren't in the same part of a journal.

Let's say pages 4-7 contain class notes, but pages 8-10 have information about a separate project. You can pick up on class notes again by writing (→11) or (11) at the bottom of page seven to remind you where your class notes will continue. You can also thread between journals. Let's say you have 2 bullet journals; if you have science test details on page 20 of your first bullet journal, you can write (1.20) at the top or bottom of the page in your new journal when you continue your research. 

How to Get Started with a Bullet Journal

Bullet journaling can be as creative and artsy or clean and linear as your student wants. The key to this type of creative planning system is to make it your own, which is often what makes bullet journaling a fun and effective tool.

Your student can start their first bullet journal with the following materials:

Choose a journal with dot grids, blank pages, lined pages, or a combination of all three
Colorful gel pens for decoration or color coding
Different color highlighters
Stickers, labels, or washi tape
Photos of friends, family, or your interests