Well, if anyone's wondering (I bet nobody is!) I am still at the bullet journalling, which started in 2017. I wouldn't say my handwriting has improved any - I flit between cursive and printing, the latter is much more legible. I've tried out different journals, and my personal favourite is the A5 Scribbles That Matter for the lovely thick paper and the dotted grid, though the A5 Leuchturm grid/ dotted is a close second (slightly thinner paper if memory serves). I'm still casting about for various spreads for time organisation. Because I'm trying to be more environmentally friendly, this year's bujo is currently a basic lined A5 book I picked up in WHSmith, but for the first time ever it's also my diary, I expect it to only last six months. Because why waste trees on an A5 day-to-page diary, where only about 50 odd days have been written about? My mother has kept a diary religiously since '62, but I've always tailed off mid February or March, when the sun returns and there are more outside distractions, and then made random entries until I suddenly get all writey again around November. Of course, COVID has had an impact. I looked at my online calendar for 2021, and apparently I had two week's holiday in the spring, but cannot remember what I did on either of them - I may have just pootled around at home of course. The first half of last year is almost a mental blank. My work colleagues have mentioned this same anomaly - I guess because we're all WFH, everything is blending into some sort of grey mental mush! Though I lost a week from the seizure, I don't think there was further damage. Clearly nothing of much interest happened, so my brain just deleted it.
For my personal bujo, I keep task lists and various trackers at the front. Because I intend to have this open on my desk at such time when we do finally go back to working in the office, my diary is at the back of the book for privacy. I don't write reams of info in my diary - I actually just tag with - for neutral or negative things, but try and ensure there are also some + notes for nice things that happened. All pages are numbered - when I first start the book, I carefully number every odd page all the way to the back, for speed. Then as I fill them, I add in the even numbers. Every time a new list or page is added, it's numbered and added to the front index, and if there's a theme - a perennial one for me is decluttering lists - then that also goes onto a "collection" page, where page numbers with a theme are grouped together. Each month gets a spread of at least two pages, though February got one month drawn out in full (more space to add various appointments) and then another two pages for all the "to dos".
If you decide to use a cheap A5 notebook, rollerball pens tend to bleed through them. Because of this I do print off the odd calendar and chart, and use a glue stick to put them into my bujo. If you think you might do a lot of this, it's best to buy a spiral bound book, because it can expand a bit more to take the extra bulk. Some folks use inked stamps for various trackers (try Etsy), but I have one and found it messy and untidy. You can also get some plain checked paper and just doodle various layouts until you find one you think you can use, before you commit it to paper. I tend to draw mine out with pencil, then trace over the top with biro or a fineliner.
I print off one of the lovely calendars from Calendarpedia, and that gets pasted into the front. As the bujo progresses, I use this page to refer to the page number my monthly spread is on. I also use their templates to generate blank templates for colouring in purposes (I would probably draw these up by hand if I was using an STM journal; this is to prevent bleed through really. Also, I am too fast and error prone!). I think I might print two next time, and cut the second one into 12 for my yearly overview planner. Yeah, February 2nd and I'm already rethinking how I do it next year! Such a perfectionist!
For other trackers, checked paper pasted in works well. A lot of bullet journallers rave about using pastel highlighters / mildliners for things eg underlining titles. I find them a bit annoying - you have to do the underline first, and then even when dry, the writing over the top spreads a little. This again is probably due to the fact it's just an off the shelf book. If such things will irritate you, use biro, or a better quality journal. I've decided I'll highlight my date line after writing it, by gently colouring over the top of it in coloured pencil. Less messy and easy to do a bit later on if you're rushed. Another thing I like to do is put highlighter on the page edge, roughly a twelfth of the height of the page, for each month, so visually it'll be easier to find later on.
My main pen is a Parker Vector with black ink, I added the pen loop myself. I found the black pen holder in either Waterstones or WHSmiths, and it contains the month's mildliner (February is a pink month, don't you think?), my very useful multicolour pencil, and the red Pilot V fineliner that I try and remember to use for work tasks (it's a bit thick and bleeding on this paper, maybe I will swap it for a nicer cartridge pen).
The nicest thing about keeping a journal is, anything goes. Want to doodle, or hear an amazing quote? Start a new page, write it down, collect some more. Track your weight and exercise. Track the household chores; I'm expanding THAT list and putting it on our fridge, I want to empower my fellow blokey to take his own initiative in that regard. I'd like to be more fastidious around the house, but there's never enough time and sometimes it feels like there's so much to do I don't even know where to start, so I don't! :/ Anything goes, and don't be put off by the amazing spreads people share online. You can be as tidy or as messy as you like! When a page of to dos is done (either they're done, migrated to another day, or migrated back to the monthly spread, or put onto Google tasks etc), I tick the bottom of the page, so that I know not to look at that list anymore. The only problem I seem to have in the spring, is that the task lists seem to spiral out of control...
Even if you aren't into journalling, the practice of keeping a book and numbering the pages is useful. I've started another one just for knitting and crochet patterns that I either wrote myself, or found online. You can sometimes add these things retroactively, but it's not always that easy!
Recommended reading:
The Bullet Journal Method (R Carroll) - this guy came up with the system
How to Bullet Plan (R W Miller) - love this, loads of ideas
365 Bullet Guide (Z Compton)
Pearly - ooh shiny!
Weight and fitness tracker, gotta love printing things, glue sticks and stickers I found in a box!
Just a regular half week at the office - ignore the redactions for GDPR, you get the idea! Note the day points to the diary entry at the back, plus I am tracking exercise and sleep here too.
Current mood: 
exhausted
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