Things I don’t put in my Planners

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how I lay out my Bullet Journal, lists I put into it and also my Erin Condren Life Planner’s utility in my life. I wanted to share some things that after several years of planning don’t make the cut to be in my planners. In general, this list is specific to my bullet journal but it also pertains to my ECLP. What are some surprising things that don’t make the final cut to my planners? Read on to find out.

Period Tracking – sorry if this is the world’s biggest overshare but I don’t like to track my periods at this point in my life. Right now, I’m not in a relationship and I choose to take a 3-month cycle oral contraceptive. Because of that, I only have a period to track once every 3 months and frankly it isn’t something I put a lot of time or energy into. If I was trying to track ovulation or had irregularities, I might put it into my planners but otherwise – it just doesn’t have a place.

Brain Dump – for those who aren’t familiar with this phrase, I brain dump is basically a place to put all the sort of random things that you need to write down in a day. Maybe it’s lists of things to do or ideas or shopping lists. I just don’t really like to have those in my bullet journal. Instead, I use pieces of paper intended for shopping lists. I would say I go through 1 every 2-3 days and I do write on both sides. I just prefer my bullet journal to be more streamlined at this point.

Grocery/Wish lists – my bullet journal doesn’t come with me to the grocery store. I’m too much of a slob and I’m sure I would somehow get something vile on it. Therefore – it doesn’t make sense for me to put my lists into. I feel extremely similarly about wish lists – I don’t take my bullet journal to the store with me generally speaking. Frankly, I do most of my shopping online anyways when it comes to things I want. I may have a few things in my amazon cart for weeks before I actually buy them (hello story of my life).  However, I am thinking of starting to track exactly how much I spend on frivolous things.

Actual Journal entries – I see some people use their bullet journal as a place where they actually journal. While I do like to reflect and think – generally speaking, I don’t write it down in a dedicated journal. I also don’t like to put it in my bullet journal. My Erin Condren is more for memory keeping but at absolute most, I may write down a mood I’m feeling (happy/sad/frustrated).

Goals – This is another sort of shocking one. I am a person who is basically in no way goal oriented. I have one major goal in life that I’m working towards. More or less – it’s permanent residency in Europe. However, monthly or daily goals don’t really work for me. While I may take steps to achieving my overall goal, I don’t find myself needing to write down my goals the way many other people do. Last year, I wrote down a whole bunch of goals and then proceeded to never look at that bullet journal page again (you can tell since it isn’t my best work anyways)

So there you have a few things that don’t make it into my bullet journal – but maybe they make it into your style. I would love to hear about what things you omit from your planners. It’s always really fun to experiment with different things in my bullet journal.