After 5 years of using a paper journal, I decided in October 2021 to give digital Bullet Journaling a go – for three reasons

  1. To keep notes longer term and keep them searchable
  2. To have no page limit
  3. To make better use of the iPad

After looking around various websites and watching a lot of YouTube tutorials I made my own basic BuJo pdf base with hyperlinks. I used Apple Keynote to create the template, which was super easy to do. I then started journalling pretty much the same way I did in my paper journal. I use the AppleAir with the 2nd generation pencil and the GoodNotes 5 app. After testing the digital BuJo for 3 months I had to decide if I want to keep the digital version or go back to using the A5 Leuchturm dotted journal. As much as I love the Leuchturm and all the colours – I decided that the digital BuJo was it for me. I love using it and the ability to quickly add links, photos, and make my own stickers. Going digital changed how I use the BuJo and how I use my iPad in general.

Here is my 2022 digital BuJo set up:

My opening double spread. the journal background is dark lime green and the tabs and writing are dark maroon red colour. There is a pictire of an hourglass with a person surfing in the top and meditating in the bottom part. The text reads. Dping what you love is never a waste of time. On the right side is a list of 10 things for 2022 - all ten are scroed out so they are not visible.

I made the backgournd look like a journal with dotted pages – mostly because I like the look and I’m treating this like a paper journal. I only have key thinks hyperlinked – the start of the month and 4 sections (health, running, projects/ideas, writing) and a tab to go back to the start of the journal. For any other linking I use the GoodNotes function to add pages to the outline. I also like how easy it is to share a page with a colleague e.g. meeting notes or add them to other places like project folders. It still feels like I’m using a normal bullet journal, since I still draw a lot of the layouts by hand but now with added functionality.

If you are interested in my paper journal set up Click here to check out my other BuJo posts

As with my paper journals I have a 6 months at a view start, then a monthly spread, monthly habit tracker and a weekly overview. Now that I’m not limited by page numbers anymore, I added a daily log and it made such a big difference. I think only having the weekly view distracted me too much with all the things I needed to do and I really struggled to focus. Being able to only plan and see one day at a time has made a big difference to my planning and focus.

  • Monthly layout for January 2022
  • Habit tracker layout.
  • MS Impact Scale questionnaire.
  • Example of a daily layout.

Thanks to hyperlinks and being able to add pages where I want I added my heath and running section to the back and added an ideas and writing section. These are hyperlinked via the 4 tabs on the right hand side. I’m not quite used to the ideas and writing section but I’m getting better at using these for project management and my paper planning.

If you like my layout and want to give digital bullet journaling a go Click here to download my 2022 Digital BuJo (pdf). This version has the cover page, annual overview, and then empty pages for each hyperlink.