Tried a minimalist weekly spread and ended up hating it after 3 months

Honestly, I thought going minimal would make my bullet journal less stressful. No doodles, no washi tape, just straight lines and black ink. But after about 12 weeks, I realized I was barely cracking it open. The pages felt so boring I just forgot to plan at all. Turns out I need a bit of color or a tiny drawing to make me want to actually use the thing. Last month I went back to a simple habit tracker in blue and a small header doodle, and now I check it daily again. Has anyone else found that going too spare just kills your motivation to keep up with the journal?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wyatt1mo ago

What makes you think the boring look is the whole problem? I went through a similar phase where I stripped everything down to black ink and straight lines, and it felt like a chore. But here's the thing that got me thinking - maybe your brain just needs a little visual reward to remember to check the journal. I started adding a small weekly color just for fun, and it made a huge difference in how often I actually opened the book. The minimalist thing works for some people but not everyone, and that's totally fine.

rayc381mo ago

Totally feel you on that, @the_wyatt. I had a whole month where my journal was just grey and black blocks for dates, and I barely touched it. Once I started using a single bright red pen for the first entry of each week, I was checking it way more often. That little pop of color made the whole thing feel less like a task and more like a small treat. Did you stick with just one accent color or did you end up adding more?