That one time a stranger at Starbucks showed me her 5-year-old journal

I was at a Starbucks downtown last Tuesday, just doodling in my weekly spread, and this woman next to me asked what I was up to. She pulled out her own bullet journal from 2019, totally worn out with coffee stains and dog-eared pages. She told me she still uses the same simple Ryder Carroll method she started with, and she's never needed fancy washi tape or stickers. It honestly made me think about how much pressure I put on myself to make everything look perfect. Her journal was just functional and real, and it stuck with me. Has anyone else met someone who kept it super simple for years?

3 comments

3 Comments

jasonf351mo ago

Stick with what works for you. I've been doing the same basic layout for three years now and my journal looks like it survived a flood, but I still use it every day.

the_fiona1mo ago

Oh yeah, a beat up journal means you're actually USING it. A clean journal just means you're scared to mess it up.

the_brian1mo ago

Found my dad's old pocket notebook from the 80s in a box last year. Dude was a mechanic and every page had grease smudges and scribbles about oil changes and customer payments. No dates, no colors, just a cramped scrawl on graph paper. Made me realize I was buying $30 notebooks and stressing over spreads while this guy just jotted stuff down on scrap paper and it worked fine for him.