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WRAP and Bullet Journaling — Guest Post

by | Dec 18, 2019 | Blog, Creating & Using Your WRAP, Daily Plan, Early Warning Signs, Elements of WRAP, Sample WRAP Plans, Wellness, Recovery & Lifestyle Topics

hardcover notebook with brush pens and fountain pen

I’m here to give you a taste of how I combined my WRAP and my bullet journal (bujo for short).

What is a bujo?
The bullet journal (bujo) was created by Ryder Carroll. A bujo is a cross between a planner, diary, notebook, to do list, scrapbook and sketchbook.

Why do I bujo?
It has helped declutter my mind, take stock of my life, and plan for the future. It has made me feel more grounded, focused, calmer, and inspired.

How do I bujo?
Get a pen and any notebook. I encourage you to watch a tutorial video to get started. This is one of my favorites from the founder of the bullet journal system. Ryder Carroll published his book The Bullet Journal Method in 2018. In it he describes the building blocks for a bujo, which he calls collections. The minimum collections needed to build a bujo are:

  1. A Key, a list of symbols to quickly capture, categorize your thoughts.
  2. An Index, used to locate content using topics and page numbers. (Like a table of contents or chapters)
  3. Future Log, like a yearly planner
  4. Monthly Log, overview of current month
  5. Daily Log, used for logging your daily tasks and thoughts

Bujo Key and Mood Key

A key part of the bujo is “rapid logging.” Instead of using long-winded sentences we use clear, concise bullet points.

What does this have to do with WRAP?
I have integrated my WRAP into my bujo. For me they work well together because:

  1. The key concept of hope in WRAP is reflected in my collections. In particular in my why statements, affirmations and inspirational quotes. I find these helpful at times when I struggle so they give me hope.
  2. If you have goals in life or habits, the bujo can help you to set, plan, track and review them. It also helped me to be accountable to myself. This is linked to my daily plan in my WRAP.
  3. As you bujo, you log vast amounts of vital information about yourself (thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc.). This allows me to review/reflect on it regularly. In my experience it has helped me to make good decisions about all aspects of my life. In many ways it is like my WRAP.
  4. You can doodle, decorate and design your bujo to the way you want.
  5. The bujo has helped me to put a filter on my life; it helps me focus on the best wellness tools for me and has encouraged me to try new ones.

How did I integrate my WRAP into my bujo?
I used my Bujo to condense all the important parts of my WRAP to make it a concise accessible format which I can carry with me.

WRAP in My Bujo (part 1)

WRAP in My Bujo (part 2)

I missed the daily plan! Where is it?
The daily plan is covered in bullet journaling itself — the Future Log (planning months ahead), Monthly Log (see an overview of the month’s tasks), and Habit Tracker. The Habit Tracker has been mentioned before on the WRAP website here.
Here is a sample of my Monthly Log (Overview) and habit/mood tracker for March 2019.

Bujo Monthly Log

Page 76 and 77 in the photo  above illustrate my March Monthly Log. Page 76 provides an overview. Page 77 illustrates my goals and tasks.
The column on the left shows the dates and days of week. There is a gap to write my important events (e.g., WRAP group). The next column shows my mood tracker. The first three columns indicate what my mood is like in the morning, afternoon and evening (see my Mood Key in the first photo).

The next columns are my habits (5 fruit and vegetables a day, exercise, meditate, etc.). These can either be something you do (exercise) or not do (nail biting) to support your wellness and/or your life goals (e.g., losing weight). At the end of each day, I reflect on the day and fill in my mood tracker and note which habits I have completed. This helps me keep track of how I am doing. For example, if I was stressed (early warning sign), I would do some exercise and meditate (wellness tools). I have added a goal of completing 70% of the habits over the month (i.e., filled in 70% of the boxes). If I do this, I reward myself to keep me motivated.

After the monthly log, I start my daily log and this involves writing my activities, thoughts, experiences, memories and feelings. This is very important when it comes to reflection. It becomes a record and reminder to live according to my intentions.

I believe that the bujo and WRAP really does help sustaining my wellness. I hope my brief account has given you a flavor of how they can be used together and how you might try it out yourself.