Creative Bullet Journal Key Symbols to Organise Your Life

If you are constantly on the go but enjoy the freedom of being creative while keeping track of your day-to-day tasks in an organized manner, then bullet journaling is the hobby for you! The simple act of logging all your tasks into a weekly planner can really make you feel more productive and organized. Plus, is there anything more satisfying than seeing a task getting crossed off your to-do list?

The perfect way to make the most out of your weekly planner is to incorporate your very own bullet journal key symbols. Many bullet journalers use these key symbols for the rapid logging of various tasks. For example, you can use a symbol to mark all house chores and a different one for work-related projects. Seeing all these daunting tasks neatly listed using a key coding scheme that fits you can help you feel less overwhelmed and even boost your motivation.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab your bullet journal notebook, your black fine liners and let’s get to creating your very own bullet journal key symbols list!

What are bullet journal key symbols?

To explain in more detail, bullet journal key symbols are all the tiny icons you’ll be drawing in your weekly and monthly planner to better keep track of all the tasks, events, and deadlines you have going on. 

You can see an example of how a key symbols list looks like below:

Your symbol list can be as short or long as you want. Not only that, but you don’t have to stick to specific symbols – while some people may prefer to use symbols as basic as possible, others may want to let their creativity fly and come up with their own intricate icons. You can get as creative as you want with the kinds of symbols you use to track different things, which is what makes bullet journaling so fun and liberating.

Why should you use bullet journal key symbols?

A lot of people include key symbols in their bullet journal since they bring an extra touch of creativity and color into it. There are several ways in which using a well-planned key symbols list can be a real lifesaver:

• Your task-tracking becomes more efficient

If you simply write down all your tasks in a top-down list, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and even lose track of the most important ones. Using a key symbols list can help you make the difference between tasks – for example, your job-related work from your personal plans. That way, you can easily choose which ones to focus on first and get through the entire to-do list in no time.

• You can save lots of time and space

What if instead of writing down the word ‘deadline’ each time, you could just illustrate that with a red exclamation point? Simply replacing certain tasks with a single symbol can save time but also notebook space. Your weekly spreads will also look much neater and more organized, and that can give a huge sense of accomplishment!

• You can get creative with it

There is no one way to create a key symbols list. Quite the opposite, it’s up to you to create the perfect symbols. This can help you enjoy the bullet journal process more and really make you fall in love with your daily work.

Types of bujo key symbols you may need:

Now, let’s talk about the kinds of symbols you’re most likely to need for your bullet journal. Of course, you’ll be using different key codes depending on your own schedule and the things you want to keep track of, but here are our top bullet journal key ideas:

Standard:

• Tasks

This one is the most general kind of symbol you can use since it can mean any sort of day-to-day responsibilities. If you’re a student, this might mean uni coursework, but if you’re a stay-at-home parent, this can be a way to keep track of house chores, your kid’s soccer practice time, and anything else that comes up in your hectic life.

Tasks can be easily coded using symbols like dots, geometric shapes, or something that fits your original bullet journal monthly spread theme (for example, if your theme is Flowers, you can use different types of flowers for different tasks).

• Events

Using a bujo key code, you can also keep track of various events in your life: hangouts with friends, birthdays, weddings, work-related socials… Since events are usually happy occasions, you can mark them using fun symbols to set them apart from other tasks, like a star or a sun.

• Appointments

Appointments are a must-include in your bullet journal key symbols list since they can be easily forgotten if you’re having a busy week. If you’re ever worried you might accidentally miss your very important appointment, don’t worry – that’s exactly what the key symbols list is there to help you with.

I usually like to mark them using something as obvious as possible – for example, by using a different color from the rest of the symbols or an exclamation mark.

• Deadlines/exams

If you’re a student, you’ll definitely want to keep track of all your exams and assignment deadlines, so make sure you include them in your bujo symbols list. A good way to mark a time-sensitive task is by drawing a small clock icon right next to the date of the deadline.

Changing tasks

Now that you have some idea of how to quickly log some of your most important weekly tasks and events, let’s talk about how to keep track of their progress.

• Finished

The moment you get to cross out a finished task off my list can make you feel a real sense of accomplishment, which might also motivate you to start your next important tasks. 

My personal favorite system for logging tasks is using shapes like circles or squares, which I then fill in using a marker as soon as I finish them. You can also mark off finished tasks by simply crossing them off the list if you prefer to go for something simple and easy.

• Started

This one isn’t 100% necessary, but I personally like to log which tasks I have actually started working on, even if they are not completed yet. As I mentioned, completing a task means filling the symbol in, so for a task in progress I would simply fill half the shape in, or draw a line inside. You can mark tasks in progress however you’d like, the important thing is that it’s obviously different from tasks you’ve not started yet.

• High priority

If you’re often dealing with certain tasks that need your immediate attention, then you should also include a symbol to make sure you know what is high-priority and what can wait. That can be easily done using an exclamation mark, or by simply underlining the tasks that you need to focus on.

• Postponed

It’s no secret that life gets in the way of our plans sometimes – it’s possible that events and deadlines may get postponed, or that certain tasks can’t be done until a later date. The easiest way to log these changes and migrate tasks is by drawing an arrow next to the task itself. You can always log the new deadline on the right day.

• Canceled

What do you do if a task or event gets canceled altogether, instead of postponed? The most obvious way to mark that would be crossing it off your to-do list, but if you’re using that same notation for completed tasks it might get confusing really quickly. You can choose to cross them out in different ways (e.g. crossing out a finished task with a line but crossing out a canceled one with an ‘X’) or mark them differently altogether by using different symbols (e.g. happy face for a completed task and a sad one for canceled ones).

Others:

There are lots of other things to keep track of using a bullet journal weekly and monthly spread. It all depends on your own life and the things that are important to you. Some other examples of things that you can include in your day-to-day list are:

• Expenses (you can track them with the $ symbol)
• Self-care (meditation, taking a bath, Netflix etc.)
• Mood (you can keep track of your mood on a separate mood tracker page or by simply drawing happy, neutral, and sad faces at the end of each day)

Should you color code your bullet journal key symbols?

When it comes to tasks, we rarely have just one thing going on. There’s work, personal projects, meal-planning, finances, house chores, all these things that need to be dealt with on the daily. 

That’s why I recommend color-coding your bujo key symbols, to separate different types of tasks into categories. That may help you stay focused on what is more important to you (for example, dealing with work-related tasks before house chores), while also bringing a nice pop of color into your creative bullet journal.

What is a bullet journal key code page?

If you’re planning to use key symbols to easily keep track of all the daily tasks you need to complete, then you absolutely need a bullet journal key code page.

A key code page is just a quick reference page where you note down every symbol you use and its meaning. If at any point you get confused, you can easily check the page and remember what each symbol means. 

Your bujo key code page doesn’t have to be boring. You can use your Tombow Soft Brush Pen to write the page title using cursive, and doodle around the key box using a fine liner pen. Another thing I love doing is just using washi tape to create the box in which I write all the symbols I need – just like all other parts of the bullet journal, your key code page can be as colorful and creative as you’d like it to be.

Tips and tricks for the perfect bullet journal key symbols list

Now that you know all there is to know about key symbols for your bullet journal, here are some tips and tricks to make the most of them and improve your task management skills:

• Keep it to a minimum

There are basically infinite options when it comes to the kind of symbols you can choose. While it’s true that a key symbols list can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, it’s definitely better to try to keep it on the simpler side. Not only will it make navigating the symbols code page easier, but you also don’t need to spend time consulting it every time you need to add a new task or goal in your weekly planner.

• Think of all the things you would like to track

A bujo key symbols list is only helpful if you use it to track what you actually need. Before putting a symbols code together, make sure to write a list of all the things in your life that you’d like to focus on. 

If you’d like to focus on work-related tasks and house chores, then you already have two possible symbols to include! If you also want to keep track of healthy habits, your mood, or your spending, this will also add new symbols to the list. At the same time, if you don’t need to track your spendings or meals, you can just not include them in your weekly spread to keep it more organized.

• Be creative!

It might all seem very complicated at first, but it’s really not. Starting a bullet journal should be all about getting creative with your themes, your illustrations, and your key symbols. If you choose a symbols code that doesn’t work, you can always try out new things! Let your imagination fly and have fun with your new original bullet journal.