Why I Started Creating My Own Functional Stickers for Bullet Journals

My bullet journal journey began at the end of 2018 when bullet journaling started popping up on my Instagram feed. After deep diving into the posts I saw and researching videos on YouTube, I got intrigued and was willing to give it a shot. So I grabbed my first $8 journal from Wal-Mart and got to setting up.

I didn’t yet know how that decision would change my life.

Throughout my years of bullet journaling and becoming more organized than I ever thought possible, I started to realize that something was not quite right about my bullet journaling. I was spending more time worrying about how to set it up than actually using it.

I began dreading using my bullet journal. And that’s when I knew something had to change.

The Problem with Bullet Journals

One thing that I’m constantly trying to unlearn is how to stop being a perfectionist. Between hand-lettering my headers badly and misnumbering yet another mini calendar, I was kind of sick of it.

These setup tasks can also take a fair bit of time, especially since I’m constantly fighting the perfectionist in me. Sometimes I can ignore the mistakes, while other times I feel like tearing the page out.

I didn’t like the way my spreads looked, and I’m one of those people who needs to have an aesthetically pleasing setup in order to use it. Even though a “bad” or “ugly” spread would only last a week, that week was tough to get through.

Using my bullet journal became a chore that was becoming harder and harder to get through.

I wanted a bullet journal spread that felt functional and beautiful at the same time. I needed to like my journal again.

What I Needed From My Bullet Journal

It was around the end of 2022 when I decided to take a closer look at my journal and troubleshoot why using my bullet journal was no longer bringing me joy.

I found that time was my biggest enemy. The end of 2022 for me was personally a really busy time. I could barely find time to breathe, so sitting down to set up another weekly bullet journal spread felt like I was spending my dwindling leisure time on yet another task instead of recuperating from being so busy.

My bullet journal needed to be a tool to help me navigate my busy periods rather than drag me through them.

Something needed to change.

I needed something easy to use and that made the boring parts of my bullet journal setup a breeze. I had a lightbulb moment here: I needed stickers.

The First Stickers I Created

As much as I enjoyed hand-lettering my weekday headers, I was getting a little frustrated with how long it was taking to letter and how inconsistent my lettering was. The next logical step was to create some stickers using my own hand-lettering for that personal touch.

With my newly gifted iPad, I set out to figure out how to draw on it and also how to create stickers. After some wild-looking attempts, I was starting to get the hang of it. I created four lettering styles I wanted to use and made them into sticker sheets.

These stickers allowed me to cut my setup time in half! I honestly didn’t realize how much I was slowing myself down by wanting to hand-letter every weekday header perfectly.

From Personal Fix to Product Launch

I knew that if my weekday lettering stickers could change how quickly I could set up my bullet journal spreads, they could also help others lower their setup time.

And thus were these stickers born and added to Tablet & Quill! While I’ve made matching sticker sets the main focus of Tablet & Quill, I still managed to grow the weekday lettering sticker sheets. There are so many more in the pipeline, too!

These stickers help not only with setup time, but they also provide a cohesive visual appeal to bullet journal spreads. Personally, I love the look throughout the pages, especially when I use a highlighter over the top to really bring together the matching aspects of the spreads.

What I Hope These Stickers Help You Do

By using lettering stickers in your spreads, you’re able to bring a unique personal touch to your spreads. You can, of course, use different fonts to create your own headers, but these lettering stickers are completely unique by virtue of being hand-lettered by me. And I’m quite proud of these stickers and how much they help me while I’m setting up my spreads.

I really hope you take from this the value of your time. Anything I create for Tablet & Quill was borne out of a necessity to make my bullet journal spreads efficiently, but without sacrificing any of the aesthetic I’ve found necessary to keep my productivity momentum going.

If I’ve convinced you, please check out the lettering styles I have available and let me know what kinds of lettering styles you’d like to see. Something gothic? Old English? Spooky? I’m looking for ideas for more lettering styles to add!

If you do use my lettering stickers in your journaling spreads, I would love to see what you come up with! You can leave a comment below or find me as TabletAndQuill on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

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