How to Use a Bullet Journal as a Student: 6 Steps to Plan Your Semester

Last Updated: September 5, 2024

How can you use a Bullet Journal as a student? The Bullet Journal method is a powerful tool for students. You can use it to visualize your courses, write down due dates, and make study plans. Plus, it’s a piece of cake to set up this time-saving productivity tool, even if all you have is a notebook and a pen! In this article, you’ll find 6 easy steps to follow to set up your Bullet Journal as a student.

This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy something using the links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full affiliate disclosure.

Should You Use a Planner or a Bullet Journal?

When I was in college, I used a planner to write down assignments as soon as my teachers gave them. I would flip it open to today’s date and jot down the tasks. But later, I would look back at my whopping to-do list, and think… When am I going to have time to do all this?!

I wish I could go back to when I was a student and use the Bullet Journal method instead!

Most pre-printed planners simply give you a space to write for each day of the week. This is not ideal for students. If you write down all your tasks on today’s date, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed later as you wonder which item to tackle first.

What you need to plan is when you’re going to work on that assignment! With a Bullet Journal, as soon as you get an assignment, you can make a plan for completing it.

Great Bullet Journals to Get You Started

With a Bullet Journal, you’re in charge. You decide whether to draw lines and boxes, to decorate with doodles and fancy lettering, or to keep it simple and just write. And when you’re planning when to work on your assignments, you can decide how to schedule them into your days so that they get finished, on time and without stress!

Let’s jump in to the 6 easy steps to set up your Bullet Journal as a student:

1. Lay out your course schedule
2. Create a bird’s-eye view calendar for the semester
3. Create a page for each course
4. Continue with your regular weekly spreads
5. Write in, plan, and schedule your assignments
6. Check off your tasks as you complete them

1. Lay out your course schedule

The first step is to lay out your journal before the semester starts. If you need to know how to start a Bullet Journal for the first time, check out my complete guide to setting up a Bullet Journal. Otherwise, if you’re integrating this into an already-existing Bullet Journal, you don’t need to change things up too much. Just add in a few pages for a visual representation of your semester before you continue with your regular Monthly and Weekly Spreads.

On the first page, show what your weekly course schedule looks like. Make a table showing Monday through Friday (or even Saturday… ouch, sorry!) and draw in the chunks of time when your classes are. Here are some nice examples:

Use a different color for each course to make it super easy to color-code your tasks and due dates in the rest of your BuJo!

Try These Highlighters For Color Coding!

2. Create a bird’s-eye view calendar for the semester

Now that you have your weekly schedule, the semester calendar is the next essential page. You could make one page for each month, or put all 4 months on one spread like in this example:

On these calendar pages you’ll write key due dates and exam dates once you get that info. Use your color code to identify the course for each task.

Tip: At the beginning of the semester, your professors will usually give you a syllabus with all of the homework assignments, projects, and exams for the course. These documents are gold for you, but they’re even more valuable when you copy the dates into this semester calendar in your Bullet Journal. No more rummaging through 5 or 6 syllabi—(syllabuses?)—just take a glance at your BuJo, and you’re set!

Read More: 5 Steps to a Peaceful Minimalist Workspace for Bullet Journaling

3. Create a page for each course

On the next few pages, create one page for each course you are enrolled in. For example, a page for Intro to Psychology, a page for Spanish 1, etc. It’s up to you to either decorate the pages or leave them minimal, but it’s a good idea to stick to your color code.

These course pages will allow you to record your key assignments, projects, and exams for each specific course. (But let’s not get ahead of ourselves—that’s not until Step 5.)

So make sure you leave plenty of room on the page to write in your tasks. Each page will look something like this—however, I would recommend making a separate page for each course, so that you don’t mix different assignments from different courses:

4. Continue with your regular weekly spreads

If you’ve finished the first 3 steps, you’re ready to start your classes! Continue your Bullet Journal as usual. Jump right in to your next Weekly Spread. Maybe your weekly spreads could look something like these:

No matter how minimal or decorative your design is, you can use your Weekly Spread to schedule when you’ll work on your assignments. Hopefully it’s the first week of classes, and you’re finally ready to write in your first assignments!

5. Write in, plan, and schedule your assignments

This is where the fun starts! Okay, I say that as someone who actually enjoyed being a student, and who’s been a teacher trying to motivate my students. I mean, don’t you think it’s “fun” to check off your assignments when you finish them? I always did… 😉

Since you’ve already set up your Bullet Journal for your classes, you can write in each task as soon as your teacher assigns it. Where should you write it?

First, write the assignment on the course page (from step 3). Record the task and the date that it’s due. Don’t write it on today’s date in your weekly spread—that will only confuse you.

Second, for key projects, papers, and exams, write the due date on your semester calendar (from step 2). You can decide how big a task needs to be for you to write it on the calendar. For example, I probably wouldn’t write an assignment of 15 pages of reading on the calendar; I would just write it on the day I’m going to do it, which is the next step…

Third, plan when you are going to complete the assignment by scheduling it into your weekly spread. No time to do it tonight? Then write it as a task for tomorrow. You know your schedule well enough to know when you have time to work on homework. Schedule it, and do it at that time.

Hint: This is where you would use the regular “Task” bullet. Read more about the different bullet points and task status indicators in this article: What are the “bullets” in a Bullet Journal?

Fine-Point Black Pens to Keep Your Bujo Pages Looking Clean

6. Check off your tasks as you complete them

After all this setup, the most satisfying part comes when you finish a task and mark an “x” through it. You’ve put in the effort to set up your planning system, so the process of scheduling and completing assignments has become a lot simpler.

Read More: 10 Signs You Should Use a Bullet Journal for Mental Clarity

I hope these 6 steps have given you some new inspiration for using a Bullet Journal as a student! If you want a step-by-step guide to starting a new Bullet Journal and using it to calm your mind, check out my free 5-day email course:

If you’d like more ideas for how to use your Bullet Journal as a student, I’ve collected some great ones in this Pinterest board. Don’t forget to follow Calming Grace on Pinterest for more BuJo inspiration:

Let me know in the comments below: How have you used your Bullet Journal as a student?

P.S. Want to save these ideas for later? Why not save this post to Pinterest?

Share this article: