How to turn your Happy Planner into a ready made bullet journal with our free bullet journal templates that you can insert into your Happy Planner.
So you LOVE your Happy Planner (I totally get it) but you look at the beautiful bullet journal pictures on the internet longingly and feel a bit torn. You have already invested in a Happy Planner and love everything about it but those BuJo pins are inspiring! The good news is you don’t have to choose between your HP and a bullet journal notebook! With our free printable dot-grid paper, you can turn your HP into a bullet journal with minimal cost and effort. You can even print our free customizable bullet journal printables that you can insert into your journal.
With this bullet journal hack, you can create a ready-made bullet journal in under an hour!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that if you purchase anything I earn a commission on your purchase but it doesn’t cost you anything. Please see our Privacy Policy
The bullet journal method has many benefits and it helps so many become more productive and organized. However, for some people, it has the opposite effect.
The Disadvantages of the Bullet Journal Method
- Some don’t like the feeling that they cannot move or remove pages and make big changes.
- A blank page makes them feel overwhelmed and frustrated.
- Drawing layouts from scratch is really time-consuming and a waste of time in some people’s opinion. Many like the creative outlet, however, feel that the time spent embellishing is simply not justified.
The beautiful spreads you see on Pinterest and Instagram make those with a plain journal feel like their journals are incomplete and boring. The truth is that Ryder Carroll, creator of the bullet journal, discourages people from embellishing their bullet journals if it does not provide a benefit to them but they still want the pretty motivating spreads without spending time making them.
The Advantages of Using BuJo Printables
Our free printable bullet journal printables can help you solve this problem. You can print beautiful spreads in minutes and you can even customize them to your needs. Our free bullet journal app has hundreds of layouts and doodles that you can add with a click of your mouse. Move them around, change the size and add text. Play around until you are satisfied and then download the printable. We also offer ready-made templates for most of the spreads. They too can be customized. Once they are printed you can embellish them with colored pencils, brush pens, and markers (see bullet journal supplies).
The Ultimate Bullet Journal Hack – Happy Planner Bullet Journal
The problem is that the traditional bullet journal notebook does not cater to printables. Sure you can adhere a few pages to your notebook but it is a hassle and our goal is to save time. Also, you are still left with the other disadvantage of the bullet journal notebook that you cannot remove the pages.
Fortunately, we have the perfect solution for you! Take a Happy Planner, a binder, a traveler’s notebook, or any other planner with removable pages and turn it into a bullet journal! The Happy Planner bullet journal hybrid is so easy to create and you get the best of both worlds! All the advantages of a Happy Planner with all of the advantages of a bullet journal! The Happy Planner BuJo is the perfect bullet journal hack!
If you already have a Happy Planner, then you will also save money since you can use it and simply replace the pages. Even if you don’t already have a Happy Planner you can buy a cheap one if you get a dated one after the beginning of the year. These are often reduced since they are of no use to those who use them as a traditional planner. However, if you are planning on replacing the pages with plain dot-grid paper or with bullet journal printables then it will make no difference to you.
Bullet Journal Paper
You do not have to make ready-made printables for each spread. You can also print our free dot grid paper which has a dot grid pattern similar to that in the official bullet journal notebook. The dots are the same color as those in the official notebook, but you can even change the color. The distance between the dots is the same as that of the official notebook but here too you are free to make them wider or narrower depending on how you like them. Dot grid paper is available in the correct dimensions for all the Happy Planner sizes: mini, classic, and big.
And you don’t need to use white paper only. You can buy cheap colored copy paper and print the dot grid paper on it. You can also buy black bullet journal paper to make some spreads on black paper with a white gel pen. I don’t know if you have seen the black bullet journals but they are so special. I am not so sure about making an entire bullet journal on black paper but with this hack, you can add a few sheets of black paper to make a few black spreads. Isn’t that perfect! I bought this paper with these pens.
You don’t need to have either a Happy Planner layout or a bullet journal layout. You can combine both of the systems to create one that is perfect for you.
The bullet journal method is so much more than drawing spreads and writing your tasks, notes, and events. Sure, that is part of it but it isn’t the important part. The important parts, in my opinion, are the migration and reflection (see an explanation in the section on the bullet journal method). Migration ensures that nothing falls between the cracks and that you follow up on your tasks and goals until they are complete. Reflection ensures that you know what your goals are and that they will matter to you or someone you care about. The BuJo reflection ensures that you are working to achieve the right goals – the goals that will matter.
These are such great principles that help you on the path to self-fulfillment. They can be used with a bullet journal notebook, a binder, or a planner. The important thing, in my opinion, is not to get lost on the way. When people spend hours embellishing their planners and drawing yearly calendars from scratch they need to be sure that it brings them joy or provides another benefit. If it does, then they should keep doing it. If it doesn’t, then this bullet journal hack will help them enjoy the best of both worlds.
There are many advantages to writing your notes by hand. However, you can use ready-made spreads and still add your notes, tasks, and events by hand. That way you will still reap the benefits of handwriting but you will save time on the process.
The Equipment Required to Turn a Happy Planner into a Bullet Journal
- A Happy Planner (if you don’t have one you can get one here)
- A Happy Planner punch (if you don’t have one you can get one here)
- A printer and standard-sized paper (if you don’t like shadowing then you can get thicker paper here. It is still cheap but thicker than the standard printer paper. It is also smoother to write on)
- A paper cutter or scissors
Let’s get started!
If you are a beginner and are not sure how to set up a bullet journal, then please read about the bullet journal setup. The article explains the different setups for each spread and how to set each one up. You will find sample templates for each spread.
I also suggest you read about the bullet journal method.
How to Make a Bullet Journal Planner or Binder
- Print all of the printables described in the bullet journal setup.
- Use a paper cutter or scissors to cut the printables to the size of your Happy Planner. If you use our printables then the cutting lines will be marked on each page.
- Use the Happy Planner punch to punch the holes.
- Insert the printables into your HP.
- Print a few blank pages of dot-grid paper and add them to your planner or binder.
- Your bullet journal Happy Planner is ready!
My name is