The index is essentially a point of reference for your whole bullet journal. It makes locating anything in your bujo a breeze!
If you’re setting up a new bullet journal and are on the lookout for some index ideas then you’ve come to the right place.
But first…
What is an index?
An index is usually placed near the beginning of a bullet journal and lists what can be found on each page. It doesn’t need to be too detailed, as long as you know what the page consists of. For example; A Year In Pixels – Page 5, January mood tracker – pages 9-10, March Weekly spreads – pages 37-44 … and so on.
Some notebook styles come with a pre-printed index and page numbers. However, it’s no big deal if yours doesn’t. It won’t take long to draw your own index page and if you add the page numbers as you go then it’s easy to do it yourself!
How often should you add to it?
It’s completely up to you! I would probably suggest either every time you add a new page or once a month. If you leave it any longer then it might be put on the back burner and trust me – you don’t want to be spending hours filling in the index for your whole journal in one go!
Supplies
You don’t really need many supplies for creating an index, keep it basic with a little colour and lots of blank space for indexing. To create these ideas below, I used:
Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens
Pencil
Ruler
Washi Tape
If you want to try out a fun heading, you might like my posts; ‘50+ Amazing Bullet Journal Headers To Try Today’ , ‘19 Bullet Journal Fonts That Are Really Easy To Copy’ or ‘Easy Faux Calligraphy That Everyone Can Do’.
A basic index
In just a couple of minutes, you can set up this really simple index. Two lines and three words – that’s all you need!
Ways to set up your index:
Chronological order
The most commonly used index method is to add items as you go. This is a really simple way to record each page in your as you create it. It gives you flexibility on the amount of space you have to write content descriptions
Colour coding
I’m a bit of a colour coding fiend! I love how pretty and bright a splash of colour makes everything look. Not only that but adding some colour makes it really easy to identify different categories throughout your bullet journal.
If you’re looking for other colour coding ideas, you may like my post ‘Simple Bullet Journal Key Ideas To Organise Your Life’.
Categories
If you are a big fan of bullet journal collections then sorting your index into categories might work well for you. Say you have a full page goal tracker or a mood tracker each month, you can group these pages together in your index.
Pre written page numbers
Although this might seem like a lot of work to begin with, it can help you to be more organised. Leaving an allocated space for a description of each page forces you to be concise and you’re pretty much guaranteed not to leave a page out.
Washi Tape index
Similar to the colour coding idea above, why not add an extra level to your index with a small washi tape tab along the edge of your most frequently referenced pages?!
Firstly, list out your most popular collection categories. As an example, I’d include pages like a monthly habit tracker or my year in pixels page – areas that I’d be turning to most days. Then for each category, cut two small squares of washi tape and stick one beside each item in your index and the second over the edge of the matching page.
This is a really effective and quick way of identifying different pages in your journal.
Final thoughts…
Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to set up an index. As with any aspect of bullet journaling, how you do things is completely up to you. Sometimes it’s fun to out a few different methods to find out what works best for your lifestyle.
Hopefully some of these ideas have given you food for thought on creating your bullet journal index.
Enjoy!
A
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