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Ok, I might be a little crazy but I was nervous even taking my first bullet journal out of the shrink wrap. I didn’t want to ruin it through the mere removal of its protective covering! By the time I actually opened it to start I was terrified of making a mistake and messing up a page. And the thing that I had the most trouble wrapping my head around was what I would do if I made a mistake. How can you fix a mistake in your bullet journal!?
Starting a bullet journal can be a trigger for anxiety for those of us that air on the side of perfectionist.
But not to worry,
Here we have some easy ways to correct mistakes and even prevent them from happening in the first place.
Preventative Measures
You’re going to make mistakes
First things first. Understand that you will make mistakes.
It’s ok. Everyone does it.
If you’re using your journal every day to record ideas, write down notes and complete tasks you’ll be writing on the fly, it’s bound to happen sooner or later.
Don’t worry about if your penmanship is perfect for rapid logging, as long as you can read it (or at least know what it says) it’s good. Taking on this mindset will eliminate some mistakes since you just won’t see them as mistakes in the first place.
Pencil can be your best friend
The next thing to do is use a pencil to draw out layouts before you go in with a pen or marker.
Even doing this with your titles and lettering is super helpful when it’s a skill your learning.
My lettering is not very good.
So I draw them out in pencil first or sometimes I’ll draw top and bottom lines so I know how big to make each letter. This also helps to make sure that they end up being straight.
It’s way easier to just erase the pencil then to try and fix a bigger mistake later.
Don’t like pencil? Try an Erasable Pen
You can also use an erasable pen! These handy things are great for when you have a ton of confidence in your spread and abilities but they give you a bit of a safety net for those occasions when things still go south.
- Related: Choosing a Monthly Theme for your Bullet Journal
- Related: Bullet Journal Supplies
Small Mistakes
The Old Standby – White Out
I make small mistakes in my journal all the time.
Typically, I use pencil first but if I didn’t or just screw up anyway I use good ol’ handy white out.
I have both liquid and strip white out. Which one I use either depending on the size of the mistake and its location on the spread.
I made a mistake around the right eye of this drawing and used some white-out. I wasn’t super happy with it but you can’t really tell unless you’re really looking at it up close.
See what I mean?
Black it Out
You can also black out the mistake by covering it with black marker.
After it’s covered you can write over top of it in white.
I’ve done this with the black Tombow brush pen which was nice and opaque without bleeding through.
When I didn’t want to use black I’ve also used Crayola Metallic Markers in blue or purple and it looked great.
Medium Mistakes
Washi Tape – The Multipurpose Wonder
For small to medium-sized mistakes you can cover them with washi tape or planner stickers. This can add some fun to your spread without you needing to do much else and is great for when you’re fixing something in a hurry.
After all, every bullet journaler I know has a stack of washi tape (usually within reach) at any given time.
Get Artistic with a Collage
For medium mistakes, you can also consider using a printout or a magazine cutout to hide your mistake.
This will give your spread a mixed media element.
You can really run with this and make your spread super interactive by creating a collage or doodling over top of the print.
Massive, No Way to Save it, Mistakes
If you’re convinced that there is no way to salvage a particular page in your bullet journal there are still some options to save that valuable journaling real estate.
That’s an example of a vision board I made with things I love. The girls in the bottom corner are my little darlings 😍
Vision Board or Wish List
Turn it into a full college page. Add phots of recent memories or events. Make it a vision board with prints and cutouts of things that inspire you. Try out a wish list of items that you’d like to get on your next birthday or gift-giving holiday.
Quotes Page
Make it a quote page. Practice your lettering skills by creating a nicely lettered quote for yourself. Use plain white paper then glue it into your journal to cover the page.
Similarly, you could size and print out an adult colouring sheet and glue it in there to colour when the desire strikes you.
Really creating any sort of printable and covering the page with it is a good option.
Glue the Pages Together
As a last resort, just glue it to the next page.
If the mistake is on the right side of your spread and you haven’t started on the left you have the option of just biting the bullet and gluing the pages together and never looking back. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Mistakes are part of the process
Figuring out how to fix a mistake in your bullet journal is a goosebump-inducing task at first.
The good news is there are some really easy ways to fix just about everything. So with a good mindset, a pencil and some glue, your bullet journal will be presentable no matter what happens.
Remember mistakes are inevitable so accepting them as part of the learning process is key. Just use one of the above tips and it’ll be like it didn’t even happen.
Have you tried one of these methods? How did it work for you? Is there a method I missed?
Comment below!
Cheers,
