I remember the day I found out about the Bullet Journal method.
I was looking over the shoulder of my boss as he watched Ryder Carroll’s video on his website at bulletjournal.com. Loving all things organizing, I was intrigued about this new-to-me method.
At the end of the video, my boss turned it off and muttered, “I don’t get it.”
For me, all I could think was “Brilliant! That is brilliant!”
You see, for me, I am an analog person at heart and I had been writing all my notes and tasks in composition books for the last several years. But none of it was organized. It was all a hodge-podge of thoughts that needed some kind of organizing method to keep them straight in my head and not get lost.
And I kept a separate planner with dates and events.
I could not figure out how to merge the two – a place to plan the time and a place to organize my thoughts.
Enter the Bullet Journal method.
That was a several years ago and I haven’t looked back.
I needed structure that allowed me freedom to mix it up when I felt like it. None of the usual planner systems did that for me.
Over the years,I have used the Bullet Journal method in a variety of books. I continued to use composition notebooks, and soon added traveler’s notebooks, junk journals, pretty journals, beautiful artistic notebooks, disk bound notebooks, spiral bound notebooks, Moleskine expanded, and Stalogy.
The only one I haven’t used yet is the official Bullet Journal that Ryder Carroll sells on his website. Maybe, one day!
What is the Bullet Journal method?
It’s a simple method that can be used in any notebook and with just a pen or pencil.
No artistic talent needed.
The parts of the bullet journal that I use include:
- The Index: this was a life saver for me. With the index at the front of the book, I could put the title and page number of any page in my book for easy reference later.
- The Future Log: this is where the spread is blocked off into six (or more)sections and labeled with the upcoming month. I like to have a year’s worth. This is the place to put all the events or ideas that are planned for the future.
- The Monthly Log: I use this as Ryder teaches, listing the days down the side of one page and tracking what will happen (events) and what has happened (things I want to remember in the future).
- The Daily Log: the day-to-day list of thoughts and activities I either want to do or did, using rapid logging as much as possible. Rapid logging is when you write down the thought or activity in as few words as possible but still in enough words that you will be able to remember it later.
- Collections: this was a game changer for me! All those random thoughts that I had could now be put into individual collections. This means that I start a new page, title and date it at the top, and write whatever I want about that topic. This page is then noted in the index with title and page number. As a side note, my favorite collection is my “crazy idea list” where I list all those “wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas.
I also use Ryder’s suggested Monthly, Weekly and Daily Reviews in order to process what I’ve written down so nothing gets missed.
Using the bullet journal method I take a thought, expand on the idea, turn the idea into an action plan, create task lists, and then schedule when to do the tasks.
The flow goes something like this:
- I get a thought – I wonder what binding options there are for my next junk journal.
- I rapid log the thought on the day that I got the thought with a dash to indicate that it is not yet a to-do, just a thought:
-Binding methods for junk journals - At the end of the day I review my day and reflect on whether or not I want to research binding methods for junk journals. Let’s say I’m really busy this month, but I’d love to do it next month.
- I add a < over the dash and put “research binding methods for junk journals” in my future log under the next month.
- When I set up the next month, I still want to research binding methods, so I make it into it’s own spread. I write Junk Journal Binding Methods at the top and put the date. Then throughout the month when I have free time I research the different methods taking notes as I learn including the resources so I can go back to them. I start listing tools I may need, decisions I make, materials, techniques, designs, and any tips I thought might be useful.
- Then I schedule in my monthly log the day I want to spend making a junk journal using the new binding technique that I chose.
- On that day, I have all the information I need in the spread, which I can find easily using the index.
Or, of course, the idea of tackling a new binding method can go in my “crazy idea list” for future reference. Every now and then I go through that list, pick one, and play with it. Either way the thought does not get lost.
Using the bullet journal method helps me go from thought to action seamlessly and without jumping from one resource to another. I can do everything in one book.
And nothing gets lost.