Bullet Journal

Ryder - creator of bullet journal - compares managing your tasks with a notebook vs on a digital app

Happy New Year!

New year means new journal! So, how are you changing your journal?

• What are you keeping in your journal?
• What are you adding?
• What are you removing?

I am keeping it the same. I tried adding charts for what I am reading and playing in 2023, but I removed it in a few months. Rest of my journal is exactly how I like it, so not going to change anything unless I come across something interesting that I like to try.

What about all of you?

I used to have a big collection of random notebooks, but I have pretty much run out of them, and now that my current notebook is nearing the end, I was wondering which one to get. Which brought me to wondering what everyone else is using.

So, which notebook are you all using?

Also, what kind of pen do you use? I personally love fountain pens, currently using silver Parker 45, with Pelikan 4001 Turquoise ink.

I don't like making boxes of any kind in my BuJu, like in future log. What if one month has very few items so that more than half the box is empty, and one month has so many that it doesn't fit the box.

So, my preferred method of Future logging is The Alastair Method.

One change I do, is add another column, "Whenever", for items that are sometime in future, but I don't know when.

I’ve been working on trauma recovery this year and decided to implement a mindfulness habit of stopping 3 times a day and just noticing what my body is feeling. This is a somatic exercise for CPTSD because when you pay attention to what your body is feeling you can train it to process physical reactions such as fight or flight instinct…then your nervous system can learn to react in a healthy way instead of the reactions festering into anxiety, depression, feeling numb.

Anyway…so I added reminders and tracking through streaks and finally settled on using Day One for this activity since I can pull out my phone to do it or do it on the iPad or computer…or even at work by sending an email. In the past few years I have tried off and on paper journals, Wordpress and Day One…my handwriting is terrible and my hands are getting more stiff in my mid 40s. I’m worried that Wordpress will go down someday and I’ll lose all my old stuff.

I created a second journal in Day One called daily feelings and just freeform such as typing what I’m experiencing my body…my wife got annoyed because I told her the wrong day for a meeting…my lungs feel hot…and sometimes summarize a day or some thoughts on goals and successes. Writing helps me process.

Sometimes a quick post becomes a longer post so I move it to the longer post.

So yeah not sure this is a bullet journal…you tell me?

1. Start with the daily log
2. Move into a weekly spread or a master task list.
3. Expand your practice to monthly layouts
4. Use a Simple Habit Tracker.
5. Consistency Creates Confidence

Came across this article while looking up some tips for starting bullet journal. This is pretty close to how I started, only with dailies, and then added other stuff over time.

Can be helpful for someone who is feeling overwhelmed with starting a bullet journal. You can just leave couple of pages on start empty, and start with daily log, and then fill in the other parts later, once you are used to it.

Calendax is a way to merge your Future Log and Monthly spread together, and make something new. Like everything bullet journal, there are some variations of Calendax too. But this is a good place to start.