Bullet Journaling
For the last nine years, I’ve kept a day-by-day log called a “bullet journal.” Here’s how it’s helped.
Perhaps you have a lot of things swirling around in your head. Events you don’t want to forget (past or future), to-do items, notes from a great talk at a conference, and things like that. And while your phone has a notes app, and you certainly don’t lack other digital ways to notate, writing things down is cathartic to you. Maybe you even write to-do items down just to check them off!
If this sounds like you, I want to share a tool called “bullet journaling.” I think you’ll like it.
My habit of journaling started in high school, where after reading Think and Grow Rich, I started jotting down goals and my thoughts on the future and such.
Then, in November 2007, I started writing a daily Legacy Letter to my kids. Seven years later, I came across the concept of bullet journaling, and other than a 15-month detour in which I used Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner, I’ve been bullet journaling ever since.
What is Bullet Journaling?
Bullet journaling is a form of frequent (daily, for sure, and often hourly) journaling that helps you get things out of your head. The concept was created by Ryder Carroll, who explained it first in a simple website and then in his bestselling book, The Bullet Journal Method.
The key to bullet journaling is its simplicity. You use a series of symbols to indicate different types of journaling items. They are:
Small Circles - Events
Dots - Tasks
Hyphens - General Notes
Exclamation Points - Urgent Items
Astricks - Important Items
That’s it! As your day proceeds, you record your events, jot down your tasks, and take notes until your heart’s content. By the end of the day, you have a nice, clean list of short phrases or sentences to reflect on. The following day, any incomplete to-dos can be “rolled over” to the next day, and you’re off to the races!
How Bullet Journaling Has Helped Me
No doubt, the most significant benefit of bullet journaling for me has been corralling my thoughts into one place. Much like a laptop with too many open applications, I’ve learned that too many ideas in my head cause me to “crash.” Once they are out of my head and onto a piece of paper (or my reMarkable), I feel less overwhelmed and can process them much more effectively.
Additionally, I review the previous day’s bullet journal each morning and “roll over” any incomplete to-dos. This habit takes just a few minutes and gives me a piece of mind something important from yesterday won’t fall off my list.
Lastly, bullet journaling creates a convenient timeline of my life. I’ve often gone back to review days or even weeks at a time. For example, if I’m returning to a vacation spot years later and want to recall what I enjoyed the most, a simple perusal of the bullet journal takes me back in time and allows me to remember what I did and how I felt about it.
How to Start Bullet Journaling
I was about to write a how-to section for this post, and then I came across this blog post from the bullet journaling website. It does a much better job than I would have! So head on over there and give it a read. The website contains additional excellent resources and posts, and I think you’ll enjoy it.
Conclusion
We live in a complicated world. We get a ton of things thrown at us on a minute-by-minute basis. I hope you’ll consider bullet journaling as a way to fight against our culture’s tendency to live either in our heads or on our phones. Bullet journaling has been one of the most helpful tools I’ve ever come across. I hope you feel the same way.
Books of Note: My sister, the famous podcaster, recently recommended Abraham Verghese’s newest book to me. And it reminded me of how much I enjoyed his first work of fiction, Cutting for Stone. If you’re looking for a beautiful, sweeping, thoughtful piece of fiction, this one is for you.
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