Everyone’s talking about the “Bullet
Journal” at the moment, it’s the Big News in organisation, but where do you get
one and how exactly is it better than anything else? The answer is quite simple; you use
any notebook you like, and it’s the ultimate diary because it’s so personal to
you. It’s a diary/to-do list hybrid, and
I love it.
Everything In One Place
I have a lot of hats to wear these
days – mum to two young girls, working full time, writing, keeping house – and I’ll
admit that at some points in the past, things have got on top of me and I’ve
had so much going on in my head that I’ve forgotten things or let bits
slip. The Bullet Journal keeps
absolutely everything in one place; all thoughts and ideas, notes from meetings,
dates and things to remember, and it tracks my progress against goals. It’s A5
so it’s big enough to be sensible, but small enough that I’m still happy to
take it places. Any and all places.
Optional Colour
Make it as straightforward or creative as you like – it’s your
book. Mine has a lot of colour at the
moment – I bought a bumper set of 60 gel pens before Christmas! – but I know
the meeting notes will be jotted down in my old blobby biro when I get back to
work again, but my daily planning will be colour coded, for sure.
I love it because:
- I used to have so many random bits of paper with things I needed to
remember. Writing things down helped,
but I never had everything together
-
I do love a physical To-Do list! Although with a Bullet Journal you don’t
get the satisfaction of crossing things through, there are big crosses
involved. The Bullet Journal would also
work for those who keep a Not To-Do list
-
I’ve always been a sucker for a pretty notebook and nice stationery
-
It’s helping focus my mind on my goals and it’s somewhere I can track
routines and habits
First Things First
Start with an Index page at the front – essentially your Contents – and
update that as you go. Add a number to
the bottom of the page as you use it, and then log what’s covered on the page
in your Index. You’ll have a series of
logs, including a Daily Log, which is essentially your To-Do list for the day,
and then any thoughts or notes you take during the day, that are made with the
symbols that pull everything together.
Logs
The Monthly Log is effectively your
calendar for the month and holds all the key information that you need to
remember but not necessarily today.
Finally, the Future Log helps you keep a track on things you want to get
done but that aren’t time dependent.
They can be broken down into smaller chunks to put into the Monthly and
Daily logs, and a Tracker page can show how you’re moving along at a glance. Check out the description on http://bulletjournal.com/ to go through it
more detail.
The Key
The bit that took the time was
remembering the symbols in the logs, so I keep a key. This is where the “bullet” comes in, as it is
a list of bullet points, but the shape of the bullet indicates what you’re
going to do about it.
·
Everything starts with a dot (.)
·
It it’s a thing that requires action, it is crossed through when it’s
complete (x)
·
If you’re scheduling it, show that with a (<) and if you’ve moved it
to another day, because it doesn’t need to be done today, use a (>) and
write it on that Daily Log
·
If it’s a thought that doesn’t require action, or a small event, use (-)
and turn the(.) into a (o) for a big event
Let’s face it, it doesn’t really
matter what symbols you use, as long as you can tell what you need to do and
when at a glance, without having to re-read it all. I use (!) for really important stuff, and (*)
and arrows for my really good ideas and things I want to think about more later
on. It’s committed to paper so I can ‘park
it’ for the time being.
Once you have the hang of the
symbols, your journal can record everything together, work and home, by
starting a new page for each subject and allocating it a number so you can find
it again.
Tracking
Use your journal to track anything
you like. I have a list of books I’d
like to read (I often found people would tell me the name of a great book I
should read, and as I had nowhere sensible to write it down, I’d promptly
forget it – now I have somewhere!) there’s a page for everyone’s birthdays, a
mood tracker, and, being January, there’s the obligatory attempt at weight loss
and so a page to track that. I’ve seen
some lovely ideas on Pinterest, like a daily gratitude tracker, but the beauty
is you can just start a new page as soon as you like. It doesn’t need to be a new year or even a
new month. It’s up to you, and it’s up
to you how much colour or prettiness you add to the pages. They should reflect your personality.
I urge you to give it go though. It’s not very time-consuming to set up,
unless you want to overboard with the intricate designs. Start now, and build as you go. But start.
Go on . . .
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