By Princess Jones
A bullet journal is an organizational system that centers around a notebook. It comes from Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer from Brooklyn. He developed the process as a way to take notes and organize your thoughts. Instead of buying a pre-printed planner, essentially create one yourself in a blank journal and use it to keep track of your plans, your work, and your activities.
The reason it works for me is that it allows me to combine lists, project planning, and daily tasks in one notebook. I even write diary entries in it. I’m a digital girl by nature, but writing things down has its advantages too. I’m on computers and mobile devices all day. When I turn to pen and paper, something changes in my mind. It puts me in a brainstorming, analytical mindset. It also makes it easier to remember things.
How to get started
The best thing about keeping a bullet journal is that all you need to get started is a journal and a pen. There are lots of ways to make it fancy – expensive pens, special notebooks, etc. – but you just have to make it as fancy as you want. I’ve used both Moleskine notebooks and random generic notebooks from Target. They all worked fine.
Then it’s time to add the modules you need. Start with the index/table of contents. Those are just a few pages where you can fill in what appears on each page so you can easily find things later.
You then complete the monthly module. This is a list of the days of the month, filled with events for that month. And then you fill in the daily pages for that month, making room for the information for each day. You can do it however you want, but I usually divide each side of a page into two days. I also do all the daily pages for the month at once because I want to keep them together, rather than as I go.
Later, you can create pages for lists, notes, or even journal entries as needed. One of my pages each month is a page for “wins”: things I was happy about or things I accomplished. I also create an annual page where I list all the things I want to do that year and then break them down into tasks over the months.
The key
As you complete your daily and monthly pages, come up with your own entry code, or you can use the original code that Ryder Carroll came up with:
- Use a hyphen to record events.
- Use a period to represent a task.
- Use an X to represent a task that has been completed.
- Use a > to display a task that has been pushed to the next day.
- Use a < to show a task that has been rescheduled. (I actually use this to represent a task that has been delegated to someone else. I write the person's name next to it for reference.)
- Use a line through the item for something that is not irrelevant.
Things to remember
Keep these things in mind as you start bullet journaling.
It’s YOUR bullet journal.
If you fall into a YouTube hole about bullet journaling, you’ll see a LOT of really cool, aspirational journals. Between the scribbling and endless personal goals, you may feel a little intimidated. Do not be! Your bullet journal should be about being useful to younot everyone else.
If something isn’t working, stop doing it.
It may take some time to figure out what works for you. Personally, I don’t use the monthly calendar. I feel like my calendar is constantly changing and is better suited to something like Google Calendar. Instead, I simply start the month with a list of goals and tasks I want to accomplish during the month. I also leave room for things that are on my radar but not necessarily working on them this month. That works better for me and that’s okay.
You can start now.
You don’t have to wait until the beginning of a year or the beginning of a month to get started. Unlike traditional planners, you make this up as you go. You can get started right now.