Productivity and efficiency fiend that I am, I’m always on the lookout for new tweaks to strengthen my systems. A couple of years ago I stumbled across bullet journaling. These days, Instagram is full of people showcasing their stunningly beautiful journals. The illustrated portfolios of their life. Me, I have trouble drawing a straight line, and my handwriting is the opposite of calligraphy. Hieroglyphics, before the Rosetta Stone. No pretty pages for me; just a simple productivity tool.
How the System Works
The original system at its most basic involves capturing to-dos, appointments, thoughts, notes, and events in daily bulleted lists, complemented by weekly, monthly, and longer-term calendars, and any number of separate project lists, habit trackers, and free-form journaling.
Most people use bound books and fill them page by page. This means that on one page you might have a shopping-list and the to-dos for the day, on the next one a habit tracker, and on the one after that a character sheet. Or a list of books you want to read. Or doodles. You started an outline for your next novel five days ago. Today you continue that outline – ten pages later. In other words, it’s an unholy mess.
The only thing that holds it together is the all-important index. The first couple of pages of every journal are reserved for that. Then, once you approach the last page of your book, you transcribe what’s still relevant into a new one.
How I Tweaked the Original Bullet Journal Approach
This is where the system lost me. I didn’t want to deal with extended indices and numbering systems. I wasn’t going to devote precious time to transcribing stuff when it’s so much easier to print out a template (Excel does straight lines really well). On top of that, I didn’t want to waste precious shelf real estate on storing to-do lists for posterity – just because in the midst of largely irrelevant dross there were a few nuggets I wanted to keep.
Enter the bullet binder. A slim leather binder with five tabs. I fill the first tab with dot grid paper for the daily to-dos, appointments, reminders, etc. The second tab holds a printed calendar for the year in which I enter any future appointments or events. Currently one month per double page. Another page at the end labeled “Future” to capture any events, appointments, or reminders for the following year.
It took me a few hours of happily fiddling with Excel to set it all up and automate numbering etc., but now it’s easy. Once a year I print off a new calendar. And every so often in between, I print off new dot grid paper. Done.
I’ve also experimented with habit tracking and other “life hacks”, but ultimately I’ve found that the habits that aren’t just “shoulds” but that are genuinely important to me don’t need tracking. I’ve actually been more consistent since I’ve stopped tracking, and I’m no longer beating myself up over all the desirable habits that I haven’t yet managed to institute. Right now, solidifying the habits I have is more important to me than acquiring new ones.
Free-form Journaling
Some people also keep their daily journals, e.g. morning pages, in the framework of their bullet journals. The advantage being, obviously, that everything’s in the same place. I considered doing this, but ultimately decided against it. I’ve used composition books for my daily writing for years, and I like bound books for that. They’re easier to archive than loose-leaf collections, and since they’re strictly chronological, no cumbersome indexing is needed.
This is my system. I still tweak it occasionally, and since it’s all home-made, it’s endlessly flexible. If I decide not to track my habits anymore, well, I just don’t print out the respective template and call it good. If I decide to brainstorm a new project, I just add a sheet under the “Projects” tab and start writing.
Over the years I’ve found that an analog calendar works best for me. On the other hand, lists and references and addresses and anything else that needs to be easily searchable and accessible are better kept in digital form. WorkFlowy has been my second brain for years now, and I can’t say enough good things about it.
Now let me go back to working on those straight lines…