Are you looking for an all-inclusive system to plan and organize your life? The Bullet Journal might just be the solution for you. This method of journaling is designed for planning efficiently, holding on to your To-Do-list, storing ideas or whatever comes up to your mind. There is more. You can use it for self-care, tracking your habits, reaching your goals and even leaves room for an artistic side of you (if you like). Basically, you can say goodbye to your collection of various notes, Post-Its, lists and apps, and wrap everything together into a comprehensive journal.
The BuJo is the most flexible planner you’ll find, completely adaptable to your needs. How? Well, because I am talking about a book that just contains dots. This means that The Bullet Journal refers more to a technique than an actual blue-printed planner. Don’t worry, it is very easy and straightforward. I’ll talk you through it so you can decide for yourself if it is a fitting organizer for you. More specifically, I’ll deliver you an introduction by explaining What it is, How it works, how it can Benefit you and finally, how to Start your own BuJo.
What is a Bullet Journal?
As I said, you are starting off with a book that only contains dots. This is your blank canvas for your journal. That is why the BuJo is the best daily planner and organizer for just about everything.
The Bullet Journal is a method or a technique for organizing, which was developed by Ryder Carroll. He designed this analog system to Track the Past, Organize the Present and Plan for the Future. It is an all-inclusive journal to organize every single aspect of your life, that you find important.
How Does it Work?
By now, there are quite a lot of people using a Bullet Journal. However, when you Google it, many times you’ll end up with examples of artistic masterpieces. As beautiful as it is, just know that this is not a necessity. The purpose of the BuJo is to get you organized, reach your goals and take care of yourself. All you actually need for this, is just a book with dots and a pen. You can add the creative part as much or as little as you wish.
There are a few rules included in the system to make bullet journaling effective. One very important term to remember is Migration. This is how we cover the Past, Present and the Future. We follow the track by logging yearly, monthly and end with a weekly/daily schedule.
The Basics You Need to Include
- Index: the very first pages are an index giving you an overview of all the content you create and the respective page numbers to find everything easily back.
- Key: the legend explaining the symbols you use for indicating events, appointments, tasks etc. You can make this Key personal and decide for yourself what symbols you need and are the most straightforward to you.
- Future Log: to store all the future events of the year (or the upcoming months).
- Monthly Log: this is an overview of the coming month. When you start up a new month, migrate the events in your future log to that month. Also, check last month, if there are any unfinished tasks (that are still relevant) you need to migrate to this month.
- Weekly/Daily Log: this is where you schedule all the events, appointments, tasks you’ve scheduled for the month on a weekly or daily basis. You can be as specific as you want to be, to plan every single aspect you need to do.
Other Features
Next to these basics that make a BuJo an effective planning and organizing tool, which will make you way more efficient at time management, there are many other features to help you out. This is why the flexibility of the system can be a perfect fit for anyone’s needs to organize their whole with just one tool.
- Collections: this is a gathering of tasks, memo’s and all other aspects concerning one specific theme. You can start a new collection at any time. Just turn to the next blank page and add the location (pagenumber) to your index.
- Lists: restaurants, books to read, groceries, gratitudes, brain dump…
- Projects: a perfect spot for brainstorming, summing up your tasks, create a task division plan…
- Routines: cleaning schedule, morning and/or evening routine…
- To-Do List: in the very back of my BuJo, I have a big section where I write down every single To-Do that comes up to my mind. I add a task to this list when I don’t have complete it immediately but I can’t forget about it either. This way, I can clear my mind and focus on what I have scheduled in that moment. At the beginning of each month, I go through this list (after migrating my future log and unfinished tasks of last month) and assign the To-Do’s I select to complete by the end of that month.
- Habit Trackers: these are a great way of making your resolutions and goals finally come true. Track the habits you want to pursue to see how much time and effort you actually spend on the valuable aspects of your life. It is simple: make a schedule of What you want to do When, and track if you did it. One important thing to keep in mind here is that you don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t check all the boxes. Try to figure out (and log this) why you didn’t and adjust until you find a schedule that fits your lifestyle.
How Can it Benefit you?
Now that we know the basics of the Bullet Journal you can probably already guess some benefits it can offer you. It is not only an organizing tool to get structure in your life. You can use it as a support for personal growth and self-care.
Planning and Organizing Efficiently
The first advantage of the BuJo is that you can Collect, Store and Order your thoughts on paper. Not only your appointments and schedule but also any other matter that comes up into your mind. Since your mind is the worst place to store anything, this process of emptying your head will make you use your brain more efficiently, being able to fully concentrate on the task you are completing in the present moment. This leads to an increase in your productivity.
Working with the method of migration (Future Log > Monthly Log > Weekly/Daily Log) helps you to have a clear and overall overview about what happened in the Past, what you plan in the Present and what will come in the Future. This way, you cannot forget anything and work worry-free and concentrated on what you have planned that day, each day. When you didn’t finish a task, you can migrate it forwards to the next day/week/month. Myself, I sometimes migrate it back to my To-Do List in case the priority is not high enough anymore and I want to complete this task some time later (that is not yet defined).
The fact that you can customize your layout a 100%, it can be the best fit to your needs. If not, you can always adjust it the next week or month to a design you consider to be more efficient or effective. There are hundreds of examples out there that can help you to come up with ideas. I recommend to experiment with a few different approaches and in no time, you’ll discover what features you’ll need to include within your personal planning layout each month, week and day.
Personal Development
Becoming this efficient and effective in planning, once using your BuJo has become a habit, it will help you to grow into a better version of yourself. This big picture unfolding (past, present, future), gives you perspective on where you stand and where you can go.
You can include collections of projects and goals you want to achieve. Your BuJo can serve as your support for achieving your goals. Use it as a preparation canvas for designing a plan, according to the SMART framework, and as a reflecting tool to see if you are following your plan accordingly. Once again, you can choose the layout of your reflecting tool, as long as it is an effective measuring system that supports your progress.
Habit trackers are another popular instrument that you can include in your BuJo to help you grow. Including habit trackers can encourage you to pursue that what you find important. Making something a habit can lead to you reaching your goals. It gives you insight in how many times you want to do something and how much time you actually do it. Let this be a motivator, not something to beat yourself up about when you don’t cover it all the time. Reflect (log and think about why) and adjust where needed.
Selfcare
Last, but definitely not least, take care of yourself with this little book of everything, both mentally and physically. There are many options here. You can include a space for you to write down a quote every day, make a gratitude journal, a mood tracker or provide space to get your emotions and thoughts out of your head by journaling them.
Only the fact on itself that you can empty your thoughts and get them ordered on paper, bundled together in your BuJo, will deliver you health benefits. Getting your mind at ease, can reduce your stress levels and improve your sleep significantly.
Include some habit trackers for self-care such as yoga, meditation, taking a walk etc. You need to include what you find important and is a value-adding habit for you to pursue.
How To Get You Started
Now that we know what a BuJo is and the basics of how it works, we only need to get you started. I’ll tell you what the first steps are to get on track.
Do What Works For You
Step 1: Think before Acting.
The first question you need to ask yourself is why you want to start Bullet Journaling. For what purposes do you want to use it? What needs do you want to address? What I did to make the answer to this question very clear and honest, was writing down the things I value. This was my inspiration for how to set up the design of my journal and what features I wanted to include (daily, weekly, monthly). Another source for inspiration is the online world. There are millions of other users showing you their way of designing their BuJo.
Factors to take into account are for example, do I want one journal for both personal, as well as professional purposes or do I want to split them? What habits do I really want to pursue? Do I want a weekly overview or do I want to take up a full page for each day? What symbols do I want to use in my Key?
Lastly, think about how much time you want to spend on it. This will influence how artistic or clean and simple you want to keep it. Beautifying you journal can be a form of self-care but also absorb your time. So make this consideration yourself.
Step 2: Act according to your Needs.
Once you know what elements you want to include, start with entering the basics we talked about before (Index, Key and Future Log). Following these, I already included the first collections I definitely wanted to have in my journal (birthday calendar, list of restaurants, countries to travel etc.). This is not a must, but just an example of the possibilities. Following my first collections, I started making up my first Monthly Log and Weekly/Daily Logs for that month. At the very back, I keep my big To-Do List for whenever something comes up in my mind. I assign these tasks to a timeslot later on. Don’t forget to number the pages and add titles to your index.
Tip: you can find the very basic methods for bullet journaling on the orginial Youtube channel ‘Bullet Journal’ where the founder of the BuJo, Ryder Carroll, explains various aspects himself.
Tools: The Basics and Beyond
Most probably, the internet will make you think you need a bunch of tools (markers, stickers, pencils…) in order to put up your journal. However, the only things you really need are your BuJo, which is basically an empty book filled with dots, a pen and preferably also a ruler and Tipp-Ex. All the other things won’t affect the efficiency and effectiveness of your planning skills. If anything, they can hold you up, focusing too much on the prettiness of your layout instead of the basics that make you more productive.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean I discourage you to take the time to beautify your journal. It is you that decides on what the purpose is of your BuJo and how you want to design it. Me personally, I set it up very clean and simple when I make my schedule. Only when I feel like taking a break from everything, I start drawing, coloring and stickering in my book.
Some tools that are frequently used are Washi Tape (to correct mistakes), Sticky Notes, Brush Pens, Stamps, Stickers and Stencils. Stamps, stickers, and stencils, apart from the decorative ones, can actually help you work more rapidly because they exist in the form of recurring templates you can use along your journal. For example, you can create a habit tracker with just one stamp.
Conclusion
Now that you know what a Bullet Journal is, how it works and how you can actually get started, you can experiment and see if it is a fitting planning tool and/or tool for personal development and self-care, for you. As it might seem as if it would absorb a lot of your time, I would not be put off by this thought in the first instance. First of all, you decide for yourself how much time you want to spend on it (the layout, beautifying it or not…). Second, once you’ve found your way and made it a habit, you will create your BuJo in no time each month or week. Third, that little bit of time you spend on it is already a form of self-care. Finally, by reflecting each week, your personal growth can take a sprint too. Considering all these yields, it is definitely worth it to free up some time for your organizer.