Have you found your organizational system bliss yet or, are you still searching for the planning tool of your dreams?
When Ryder Carroll became tired of having post-its and notes floating around his desk, he ventured a guess that perfection doesn’t belong to this world. He opted to look for efficiency instead and came up with an organizational system called The Bullet Journal (aka BuJo).
A little disclaimer: I am about to fill you in with a lot of information so pour yourself a cup of coffee. Or if you are reading this after 5 pm, grab a glass of wine :).
- What is a Bullet Journal?
- Bullet Journal vs. smartphone
- How the Bullet Journal is different from a traditional planner?
- Why the Bullet Journal works
- How to start a Bullet Journal
- How to set up your Bullet Journal
- How the Bullet Journal system works
- Taking your Bullet Journal to the next level: migration and threading
- Putting it all together
- Tips to find your #BuJo way
- How Bullet Journaling changed my life for better
What is a Bullet Journal?
The Bullet Journal is a customizable organization system crafted by its user from a plain notebook.
It’s like DNA because there are as many different Bullet Journals as Bullet Journal users. You won’t find two the same because every user will follow a different method and adjust it to their specific needs.
On a deeper level, I would say that a Bullet Journal is an authentic practice that will help you pull together your life in a more meaningful and productive way.
Simple, effective, powerful.
The Bullet Journal, in the beginning, might appear as a bland and repetitive task – like that everyday salad you can easily get bored of. But the treasure to be found is not in what it is, but in what it can become.
Try seasoning that same plain salad with a zesty vinaigrette and now we’re talking 🙂
What do I love about the Bullet Journal? It starts with a blank page and with the touch of a pen it evolves into whatever you need it to be. Just like the blank canvas every artist doesn’t know what to do with yet…
Bullet Journal vs. smartphone
Before we go into details, let me explain why you should consider using it instead of your smartphone, tablets, or laptop.
No, it’s not about the old-fashioned feeling that paper and pen brings, it’s not even about the fact you need an excuse to buy a new fancy pen (ok ok, maybe it is about that too… 🙂 )
When you write on your screen you approach everything knowing that it can be deleted, moved, or copied unlimited times without leaving any traces of mistakes or changes of mind you had to get to that perfect final work.
Someone will say this is the ultimate advantage of digital systems vs analog. Indeed, writing analog is not as adaptable or efficient as doing it on a tablet or a computer. But that’s the beauty of it: when you write down your intentions in a notebook or a journal it gives them the courage to commit.
I am sure we all agree on how a smartphone can be a better option to store the scads of information we need to remember –like your daughter’s Tuesday ballet class and your boss’s birthday.
That’s why I love Google calendar. Once you put a birthday date there it will carry it to future years.
The Bullet Journal is not a replacement for your smartphone. It won’t play Spotify when you go for a run or take a screenshot of that exotic recipe you will never really cook.
If you like jotting down occasions and meetings on your telephone, there’s no reason to stop. Indeed, it is possible to keep using all the features of digital technology and still making the most out of Bullet Journaling.
The Bullet Journal is not meant to be a place to store any information you want to collect. Instead, a Bullet Journal is an instrument to help you to get rid of distractions and keep you focused on what is really important.
In other words, it’s an effective way to reflect and mindfully plan your life.
Before putting pen to paper, you think everything through. You take the time to decide what matters and what doesn’t. It’s a no-turning-back objective. And that is why you only write what’s Important Enough.
How the Bullet Journal is different from a traditional planner?
Now that we are intent on slowing things down with paper and pen, it’s useful to know how the Bullet Journal is different from a traditional planner.
A traditional planner is an extremely useful tool and if you use it successfully please keep doing so.
The main difference is that a traditional planner includes set pages, sections, and spaces. The Bullet Journal is completely customizable to the user, making it flexible to the goals of the person using it.
A Bullet Journal provides the possibility of unlimited arrangements. A conceptualizing mental scratchpad that can utterly adapt to the way your mind works.
Another main advantage is that you don’t have to wait for January 1st to start a Bullet Journal.
Anyday is the perfect day to start.
Why the Bullet Journal works
According to scientific research, the more you manipulate information, the easier it is to remember. A Bullet Journal is a self-created planner that you frame around the information that is most important to you. To that end, it is more effective than a preset template.
The possibilities of use make the difference: you can keep it simple or be as creative as you wish. You can make it yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily and you can choose to keep all life’s stuff together or just the nitty-gritty.
Whether you want to have a habits tracker or a page for your weekly meal plan, you will be able to craft it from scratch and be in total control of every single detail.
Furthermore, you can evolve it into whatever you need it to be at any point.
Minimal shorthand or full of doodles, your Bullet Journal will be of your design. This is where mindfulness plays its part. You are encouraged to audit your lifestyle and plan tasks and goals accordingly. A Bullet Journal allows for a certain amount of reflection.
From a psychological point of view, a Bullet Journal is a great way to track your achievements and to see the efforts put into them. It is your life’s record with an eye to the future.
How to start a Bullet Journal
Not everyone feels confident in front of a blank page. We all react in different ways.
To start a Bullet Journal you will begin with a plain notebook and the opportunity to create the best system to match your specific needs.
It is important to remember that there is no risk of making mistakes.
So abandon that ‘first blank page’ fear and begin. It doesn’t have to be perfect from the start.
With time, experience and perseverance, it will be 🙂
Don’t be upset if at the beginning you find it all a bit overwhelming, that’s totally normal. It will take some time to figure out what is the best method for you.
For me, it took about 3 months. And I am still making changes.
No system is wrong. You can be as simple as you’re comfortable with – like managing your grocery list 🙂 .
Over time, you can adapt it to include anything you want or get rid of what is no longer needed. The Bullet Journal changes with you and that’s what I love about it.
Spending some time to lay out your Bullet Journal is a fantastic way to reflect on how you want to live and what you want to achieve.
Before starting I suggest figuring out why you need an organizational system by exploring your obligations and discovering your challenges in meeting them.
What do you want the Bullet Journal to help you with? Once you have the answer you’ll be able to create a system that will work for you.
I strongly recommend you watch the video below to get a basic understanding of the principle behind the Bullet Journal system.
How to set up your Bullet Journal
Every respectable Bullet Journal should include these four sections and in the following order: Index, Future Log, Monthly Log, and Daily Log. A number of your choice of Collections is optional.
Let’s break down the bare basics.
- THE INDEX
This is the most functional page of your journal. It’s always located at the front of your notebook and it serves to locate any content. How? Simply add the corresponding page number next to each “topic” listed. The index can be a simple list or you can break it down into further categories and sections. - FUTURE LOG
This page is used to keep track of your future projects. Like a wishlist. Use it for goals you want to achieve, reminders of important birthdays or major holidays. Or, simply to note an upcoming dental check-up.
Basically, it’s a space to write down any notes for the following months. - MONTHLY LOG
This is a month-at-a-glance organizer. It is a birds-eye view of the month and it’s used to register any major event or task for that month.
It’s normally spread into 2 pages: the first, a simple calendar that lists all the dates of the month followed by the first letter of the corresponding day (e.g. Saturday the 5th of May would be 5S).
The second page of your monthly log is a list of tasks and events that you want to get done during the next 30 days. - DAILY LOG
This page is your list of daily to-dos and tasks you want to tackle each day. Something reminiscent of a traditional planner with the exception that you have customized it to your own needs and taste:) A water or mood tracker? A section where to practice gratitude? A blank space for a sketch? Done! - CUSTOM COLLECTIONS
And now my favorite part! Custom sections where you will be able to add extra tracking pages or lists of your choice like weekly meal plans, workout schedule, wardrobe planner, holiday savings calculator, reading list, or the friends you want to meet… literally, anything that you believe is worth tracking to help you to feel accomplished in your life.
In The Bullet Journal’s original version weekly logs are not included, however, if you are happier with a weekly format that can be added or used instead of the monthly or daily one. As we said everything is totally up to you.
Important note:
Each page of your bullet journal should be classified with a “Topic”, to clarify what’s the collection or the log it’s about and reported to your index. For the daily logs can be the date, while for your custom collection just a small title to relate to the nature of it, like “book logs” or “place I want to visit”.
How the Bullet Journal system works
Bullet Journal-ing uses a specific language called rapid logging. I know it sounds complicated but, believe me, it’s not.
Essentially, it consists of writing your notes in the form of a bulleted list, where every bullet has a specific meaning.
There are three different categories of bullets: Tasks, Events, and Notes.
- TASK BULLETS
Think of the old-fashioned ‘tickbox’. These are your ‘to-do’ activities that you can write in a short sentence like “ buy avocados” or “call Mike”. - EVENTS BULLETS
Commonly delineated as an ’empty circle’. These are date-specific tasks, occasions, or gatherings you need to remember. Like “Tom’s birthday” or “dinner at Julie’s”. - NOTE BULLETS
Generally represented with a ‘dash’. These are anything else you need to keep in mind which is not a task or an event. Maybe some observation for a project, some questions you want to bring to your next meeting, or a simple note to yourself.
Signifiers and nesting
If you like, you can add signifiers to your bullets. These are symbols of your choice that give you an immediate additional meaning. They live to the left of your bullets making it very easy for you to spot and understand. Some examples of a signifier: a star “*” to symbolize high priority, a heart “♡” for a memory you don’t want to forget, an exclamation point “!” for any great idea you want to develop, and so on.
A little tip. Don’t go crazy with signifiers or they will be too hard to remember their meaning.
Keep your signifiers list short and simple. My little trick is to have a key to my signifiers on a bookmark card inside my Bullet Journal.
Nesting can be used to break a task into steps or add extra details to any bullets.
For example, you can add under the bullet “bake apple cake”, a note to “buy eggs”. Or under “coffee with Jenny”, a reminder to “give back her book”.
Taking your Bullet Journal to the next level: migration and threading
If you made it to this point, I bet you are already amazed at the potential of the bullet journal but you have seen nothing yet!
What really makes the bullet journal revolutionary is its ability to keep under an ongoing revision of all your notes.
How to migrate your task in your Bullet Journal
Task and events bullet that is not marked as completed can be reviewed and eventually migrated to a different collection or log.
Migration is the most important part of the whole bullet journaling system. So if today you didn’t complete a task and that task is still worth doing it, you’ll be migrating it into the next day. Same thing for your weekly or monthly goals.
When you migrate a task from a log, the bullet is generally changed into a “>” to remind you that a particular task has been moved to another one.
I normally always add a date next to any migrated task so I know how long I have been procrastinating and what kind of priority I should give it.
The effort of rewriting those tasks is repaid by the process you embrace to reconsider and evaluate each one.
How to thread your collections in your Bullet Journal
Collections are a fantastic way to organize all your goals and activities. Some of them may be a long-term project and can be carried through months.
Keeping going back to the index to track how your collections are spread through your bullet journal can be annoying. This is where threading comes into the picture.
Let’s say that you have a collection that appears on pages 5-7 and shows again on pages 15-18, and again on pages 37-39.
You can “thread” this collection simply adding the page number of the old and new occurrence of that collection next to the ongoing page number.
Thereby, you don’t need to continually refer to the index.
Putting it all together
Let’s have a quick recap about what you need to do to start BuJo.
STEP 1 – Get your notebook and writing utensils! You can buy the original Bullet Journal notebook or but to be honest, any plain notebook will do before you decide which one is the best for you.
STEP 2 – Make an audit of your lifestyle and decide how to lay out your Bullet Journal and what custom collections you want to include.
STEP 3 – Start the index page.
STEP 4 – Create future logs, monthly logs, collections, and daily logs.
STEP 5 – Choose your signifiers.
STEP 6 – Make time for it. After all, no method is efficient unless you use it.
Tips to find your #BuJo way
Now that you are ready to start Bullet Journal-ing I would like to share a bunch of BuJo tips that have made my experience easier and better.
Make it a habit. BuJo is fun and effective if you make it part of your daily routine. Sticking to the same time of the day helps me to make sure that I follow up on my journaling ritual and also to make sure I don’t spend too much time doing it. It can be really addictive! 🙂
Keep it simple. Start with a limited amount of Collections and gradually add only the ones you can keep updated. There is always room and time to add more in the future.
Use purposefully. Instagram is bursting with amazing beautiful BuJo images. If you feel inspired, free the artist inside you. But don’t forget that the main reason Bullet Journaling is made for. It is to keep you focused on what really matters. Concentrate and reflect on your tasks and your goals rather than doodles and decorations.
An extra hack. Use a flip-out page for your index so you can easily find the pages you need and make a bookmark card to remember your signifiers.
How Bullet Journaling changed my life for better
How little did I know three years ago when I started my first Bullet Journal. If you have read my story on the About page you know how much I needed a change.
I embraced my intentional living journey but I still needed to find a tool to help me bring structure and meaning into my life.
The BuJo is a great system that takes me away from the chaos of the screen and social media and has helped me identify my goals and design my everyday life.
It has perfectly served my purpose. The ultimate self-care tool.
Slowly. Simply. Mindfully. And I changed. A change that I recorded bullet after bullet.
A special THANK YOU to my amazingly talented and dear friend @elijlettering for all the gorgeous photos. If you would like to get some lovely Bullet Journal inspo have a look at https://www.elijlettering.com.
