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The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

by Parker · 343 things on Twos

Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Plan Your Future
Part 1: The Preparation
Introduction
Few things are more distracting than the cruel stories we tell ourselves
I formalized the system and streamlined it, stripping away everything but the most effective techniques I had developed over the years. Nothing exactly like it existed, so I had to invent a new language with its own vocabulary
It was a cross between a planner, diary, notebook, to-do list, and sketchbook
Bulletjournal.com was featured on Lifehack.org. Then on Lifehacker.com, then in Fast Company , and from there it went viral. The site went from 100 to 100,000 unique visitors in days
Veterans shared their tactics for coping with PTSD by tracking their days in their Bullet Journals. People suffering from OCD shared ways to distance themselves from their overpowering thoughts. I was touched hearing from those like myself suffering from ADD as they shared how their grades improved and their anxiety diminished
The first step was to create a log of everything she had to do that month. She wrote each family member’s schedule in separate columns. They all worked irregular hours. It felt like she could finally press pause on the roller coaster for long enough to see who would be where for the next four weeks. It was horrifying to think about how easily one of them could forget to pick up their baby from preschool in a few years. It felt like it was just a matter of time before they would forget something important
She wrote down events and birthdays so they were easily visible. On her monthly financial log, she listed when bills were due and how much she’d paid. She also added daily boxes to track habits and goals—or just a reminder to stop and breathe
The Monthly Goals and Yearly Goals pages showed her every day that she had a long game, and that she was on her way
It will help you get organized by providing simple tools and techniques that can inject clarity, direction, and focus into your days
In the most connected time in history, we’re quickly losing touch with ourselves. Overwhelmed by a never-ending flood of information, we’re left feeling overstimulated yet restless, overworked yet discontented, tuned in yet burned out
He tried a few apps to keep himself organized, but none were as flexible as he needed. He took to keeping notebooks of to-do lists, but they were a mess. Clients would call him without warning, and he’d rifle through six different notebooks trying to find the notes he needed. He knew he’d written this down . . . somewhere. . . . All of these frantic moments undercut his confidence
The simple act of pausing to write down the important minutia of one’s life goes far beyond simple organization. It has helped people reconnect with themselves and the things they care about
The Promise
Life had gotten too busy. It seemed as if my existence had become just one long to-do list. I had forgotten about my dreams, my goals, my what-ifs, my “what if I could’s.” - Amy Haines
The Bullet Journal method’s mission is to help us become mindful about how we spend our two most valuable resources in life: our time and our energy
We often cobble together ways to organize ourselves on the fly. A little of this app; a little of that calendar. Over time, this results in an unwieldy productivity Frankenstein of Post-its, various apps, and email. It kinda works, but it also feels like it’s coming apart at the seams. You waste time deliberating where information should go and trying to locate it later: Did you write something down in your notes app or on a Post-it? And where did that Post-it go, anyway? Many a great idea, “keeper” thought, or important “note to self” has fallen victim to a misplaced scrap of paper or an outdated app. It’s a compounding inefficiency that drains your bandwidth, but it’s completely avoidable. The Bullet Journal (Twos) is designed to be your “source of truth.” No, this is not some dubious invitation to worship this methodology. It means that you no longer have to wonder where your thoughts live
We live in an age where technology promises us near-limitless options to occupy ourselves, yet we’re left feeling more distracted and disconnected than ever before
Knowing where you are begins with knowing who you are.
Mindfulness is the process of waking up to see what’s right in front of us
The Guide
A notebook, paper, and something to write with
The Why
"Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us." - Richie Norton
Intentionality is “the fundamental power of the mind to direct itself toward something . . . a specific object, purpose, or end.” - David Bentley Hart
Intentionality is the power of the mind to direct itself toward that which it finds meaningful and take action toward that end
When we believe in what we’re doing, we stop mindlessly clocking in. We become more innovative, creative, and present. We’re not only working harder, but smarter because both our hearts and minds are genuinely engaged by the endeavor
Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It’s about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of
Decluttering Your Mind
"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." - William Morris
Being busy is not the same thing as being productive. For most of us, “being busy” is code for being functionally overwhelmed.
Every decision requires you to focus, and focus is an investment of your time and energy. Both are limited—and therefore exceptionally valuable— resources
Warren Buffet's advice: Draft a list of your top 25 career goals, circle your top five. Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list
“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” - Barack Obama
“No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue—you’re not consciously aware of being tired—but you’re low on mental energy.” - Roy F. Baumeister, psychologist
Willpower diminishes over the course of a day
✓ Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister
We need to reduce the number of decisions we burden ourselves with so we can focus on what matters
The Mental Inventory
The first step to recovering from decision fatigue, to get out from under the pile of choices weighing on you, is to get some distance from them. You need some perspective to both clearly identify and corral your choices. We do this by writing them down.
Why write them down? Each decision, until it’s been made and acted on, is simply a thought. Holding on to thoughts is like trying to catch fish with your bare hands: They easily slip from your grasp and disappear back into the muddy depths of your mind. Writing things down allows us to capture our thoughts and examine them in the light of day. By externalizing our thoughts, we begin to declutter our minds. Entry by entry, we’re creating a mental inventory of all the choices consuming our attention.
It’s the first step to taking back control over our lives. Here is where you can begin to filter out the signal from the noise. Here is where your Bullet Journal journey will begin.
Make one list of all the things you are presently working on
Make one list of all the things you should be working on
Make one list of all the things you want to be working on
Ask why for each item on your list
Ask yourself two questions:
Does his matter?
Is this vital?
Any item that doesn’t pass this test is a distraction
Notebooks
Technology removes barriers and distances between people and information
Studies suggest that your concentration suffers simply by having your smartphone in the room with you, even if it’s silent or powered off!
Our notebook serves as a mental sanctuary where we are free to think, reflect, process, and focus
Software tends to be either so powerful that its wealth of features is buried to all but the most intrepid explorers (think Excel) or so specific that it sacrifices features for increased usability, essentially doing few things very well (think mobile apps)
Notebooks, in contrast, are beholden to their authors. Their function is limited only by the imagination of their owner
The other great thing is that you start fresh each day
As the years pass, you’re creating a record of your choices, and the ensuing experiences
“Each Bullet Journal contributes another volume to a library of your life.” - Kim Alvarez
By recording our lives, we’re simultaneously creating a rich archive of our choices and our actions for future reference. We can study our mistakes and learn from them. It’s equally instructive to note our successes, our breakthroughs. When something works professionally or personally, it helps to know what our circumstances were at the time and what choices we made. Studying our failures and our victories can provide tremendous insight, guidance, and motivation as we plot our way forward
All tools, whether digital or analog, are only as valuable as their ability to help you accomplish the task at hand
Handwriting
"The palest ink is better than the best memory." - Chinese Proverb
The complex tactile movement of writing by hand stimulates our mind more effectively than typing. It activates multiple regions of the brain simultaneously, thereby imprinting what we learn on a deeper level. As a result, we retain information longer than we would by tapping it into an app
In one study, college students who were asked to take lecture notes by hand tested better on average than those who had typed out their notes. They were also able to better retain this information long after the exam
True efficiency is not about speed; it’s about spending more time with what truly matters. In the end, that’s what the Bullet Journal method is all about
Part 2: The System
Key concepts
Index: Used to locate your content in your Bullet Journal using Topics and page numbers.
Future log: Used to store Future Tasks and Events that fall outside the current month
Monthly log: Provides an overview of time and tasks for the current month. Also functions as your monthly mental inventory.
Daily log: serves as your catchall for Rapid Logging your thoughts throughout each day
Rapid logging: Using short-form notation paired with symbols to quickly capture, categorize, and prioritize your thoughts into Notes, Events, and Tasks
Dash = Note
Circle = Event
Dot = Task
X = Task complete
> = Task migrated
< = Task scheduled
Strikethrough = Task irrelevant
Collections: the modular building blocks of BuJo, used to store related content. The core collections are the Index, Future Log, Monthly Log, and Daily Log, but you can create one for anything you want to keep track of
Migration: The monthly process of filtering out meaningless content from your notebook
Rapid logging
We can’t rely on memory to accurately capture our experience
Our experiences—both sweet and sour—are lessons. We honor these lessons by writing them down so we can study them and see what they have to teach us
Journaling provides a powerful way of facilitating this path of self-learning
The problem with traditional journaling is that it is loosely structured and time- intensive
This streamlined approach to recording our thoughts saves a lot of time, allowing it to easily fit into our busy lives
Be it at home, school, or the workplace, Rapid Logging will help you organize the dizzying array of things you have to contend with on a daily basis
Topics and pagination
The page's topic name identifies and describes the content, is an opportunity to clarify your intention, and sets the agenda for the content
How many meetings have you sat through that have little to no agenda? Generally, they’re not very productive. Pausing to define the agenda before you start allows you to focus, prioritize, and use your time far more effectively
Does tracking the TV shows I’ve watched this year add any real value? No. I can reinvest that time I saved into something that does
Often all it takes to live intentionally is to pause before you proceed
The daily Topic is simply the date, formatted as month/date/day i.e. 04.01.TH
Bullets
You capture your thoughts as short, objective sentences known as Bullets. Each Bullet is paired with a specific symbol to categorize your entry.
We use Bullets not only because it takes less time, but also because wrestling information into short sentences forces us to distill what’s most valuable
Bullets requires striking a balance between brevity and clarity
If it’s too long, then writing down your thoughts becomes a chore
Things that you need to do (Tasks)
Your experiences (Events)
Information you don’t want to forget (Notes)
Tasks
The Task bullet is fast, clean, and flexible
Tasks are entries that require you to take action
X = Completed tasks where the action has been completed
> migrated tasks are tasks that have been moved forward into your next Monthly Log or into a specific Collection
< scheduled tasks is a task tied to a date that falls outside of the current month and is therefore moved backward into the Future Log at the front of your book
Strikethrough irrelevant tasks when a task doesn't matter anymore
If it no longer matters, then it's a distraction. Strike it off your list. One less thing to worry about
Subtasks can be indented directly below their master task
When a master task has a lot of subtasks you may want to turn it into its own Collection
The Zeigarnik effect: Russian psychiatrist and psychologist Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik observed that the staff at her local restaurant was able to remember complex unfilled orders until they were filled, at which point they forgot the details. The friction of an unfinished Task actively engages your mind.
By logging Tasks and their state, you’ll automatically create an archive of your actions. This becomes immensely valuable during Reflection, or when you review your notebook days, months, or years from now. You’ll always know what you were working toward
Events
Events are experience-related entries that can either be scheduled preemptively or logged after they occur
Event entries, no matter how personal or emotionally taxing, should remain as objective and brief as possible
Not having to articulate the complexity of an experience makes it much more likely for us to write it down. That’s the most important part: to have a record
Event bullets allow you to put a pin in an experience, to temporarily offload it from your mind, so you can refocus on other priorities
You have a record safely stored in your journal, ready for you to revisit whenever you have more time, perspective, or wherewithal to sort out your emotional bureaucracy
Our memories are unreliable. We often trick ourselves into believing things about our experiences that are biased and inaccurate
It’s important to keep an accurate record of how things actually happened, because we often make decisions based on our past experiences. If we operate entirely on memory, we’re apt to repeat our mistakes by fooling ourselves into believing that something had an effect it actually did not. Good or bad, big or small, jot it down. Over the days, months, and years, they will form a pretty accurate roadmap of your life. Understanding how we got to where we are today accurate roadmap of your life. Understanding how we got to where we are today will allow us to make more informed decisions as we plot our course forward
Notes
Notes include facts, ideas, thoughts, and observations. They log information you want to remember that isn’t immediately or necessarily actionable
By asking yourself what’s important and why , you go from passively listening to actively hearing what’s being said. It’s when we begin to hear that information can transform into understanding
Once the event is over, take a few moments and use the time to your advantage. Sit for a while and give yourself a moment to process what you heard. Capture whatever surfaces. Often you’ll gain new insight when you can better contextualize the information as a whole
Having a list of questions can help your next interaction be far more targeted and productive
Keep your future self in mind. Your Notes will be useless if they can’t be deciphered in a week, month, or year from now. Do your future self a kindness and don’t sacrifice clarity for brevity. It will keep your Bullet Journal valuable for years to come
Signifiers and custom bullets
Signifiers are placed in front of bullets so they stick out from the rest of your list, making them easy for the scanning eye to locate
Priority is marked with an asterisk *
Inspiration is marked with an exclamation point
Our star
Delegation can be a forward slash
Collections
The Daily Log
Keep your thoughts organized with very little effort so you can focus on the task at hand
The idea is to be consistently unburdening your mind. It will be able to rest assured, knowing that everything is safely recorded in your notebook
It serves to capture your responsibilities, but it also helps you document your experiences. It’s a safe place where your mind is free to express itself, judgment-free and always happy to welcome your thoughts as they bubble up throughout the day. Over time those thoughts become a record of your state of being, which becomes incredibly valuable when we get into Reflection. It provides the context we often lack in our daily lives. With context we can be more deliberate with our actions
It’s important to remember not to set an expectation for your day, because that’s out of your control
The Daily Log is there to prevent us from having to waste time thinking about where to write things down
The Monthly Log
The Monthly Log is set up on a spread of facing pages. The left page will be your Calendar page; the right page will be your Tasks page
On the Calendar page, list the dates of that month down the left edge of the page, followed by the first letter of the corresponding day of the week
The Tasks page of your Monthly Log will serve as your ongoing Mental Inventory page
Give yourself permission to sit for as long as it takes to offload the action items that have been swimming around your head. What matters this month? What are the priorities?
When you’re done capturing your thoughts, go through the previous month and see what Tasks remain open. Transfer any important items into the new Monthly Log’s Tasks page
This is how Tasks don’t slip through the cracks when you Bullet Journal. We rewrite things until we get them done or they become irrelevant.
The Future Log
The Future Log lives at the front of your Bullet Journal, right after your Index
It usually requires 1–2 spreads of facing pages
Your Future Log functions as a time machine that reveals the outline of the future you’re building, so you can course correct if necessary
The Index
I’ve always kept a work journal where I entered telephone conversations, meeting notes, and other details of my workday chronologically. I also had a gazillion to-do lists and sticky notes, a paper calendar on my desk, and, eventually, an electronic calendar on my phone. Whenever I needed to retrieve any notes from my work journal, I’d first have to hunt in my calendars for the date of the meeting or phone call—or guess at when it might have happened. Then I’d have to flip through my journals to find the date I was looking for.
All I do now is go to my Index, where I’ve written the page number of what I’m seeking, and then flip right to it!
The Index provides an easy way to find your thoughts days, months, or years after entrusting them to your notebook
Part table of contents, part traditional index, the Index lives on the very first pages of your notebook
I recommend allocating two spreads—four facing pages—for your Index
Use your Index to help you stay focused on the things that are worthy of your yes.
Remember, for everything you say yes to, you’re also saying no to something else. Yes means work, it means sacrifice, it means investing time into one thing that you can no longer invest into another
Migration
"There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all." - Peter Drucker
It’s easy to forget that just because something could be done does not mean that it should be done
Productivity is about getting more done by working on fewer things.
If an entry isn’t worth the few seconds of effort required to rewrite it, then it’s probably not that important. Get rid of it
The main Migration happens at the end of every month, when you’re ready to set up a new Monthly Log
Transform any guilt into curiosity by asking yourself why each Task might still be incomplete. Does it matter? Is it vital? What would happen if you didn’t do it?
If you realize an incomplete Task has become irrelevant, strike it out
The Letter
We all have had that momentary lapse in memory when asked something about our or our children’s medical records. Write it down. Keep it with you
His dosages and meds, his specialists and file numbers, phone numbers, allergies.
You could save a life—your own, your child’s, your sister’s, your father’s . . . Being organized could be the difference between life and death.
Part 3: The Practice
"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans." - Allen Saunders
This frenetic cycle of reactivity holds our attention hostage, limiting our ability to recognize opportunities for love, growth, and purpose
We need to wedge a space between the things that happen to us and the way that we react to them. In this space, we’re granted an opportunity to examine our experience. Here we can learn what’s in our control, what’s meaningful, what’s worth our attention, and why . It’s how we begin to define who we are and what we believe in.
You can’t make time, you can only take time
Happiness is the by-product of meaning
Small questions and small solutions lead to big change over time
Productivity is about sustainable improvement
Failure is guaranteed if you never begin
Better > Perfect
The only thing you can control is the way you respond.
Focusing on things you can’t control allows them to control you. Focus on what you can control.=
To be useful, you must become useful, especially to yourself. You can’t improve the world around you if you can’t improve the world within. Choose your friends wisely, and be a friend to yourself
Achievement is empty without appreciation. If you can’t appreciate your hard work, what’s the point?!
Beginning
"Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the painter who dares and who has broken the spell of “you can’t” once and for all." - Vincent Van Gogh
To dare in life is to make yourself vulnerable to the possibility of failure
The issue wasn’t that she lacked motivation; it was that she walled herself off from trying, lest she fail
When we grant ourselves the opportunity to be rewarded by our courage, powerful things can happen
There never has been, nor will there ever be, another like you. Your singular perspective may patch some small hole in the vast tattered fabric of humanity. Uniqueness alone, however, does not make you valuable. If you don’t do , if you don’t dare , then you rob the world—and yourself—of the chance to contribute something meaningful
“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.” - Robert Bresson, French film director
We must take it upon ourselves to grow. We grow by learning, and we learn by daring to take action
Reflection
"Know thyself." - Socrates
For everything we say yes to, we’re saying no to something else