Bullet journaling 101: Mindfulness meets productivity | Ryder Carroll | Big Think

When people ask me what the Bullet Journal method is, I like to describe it as a mindfulness practice that’s disguised as a productivity system. So what sets Bullet Journal apart from regular list keeping and journaling? It’s not linear.

So essentially, you create these things called collections, which are essentially lists or graphs or whatever you need of related information. So that could be a shopping list, it could be a to-do list, it could be a project, it could be a fertility tracker—whatever you need it to be. Bullet Journal lays a framework for you to have all these different components work with each other. The way it does that is through simple mechanisms you already know—page numbers, page titles.

For example, there’s an index, and the index allows you to simply store all the different collections that you have in your notebook so you can quickly find them again. There are four core collections in the Bullet Journal. One is the daily log. It’s a way for us to capture all the thoughts that bubble up throughout the day and categorize them into tasks, events, and notes using different symbols. So we keep our entries very short, and then we also tag them essentially with an icon.

Then we have this thing known as a monthly log. The monthly log, on one page, is a monthly calendar, and then on the next page is a monthly task list, essentially where you can create a monthly inventory each month. You take a step back, think about what you want to get done that month—anything that’s bubbled up—and get it out of your head and on paper.

The calendar on the monthly log can be used in one of two ways. In a traditional way, but I prefer to use it as a way to actually write down things after they happen. So the calendar quickly becomes a timeline of the decisions you made and the events that have happened, essentially. Having the context of when what actually happened can be very revealing in its own right. Like, did you actually start working out three weeks ago or a week and a half ago? Did you send that email then or whatnot? So it’s a timeline of highlights in your life.

So you have the monthly log. Then you have the future log for all the things that happen outside of the current month. The Bullet Journal unfolds in real time, so we don’t hoard pages. Essentially, every time you flip a page, it can accept pretty much anything that you need it to be—drawings, poetry, lists, projects, whatever you want.

The way that works is with the index. Every time you flip the page and you use it for a different purpose, you number your pages and then you list that page and its title in the index. So you have these four core collections. But you can create collections for pretty much anything you like. Again, shopping lists, vacation planning—lists can be infinite, pretty much.

You can keep writing things down, and whether or not you do them well, you know, that just depends on the person. What I found really important is that I keep reengaging with the things that I write down and keep curating the substance of my experience, if you will. So we have the monthly log, essentially. Every month we set up a new monthly log, and in between the monthly logs you have the daily logs.

The daily logs are there to capture your tasks, events, and notes. At the end of each month, what you do is you reflect over the last—so at the end of every month, you reflect through the past month and see the things that you’ve done and the things that you haven’t done.

Then you have a choice to make. If something isn’t done, you can ask yourself why? Is it because you just didn’t get around to it, or because it’s not really adding value to your life? Is it vital? Does it matter? If it doesn’t, then you get rid of that item. In the process of reviewing your previous month, you’re automatically filtering out distractions from your life.

So it’s not about keeping a never-ending to-do list. It’s about keeping a to-do list that’s actionable, with things on it that you believe actually add value to your life. That’s something that I haven’t seen before. A lot of people ask me, like, doesn’t it take a lot of time to keep rewriting your tasks?

I would say it might take a little bit more time upfront, but if it’s not even worth rewriting, then is it really worth taking up space in your life, in your mind, in your day? A lot of times, the things that we work on will absorb so much more time than they need to. I think the question is, does it need to be done in the first place?