I've heard a ton of people say they love this "bullet journal" method of organization and keeping track of your thoughts, so I decided to check out the book by the guy who invented it and see what it's all about. Even after reading the whole thing, I'm honestly not sure I could tell you. It's confusing AF. I'm going to attempt to explain it, at least to the point where it went off the rails for me.

So this practice is basically designed to give you an all-in-one task list, journal, and planner. They sell special notebooks if you're into that thing, but you can start one with anything (a notebook of your own, filler paper in a binder, etc.). The whole point is that it's a system not a product. Which I really like; I don't want to have to buy special products for this thing to work.

Okay, so then you're supposed to keep a daily log of stuff that happens using a special notation system. A dash indicates a note. An open circle indicates an event. A closed circle (bullet) indicates a task. You put an "x" through completed tasks when you finish them. You cross out tasks that are made irrelevant at some point in the day. You use a "<" to indicate a task has been scheduled, and a ">" to indicate a task has been migrated. Now, I'm no stranger to shorthand systems and while that can all be a little confusing at first, I know that if you stick with it long enough you get used to it and it becomes easier. But what's this thing about "migrating" a task?

Well, that's where it starts to get weird.

Apparently, in addition to a Daily Log, you're also supposed to keep a Monthly Log (a summary of the whole month at a glance), and a Future Log (things you don't have time for at the moment but you know you have to tackle eventually). You can even get modular with it and maintain Daily, Monthly, and Future Logs for multiple different areas of your life and call them Collections. So you could have a Work Collection alongside a Family Collection alongside a Secret Life As A Superhero Collection or whatever your thing is. Migration is when you move tasks between Daily and Monthly and Future Logs and the process gets so complicated that they recommend you leave several blank pages at the beginning of your journal to serve as an "index" so you can remind yourself where you wrote which stuff down.

Oh, and you should also feel free to develop "custom bullets" that mean something to you... like maybe asterisks to denote important tasks versus run of the mill tasks. And don't forget to create a "calendar page" (different than the Monthly Log!) so you can see your appointments and whatnot separate from your goals and to-do list. BTW, it's a good idea to keep a "Mental Inventory" list as well, and migrate it among your other lists as needed.

I'm sure this is a fantastic system for someone who can put the time into mastering it. But as much as it's supposed to be designed for people who are overwhelmed and trying to get their life organized, it almost feels like you have to set aside time to learn this whole thing before it'll be of any use... and the whole point of trying to find a system to get organized is that I'm already maxed out. I don't have the bandwidth to basically teach myself an entirely new language.

Now, I will concede that the book (and other online resources) do make it clear that this is meant to be a modular system where you start small and build out what you need (you wouldn't, for example, start tracking multiple Collections and migrating tasks between Daily, Monthly, and Future Logs on Day 1), but still... this system is confusing as hell. Enough people have raved about it that I might devote some mental resources to giving it a try for a few weeks to see if it sticks, but oh man, this book is not doing the system any favors because it rattles off concepts and steps like the reader is totally right alongside the author nodding along and I'm re-reading passages multiple times going, "Wait, what did he just say? What's that?"

I found out after reading this book that the author has ADHD and developed this system to help him keep track of all his various thoughts and stuff... and that totally makes sense now. I can see how he developed this intricate system to address all of the thoughts firing in his head at a given time, and would help him focus. The system is supposed to be for everybody... and I will say that the author has some great insights about the value of writing on paper versus a computer, and of using this system to not just keep a to-do list but also as a form of journal that helps provide insight about yourself as you look back and review old entries to glean insights you may not have been able to see in the moment... but (and maybe this is just me), I think I'd need to start really slow and maybe work on getting the notations down... then moving on to Daily or Future Logs with tentative steps. Because this system is way too complicated for me to just read this book and be able to say, "Oh, I've got it now."

I feel like I need to journal/take notes on this book about journaling/taking notes just to make sense of everything.

I think I might give it a try over the holidays when things are slow and see how it goes. Who knows, maybe I'll be a Bullet Journalist (or BuJo as they like to affectionately call themselves) one of these days after all.

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Created Mar 06, 2024 at 5:32pm • Submit your own review...