Show Notes

Episode 188: Bullet Journaling


Janine and Shannon have talked quite a bit about electronic task management, but in this episode, we delve into bullet journaling, a hand-written task management system. Shannon’s been using this system for years and Janine is a starry-eyed novice.

Discussion topics include:

  • How Bullet Journaling is one of a number of things that Janine has embraced after Shannon did it for a long time
  • Shannon’s assertion that she benefits because Janine then tells her stuff she didn’t know about
  • Janine’s shift from electronic to paper for task management
  • What is a Bullet Journal? A bound, indexed journal in which you capture information quickly
  • The Bullet Journal’s special sauce: Its index, which is brilliant in its simplicity
  • The value of handwriting the weekly schedule and tasks for Shannon (even though she also captures them electronically)
  • Shannon’s weekly approach to her Bullet Journal vs Janine’s monthly/daily approach
  • Shannon’s notebook recommendations: hard cover, dot grid with pre-printed page numbers
  • Pen recommendations: Shannon loves the Pilot Frixion pens and Janine loves the Pigma Micron 01 + Zebra Mildliner markers
  • Fast-writing vs slow-writing pens
  • The perils of watching Bullet Journal YouTube videos
  • Our agreement that the fancy spreads shown off on YouTube don’t really represent what Bullet Journaling is all about
  • Shannon’s advice to new Bullet Journalers: Read Ryder Carroll’s explanation and avoid YouTube
  • Keeping Bullet Journals simple and sustainable
  • The Bullet Journal Companion App
  • How the ever-changing content of a Bullet Journal helps keep the system fresh
  • How a good-enough attitude helps when you Bullet Journal
  • Shannon’s weekly spread that she based on the Planner Pad
  • Bullet Journal Collections + the Future Log
  • Starting small with the Bullet Journal

Photos:

Here’s Shannon’s weekly spread from way back in 2017. It hasn’t changed!


Weekly BuJo spread

Here’s Janine’s monthly log + habit tracker. She’s embracing good enough!

Bujo monthly log

Links:

3 thoughts on “Episode 188: Bullet Journaling”

  1. Been using a BuJo for more than 5 years. Your advice is spot on. I wished I had known about it sooner than 6 week before I retired! My set up has some doodles on the monthly face page, (each month has weekly pages and then a Review page before the next month. ) In trying out many different journals, some had no page numbers so I used those plastic attachable index tabs for sections like Knitting, Gifts Given. I set up a month in the last week of the previous one, which keeps what’s coming in my mind. I love it.

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