Can Bullet Journaling Help create more calm in your life?

 Can Bullet Journaling help create more calm in your life?

It has for me.  I've been practicing this off and on for 3 years and everytime things start to become cluttered and the notes are piling up; I know it's time to return to this technique.  Ryder Carroll is the one who invented the concept and perfected his method over the years.  He struggled with ADHD and needed a method for containing all of the ideas.  

     

Here's what I would say, if you keep notes in multiple places and in your phone and it feels too chaotic, then you should give it a try.  I know there are all of these people "fancying" up their pages and making bullet journaling this beautiful and unattainable practice but I'm here to tell you that it's really not at all about that.  The basic premise is to take all of your notes and keep them ALL in one handwritten notebook.  Here's the other thing... I keep returning to this method because it does work and is so simple.  It's a way of keeping track of things and recording things (literally whatever you want).  I'm not much of a tracker, some people use it to track all sorts of things.  I am more of a list maker so, for me it's just a very concise way of keeping my lists and because everything is in one place I know where the note is because it's only in the one notebook.  I also really love the calendar and having that at the beginning of each month.  Regardless, I'm going to show you a little bit of everything below.

    Why is it called a Bullet Journal? - because these notebooks have a little dot grid (bullets) inside for keeping your notes.  I'm linking a source if you want to buy an inexpensive bullet journal.  https://www.amazon.com/shop/laurelbeard/list/27Y9O17AQTP1X?linkCode=spc&tag=laurelbeard-20&domainId=influencer&asc_contentid=amzn1.ideas.27Y9O17AQTP1XSome 

Some of them are ridiculously expensive and to be honest you don't really need a bullet journal.  I've done this same concept in a dollar store composition notebook, so don't let that get in your way.

Why not use an app?  Because when you write something down you are much more likely to remember it.  Also, it's just so much easier than opening that thing on a device where distractions can happen.  I love having it open and with me to jot down ideas or notes when they come to me, this is especially true when I'm on my computer.  I don't have to leave what I'm working on and go to another window or pickup my phone to take the note.  The notebook is right there and I love writing things down!

Okay - so let's get into the concepts and why it works so well.  Also, feel free to adjust add - subtract use the symbols, don't use the symbols, this is your notebook.  Sometimes it's easier just to start and then adjust as time goes on.  That's what I've done.

When you decide to begin - choose your notebook and at the beginning write the key for your notes.  This makes it super easy to get into a rhythm for your to do list. Again feel free to adjust as you see fit. 

 

Next, add a calendar.  Sometimes at the beginning I'll put a full 3-6 months, just so that I have an at a glance calendar.  You can write one or print one out and glue it in.  Below is how I setup the monthly calendar.  This is super easy and makes it so nice because as things pop up you can add them and keep track.  At the end of this calendar I was traveling so I put where I was each day.  You could add all sorts of things - monthly cycle - headache - special events and happenings - you get the idea.  If you think you need more room - leave it.  Some people also leave a summary section for each month.  You should also add any bigger goals for that month - then you can break down the steps and add them into your daily to do items. 

 

Tracking things...  As I said I'm not much of a tracker but here are a couple that I thought were clever.  I never ended up using the mood tracker but I did use the exercise check off.  I like that one because it could not be easier and you could change the title to be literally anything.   

Last, the meat of this is... writing your daily to do items:

Final notes - I have used this lots of different ways.  At times I've kept this and then written notes about the day after as a kind of diary.  The beauty of the whole system is that it can be customized to fit your life.  If your life is super segmented - your book or day could be segmented.  Maybe you need a section for family, activities, work, volunteering, etc.  Once you start - I bet you'll return to this idea because it does help calm us to know that all of that stuff cluttering our brains can go into one place - your bullet journal.

Other ideas - add top 3 things to get done that day. (especially if you're prone to over assign tasks or want to focus on getting to those bigger goal items each day)  Another one I love is adding 3 things you're thankful for at the end of each day's list.  Or instead of assigning tasks one day leave it blank and write all the things you did get done.  Who knows but happy journaling everyone!

Cheers as always,

Eileen