The Bullet Journal Method

Key Concepts

At core, the system nudges one to reflect on what matters and then take steps toward that.

“Many poor decisions are born in the vacuum of self-awareness. We get so caught up in the doing of things that we forget to ask why we’re doing them in the first place. Asking why is the first small but deliberate step we can take in the search for meaning.” (p. 132)

Reflection is built into the system through migration of notes from day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year.

“We need to be vigilant about regularly curating our commitments so that we can focus our time and energy on things that actually matter.” (p. 107)

“During Migration, we transfer content from one place in our Bullet Journal to another by rewriting it. This may seem like a lot of effort, but it serves a critical purpose: It weeds out distractions. Because it takes a little bit more time to rewrite things by hand, there’s a built-in incentive to pause and consider each candidate.” (p. 107)

Start basic, and stick with it.

“I recommend at least two to three months of basic Bullet Journaling before you start experimenting with your Collections.” (p. 233)

“The only thing that matters in BuJo is the content, not the presentation.” (p. 244)

Core Elements of the System

INDEX 

“Used to locate your content in your Bullet Journal using Topics and page numbers.” (p. 55)

FUTURE LOG 

“Used to store Future Tasks and Events that fall outside the current month.” (p. 55)

MONTHLY LOG 

“Provides an overview of time and tasks for the current month. Also functions as your monthly mental inventory.” (p. 55)

DAILY LOG 

“Serves as your catchall for Rapid Logging your thoughts throughout each day” (p. 55)

RAPID LOGGING 

“Using short-form notation paired with symbols to quickly capture, categorize, and prioritize your thoughts into Notes, Events, and Tasks.” (p. 56)

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.” (p. 56)

MIGRATION 

“The monthly process of filtering out meaningless content from your notebook.” (p. 57)

Quotables

“The Bullet Journal method will help you accomplish more by working on less. It helps you identify and focus on what is meaningful by stripping away what is meaningless.” (p. 15)

“How does it do this? By weaving together productivity, mindfulness, and intentionality into a framework that is flexible, forgiving, and, most importantly, practical. Let’s take a closer look at each.” (p. 15)

“For most of us, “being busy” is code for being functionally overwhelmed.” (p. 34)

“The fact that it takes longer to write things out by hand gives handwriting its cognitive edge.” (p. 48)

“That said, organization can become a cleverly disguised form of distraction.” (p. 123)

“The significance of what we’re doing, or how we’re doing it, pales in comparison to why we’re doing it in the first place.” (p. 123)

“A common misconception about meditation is that it’s about getting rid of thoughts. Rather, mindfulness helps distance yourself from them. A helpful metaphor shared by one of my teachers was that if thoughts were cars, meditation helps us stand on the side of the road rather than getting stuck in traffic.” (p. 184)

“I would argue that the point of tracking is just as much about cultivating self-awareness as it is about making progress.” (p. 268)