Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together

by Rachel Wilkerson Miller

our tasks, habits, and routines actually reveal a lot about what we prioritize, what we aspire to, and who we are.

Writing about yourself and your life—even just brief notes!—is a huge privilege, and that writing can be incredibly liberating. Writing in a diary is, at its core, a declaration that your voice matters. If you’re one of the many people who is told the opposite by society—told that you should be quieter, that expressing your own needs makes you selfish or “crazy,” that you mostly exist to take care of other people—then choosing to speak your truth can be a powerful act. It’s a way of saying, “I’m more than a supporting character in someone else’s narrative; I am the hero of this story, and what I do, say, think, and feel has value.” And finding your voice in private makes it much easier to find your voice in public.

1. Keep it simple, especially at first.

2. Do a little preplanning.

3. Don’t overthink it!

The items you’ll jot down in your dot journal mostly fall into three categories: tasks, events, and notes. Tasks: things you need to do or have already done

Events: things that are going to happen, and things that already have Notes: thoughts, observations, and basically everything that is neither a task nor an event

Write a dot next to things that you need to do. Draw an x over the dot to mark to-dos that are complete. Write the less-than symbol (<) over the dot to show that a task has been scheduled, or write the greater-than symbol (>) over it to show that the task has been migrated—aka you didn’t finish it today/this week/this month, so you moved it to another day’s/week’s/month’s list.

Add a caret (^) over the dot when you’ve started a task. (Because even if you don’t finish it, it’s nice to feel like you accomplished something.) Use a dash for quick thoughts, notes, observations, or smaller events. Draw an open box to mark big events (appointments, birthdays, meetings, anniversaries, etc.). Put a slash through any items that are no longer relevant. I also write the x and other symbols inside the event box when appropriate. (For example, if an event gets rescheduled, I draw the migration symbol in the box. If the event is canceled, I put a slash in the box.) And when writing about big moments in my diary section, I use the event box, and then color the box in with one of three markers, depending on what kind of event it was.

Mere facts and names and dates communicate more than we suspect. —Henry David Thoreau

Simple date list + simple task list One fast and unfussy way to create a monthly spread is to simply list all the dates down the left side of the page. Then you can write in the bigger events—travel, birthdays, appointments, etc.—next to the corresponding date. The task list, which can either be on the same page or a separate page, contains all the big to-dos you want to check off in a given month. When creating your task list, you’ll use the dot-journaling symbols . . . so the dot, the x, etc.

If you’re leaning toward having multiple notebooks, you may be interested in another option: buying an empty journal cover that has a system of elastic bands inside it, bands that make it possible to slip multiple softcover notebooks in and out. This arrangement (often called a “traveler’s notebook” online, after Traveler’s Company, which popularized the style) is great if you want separate notebooks for different areas of interest, but want to keep all of them with you most of the time.

habit trackers are an excellent way to visualize the progress you’re making on your personal goals.

Weekly events, divided by type I love this spread, which is great for people who don’t have much to write each day, and/or want to be able to visually distinguish between personal and work events. As an alternative, you could designate one column as events and one as tasks, one as school and one as work, etc.

Multiple-column weekly layout If you looked at the previous spread and thought, OK, that, but divided into work, school, and home, plus with some space for additional lists, then this might be a good layout for you!

If you don’t have much time to spend creating your spread each day, you’ll probably be happiest with something simple and straightforward.

What did I learn this month? What did I accomplish this month? What surprised me this month? What day do I remember best from this month? Who played a big role in my life this month? What was my best moment? What was my worst? What do I wish I’d done differently? What did I start doing? What did I stop doing? What goals do I want to achieve next month?

“HOW HONEST SHOULD I BE IN MY DOT JOURNAL?” I vote for being pretty honest.

I’d encourage you to be candid, and to include a lot of details. (This also applies to your tasks and goals, too; be honest about what you want to do, what’s motivating you, and what you do or don’t want to accomplish.)

Before you start tracking your health habits, set realistic goals so you don’t get discouraged if you have an off day (or . . . several off days). Bonior says it’s best not to go into this expecting that your tracker will look perfect at the end of the month. It’s more important that it reflects your real life, and helps you improve.

Daily health-tracking layout This spread is a simple and elegant way to attend to your physical and mental health on a day-to-day basis; you can do this instead of the big monthly health tracker, or in addition to it. A daily setup lets you start each day with a clean slate, so it’s especially good for people who find that missing a single workout or having one unhealthy meal can make them want to give up completely.

Rant boxes Journaling can be great for your mental health . . . but sometimes, helpful reflection can turn into harmful rumination. Bonior suggests giving yourself a limit (like a half page or full page, or, say, twenty minutes) when you’re writing about things that upset you so you don’t start obsessing. If you reach your limit and still want to keep writing, she suggests you switch gears and write down action steps instead of ranting further. (Think: What can I do tomorrow to help address this?) Your action step could even be “If I’m still upset about this tomorrow, I’ll give myself another twenty minutes to write about it.”

To-don’t list In a notebook that’s mostly devoted to to-do lists, I think there’s real value in creating a to-don’t list. A to-don’t list is a way to remind yourself of the things you stand for and the things you stand against. It’s helpful if you’re working toward a goal or trying to break bad habits, and it provides a clear snapshot of who you are and what you care about at a given moment in time.

Gratitude list Many dot journalers keep gratitude lists in their notebooks, and for good reason—experts say that reminding yourself of all the things you have can make you feel more content. One incredibly simple way to do it is to list all the dates for the month down the side of the page, and then write at least one thing you’re grateful for every night.

Shopping list Shopping lists are a natural fit for a dot journal. While I’ll cover grocery lists in more detail later, I find it helpful to keep a running list of items I need to buy the next time I go to the stores I visit the most, or—more realistically—the next time I decide to abuse my Amazon Prime account.

Book list I’ve been a huge bookworm my entire life, and every single one of my dot journals has contained a “books I read this year” list. When I start a new book, I add it to the list, and then I go back and add in the date I finished it once I’m done. Alternatively, you could create a list of all the books you’d like to read, which is what a lot of dot journalers do, and what is shown in the photo here.

Quotes are for everyone, even you, extremely cynical person reading this and shaking your head.

While making a list for all your wins is awesome, you can (and should!) do lists for other types of wins, too: creative wins, financial wins, health or fitness wins, career wins, etc.