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

Turns out, Bullet Journaling is an incredibly simple concept that is remarkably difficult to explain, in part because “you do you” is such a major aspect of it—meaning

A dot journal is a system for writing down all the things that you want to remember in a single notebook:

When I look back at my old diaries, I’m always amazed by how much I left out of them. I wrote a lot about boys, and far less about school, my friends, books I was reading, money, goals I was working toward, or simply what my daily routine was like. My to-do lists may have contained some of that information, but I didn’t bother to hang on to them because I didn’t think they were important.

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

being organized is one way I practice self-care.

In addition to serving my own needs, I look at being organized as a gift to other people. The older I get, the more I understand that my personal decisions and my overall mood have a major effect on those around me.

Writing in a diary is, at its core, a declaration that your voice matters.

finding your voice in private makes it much easier to find your voice in public.

THE PETTIEST INDEX Mrs. Betsey Fremantle (née Wynne) kept diaries throughout her life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, diaries that were later published by her great-granddaughter Anne Fremantle. The index to volume I, prepared by Anne, contains the following entry: dislikes Bombelles family, 119, 157, 164, 165, 170, 174, 175, 177-9, 183, 184, 186, 187, 190, 191, 202, 207, 208, 211, 213, 220, 224, 225, 229, 230, 231, 235, 236, 254, 260, 261, 271 I’m not saying you should create an index entry for every time you trash-talk someone or something . . . but I’m not saying you shouldn’t do that, either.

core reasons for dot journaling: organization, self-reflection, self-improvement, and getting stuff done.

So if you find that dot journaling adds value to your life, you’ll find time for it. And, look: If you have the time to write “Who has that kind of time?” on things you see on the Internet, the answer is probably . . . you. You have the time, angry Internet commenter.

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

You can track the things you want to be doing more of (cooking dinner at home, taking walks, reading) and things you want to be doing less of (eating fast food, swearing, drinking several cocktails and then shopping online, a thing that I have definitely never done because that would be crazy, ha ha ha).

15: age at which Beatrix Potter began writing in a diary, a habit she kept up from 1881 to 1897, in a code known only to her

1958: year that a man named Leslie Linder cracked the code and made it possible to read Potter’s diaries

The page with the mistake is dead to you now. Let us never speak of it again.

His diaries contain some real gems, and by “gems” I mean things that made me mutter, “Wow, what an asshole.” On January 9, 1663, Pepys tore apart and burned his wife’s diary because he didn’t like that she “wrote in English, and most of it true, of the retirednesse of her life and how unpleasant it is.” Yes, this dude who is famous for writing diaries destroyed his wife’s diary because he didn’t like the true things she wrote about him in it. Also! On June 3, 1666, the still-married Mr. Pepys wrote in his diary of what he did with one Mrs. Martin: “Did what je Bourdais avec her, both devante and backward, which is also muy bon plazer”—one of the numerous affairs he recorded in his diary. I’m not sure what is worse: that he cheated on his wife, or that he documented it in cheesy faux French. Le woof.

After that, I made it a point to tell anyone who might need to know that my diary is private, and that reading it would be a pretty unforgivable offense, which basically means: If you read my diary and see something about yourself that you don’t like, you don’t get to be angry with me about it.

“When your life and emotions feel so out of control or chaotic, there is something immensely therapeutic about organizing it into a systematic structure,”

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMMONPLACE BOOKS, AKA DOT JOURNALS OF YORE During the Renaissance and early modern period, a type of journal known as a “commonplace book” became popular with students, scholars, and reading enthusiasts. According to the Harvard University Library, “a commonplace book contains a collection of significant or well-known passages that have been copied and organized in some way, often under topical or thematic headings, in order to serve as a memory aid or reference for the compiler. Commonplace books serve as a means of storing information, so that it may be retrieved and used by the compiler, often in his or her own work.”

Most people don’t spend nearly enough time celebrating the crap out of themselves. Why not do your part to remedy this?

I am anxious, and it soothes me to express myself here. It is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time. —MINA MURRAY in her journal in Dracula

2. Don’t press so hard. Maintain a light touch; you only need enough pressure to make the ink appear. Anything more than that is just going to make your hand hurt.

3. Research what your letters should actually look like. Yes, there is a correct way to form each letter—and it may not be the way you learned in grade school. If you want inspiration, check out the Spencerian script, the Palmer method, and the Zaner-Bloser method. While all these penmanship systems are beautiful (and can be very intimidating at first glance), they weren’t actually created with the goal of looking pretty—they were designed to make writing faster, easier, and less painful. Following these methods can make your handwriting look better and also make it possible to write comfortably for long periods of time.

4. Retrain your hand and arm. If your hand quickly gets tired or sore when you’re writing, you’re probably not using proper posture or engaging the correct muscles. The correct way to sit, hold your pen, place your paper, and form letters might be at odds with everything you’re used to, but retraining your body (using one of the aforementioned penmanship systems) can be a game changer.

I planned my initial layouts with my current life in mind, not a fantasy version of my life where I don’t spend the first hour after I get home from work mindlessly scrolling through my phone, where I always iron my clothes the night before I need to wear them, and where I never fumble with my change and receipt at the cash register.

Pilot Juice 0.38 gel pen,

Pilot G2 0.5 black gel pen

Muji 0.5 gel i...

Uni-ball Deluxe Micro 0.5

Pilot Precise V5 RT.

Uni Jetstream Alpha Gel Grip 0.7 and the Uni Jetstream St...

Zebra F-3...

Pentel R.S.V.P. 0.7.

WASHI TAPE

MT brand tape.

Empty iPhone boxes are the perfect size for storing washi tape.

A mini ruler will only cost you a couple bucks and is incredibly helpful for making layouts. I prefer metal rulers because they are flat/thin enough to keep tucked inside my journal.

Aside from looking cool, binder clips will keep your journal lying flat and open on your desk while you work.

If you prefer to sketch your layouts in pencil before going over them in pen, you’ll want a good eraser that doesn’t tear holes in yo...

There are several different kinds of tabs on the market, but I love the brass ones pictured from Traveler's Company. One caveat: They can tear up your pages a little bit, so I don’t use them to mark my daily or even my weekly pages—I prefer using them on pages that I’m going to reference regularly, but that aren’t going to change very often.

MochiThings, JetPens, and Kawaii Pen Shop

You can buy a tin of fifty book darts for about $10.