The Bullet Journal Method: Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Plan Your Future

by Ryder Carroll

If you haven’t updated a given Collection, you’ll know that it’s not adding much value to your life. It’s okay to let it go.

A key part of Bullet Journaling is learning what you’re curious about and what you naturally gravitate toward.

We do this by asking ourselves small questions, like Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? When do I want to go? And what’s my budget? We can repurpose these questions to define categories like Destinations, Activities, Time, and Budget. Right after your Brainstorm spread, list these categories out along with their considerations, so you can start to structure the framework for your project (this page).

VACATION TO HAWAII MISSION STATEMENT “I want to go on vacation so that I can remind myself what I’m working for by spending quality time with people I care about while we have fun exploring a tropical place together.” DESTINATIONS – Where do I want to go in Hawaii? ACTIVITIES – What do I want to do? – What do my travel companions like to do? TIME – Vacation days available – Flight time – Local commute time – Activities duration BUDGET – Flight – Car rental – Lodging – Gas – Food – Activities

As we’ve discussed, overwhelm can quickly drain us of our motivation and excitement. We can mitigate this by educating ourselves ahead of time.

We need to research, but we also need to make progress. How do we do both, in the proper proportions? This is where time boxing (this page) comes into play.

When you’re figuring out your research time slot, also limit the number of total sessions you have available.

Without a plan, action tends to result in wasted motion, energy, and time, often culminating in the disappointment of failure.

When we’re drafting a list, like the one for our vacation, we’re just gathering data: This sounds like fun or that seems important, and so on. We get caught up in the capture, which is fine as long as the list serves a purpose. Once our list is more or less complete, it’s time to take a step back and reflect on it. Which items excite you? Which don’t? Weigh each entry on a mental scale and take a first pass using the “*” Signifier to prioritize the items you feel strongest about or are the most time sensitive, and strike off the items you feel “meh” about. We’re not here to design a lukewarm life.

Context provides information that will help us prioritize. To that end, let’s add some parameters to our list that will help facilitate our decision-making by adding some context: location, time, and cost.

To be clear, I’m not saying do whatever you want! Be sure that any additions or customizations prove themselves helpful over and over again. Less, but better.

(thecalendex.com)

Q: How do I migrate notebooks? A: Review your notebook for things that helped you make progress. Only move the things that added value to your life into your next notebook. You can also thread content that you don’t want to rewrite (this page).