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

by Ryder Carroll

the Zeigarnik effect. Russian psychiatrist and psychologist Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik observed that the staff at her local restaurant was able to remember complex unfilled orders until they were filled, at which point they forgot the details. The friction of an unfinished Task actively engages your mind.

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.

Through Reflection, we cultivate the habit of checking in with ourselves to examine our progress, our responsibilities, our circumstances, and our state of mind. It helps us see if we’re solving the right problems, answering the right questions. It’s by questioning our experience that we begin to sort the wheat from the chaff—the why from the what.

If we blindly hold on to the past, we’ll be forced to sustain ourselves with the expiring beliefs from seasons gone by. No wonder we’re often left feeling unsatisfied, empty, starving for substance.

Once your journal is updated, bring your attention to each item individually. Here’s where you begin to ask: Why is this important?

Convenience, however, often comes at the expense of understanding.

Migration is designed to add the friction you need to slow down, step back, and consider the things you task yourself with.

handwriting triggers our critical thinking, helping us draw new connections between thoughts.

The goal is getting into the habit of checking in with yourself, asking small whys.

the so-called ‘real world’ of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self.”22

cultivate your awareness, “it will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars—compassion, love, the subsurface unity of all things.”23

When you go to the optometrist, you’re asked to read symbols off a chart through a large metal device filled with lenses known as a phoropter. As you read, the optometrist switches lenses, asking you which brings the symbols into focus. Is it better now? Click. How about now? Click. The purpose is to find an array of lenses that alters the way light hits our retinas so that we may see with greater clarity.

Eyes see only light, ears hear only sound, but a listening heart perceives meaning. —DAVID STEINDL-RAST

favorite Twilight Zone episode is called “A Nice Place to Visit.” It follows the story of a Mr. Valentine, a scrappy burglar gunned down by the police during a robbery, who is guided into the afterlife by an affable Englishman in a crisp white suit. To Valentine’s surprise, he’s ushered into luxury: an opulent New York penthouse, closets stocked with bespoke suits, bars brimming with the finest liquor. He showboats around town in fancy cars and wins game after game at the casinos surrounded by smitten socialites. Money, power, sex appeal—everything he ever wanted—finally his. In time, though, the novelty fades. His joy withers to boredom. This perfect, longed-for existence reveals itself to be entirely unfulfilling. Valentine turns to his guide and says, “I don’t think heaven is for me. I think I belong in the other place.” Whereupon his guide wryly responds, “What makes you think this is heaven?”

“The fantasy was never real,”

None of us can know with any true certainty what will make us happy. In fact, it turns out that we’re pretty lousy at guessing how something will make us feel, thanks to a phenomenon known as impact bias: “the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future feeling states.”

“Happiness is like an orgasm: If you think about it too much, it will go away.”

No longer satisfied with what we already have, we treat our withdrawal pains by incrementally upping the dosage. More shoes, more booze, more sex, more food, more “likes,” just more. This phenomenon is known as hedonic adaptation.

You buy shoes at the shoe store, clothes at the clothing store, cars at the dealership, and so on. Notice that there is no happiness store. It’s not because it can’t be bought; it’s because happiness can’t be owned.

The people of Okinawa, Japan, for example, are among the happiest and longest-lived populations, with the world’s highest ratios of centenarians at approximately 50 per 100,000.32 When asked what their secret to happiness was, a common answer was ikigai. “Your ikigai is at the intersection of what you are good at and what you love doing,”

There is no intellectualizing what resonates with you, and that’s why it’s so hard to define. When it reveals itself, you feel it.

Before you join that gym, enroll in those classes, buy that TV, or even set goals, it helps to have some basic big-picture awareness that guides your actions.

for each path, take 15 minutes or more to write your obituary based on having taken that path. Create a “Two Lives” Collection and add it to your Index. Start with one spread for one path. Set up the second spread only when you’ve completed the first. Fill as many pages as you need. Dig deep. Be honest. This is for your eyes only. What do you see as you look far down each path?

Read through both obituaries. On the next page in your notebook, write yourself a letter. What realizations, emotions, questions, positives, or negatives came up during the exercise? What surprised you? What saddened or scared you? What excited you? The point is to capture how you feel about seeing your whole life flash before your eyes. Phrase it in a way to remind your future self—the one who will be reading this later—what shifted, because something definitely will. Remind yourself what you’re trying to get away from, and where you want to go.

Select the life you liked best, and identify and circle the accomplishments that you’re most proud of. Once you’re done, migrate (this page) these items into a “Goals” Collection

We can do no great things; only small things with great love. —MOTHER TERESA

Your goals should be inspired by your felt experience.

create a Goals Collection in your Bullet Journal on the next blank spread. Big or small, just write them down here so you have them clearly contained in one reusable place. In doing so you’ve already taken the first important step to realizing them.

goals can usually be broken down into smaller goals

When you’re done brainstorming, you should have a better idea of your goal’s requirements: its scope, its milestones, and why it’s important to you. Now break it up into Sprints. Each Sprint can be laid out in another Subcollection (this page) in your Bullet Journal. Next, you’ll break each sprint down even further into Tasks. Once you’ve listed out your Tasks, start figuring out how much time each Sprint would take. If you’ve ever had the privilege of working with a contractor, the same adage applies here: Take the time estimate and triple it. Progress is more important than speed. If something gets done more quickly than anticipated, great!

where you may not have a team or a boss to help you stay on task. Progress provides momentum. Momentum helps you cultivate your patience.

What am I learning about my strengths, my weaknesses? What’s working, and what isn’t? What could I do a bit better next time? What value was added to my life?

By bringing our attention to the little things, we can effect change while we avoid overwhelm. All we need to do is solve one small problem at a time. Each solution builds on those that came before it, and therefore these small steps add up quickly, effecting massive change over time.

Create your Tasks through the lens of curiosity rather than by giving yourself commands or ultimatums. It’s the difference between “Lose weight!” and “What one unhealthy thing could I remove from my diet?”

It might be something as simple as researching relevant information on the internet, asking a few questions of a knowledgeable friend or colleague, recalibrating your Sprints, or writing a long-form entry in your notebook about what you’ve learned so far.

Whatever obstacles or challenges you may encounter along the way, meet them with curiosity. Embrace them and examine them by asking small questions.

You can choose to focus on all the reasons why you can’t, or you can look for some small way in which you can.

When asked to describe his theory of relativity, Einstein (mercifully) paraphrased it like this: “When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”43 In other words, our perception of time changes relative to what we are doing.

How often do we catch ourselves fixating on things we can’t change, or worrying about things we can’t predict? That’s a lot of time and energy siphoned away from the only place where we can actually make a difference: the here and now.

The root of the word “ecstasy” comes from the Greek ekstasis, which means “standing outside oneself.” Csikszentmihalyi posits that this feeling is the result of the mind being so consumed with a task that it cannot consciously process the experience of self.44 We enter flow when we’re fully engaged. It’s here, when we’re totally present, that we unlock our full productive and creative potential.

Our attention span drains throughout the day. When we do something has a large impact on how well we do it. If there’s something you find yourself putting off, then you’ve identified your chore. Procrastination indicates that it may be the most challenging Task on your list, because it worries you or doesn’t interest you. Put it first.

fully appreciate not wanting to start the day with something that’s not exciting or motivating. All the more reason to just get it out of the way. It’s the pebble in your shoe. Take it out before it makes real trouble.

Another benefit to this reverse hierarchy of Tasks is that you’re working your way toward the things that interest you the most.

The Romans had a phrase, memento mori, which roughly translates to “remember death.” Legend has it that when the generals returned victorious from battle and paraded down the street, they had a servant whisper this phrase into their ear over and over, to keep them humble and focused.

Embracing the reality of impermanence can make the time we have significantly richer.

Suppose that one day you’re told that you will get to enjoy pizza eighty-seven more times in your life. Does this make you dislike, avoid, and dread eating pizza? Does pizza become depressing? No, it would likely be the opposite. Simply being aware that it’s limited heightens your ability to experience it, to be more present, to savor each bite with an appreciation that had been unavailable to you before.

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do, say, and think.”45 How would your life change if you truly operated under those directives? Would everything stay the same?

can’t always control what fate drops in our lap. In the moments where we do have a choice, we must be vigilant about what we let into our days because we don’t have life to spare.

Life is so subtle that sometimes you barely notice yourself walking through the doors you once prayed would open. —BRIANNA WIEST

There’s a scene in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks where Special Agent Dale Cooper and Officer Harry S. Truman walk into the quaint Double R diner. As they enter, Agent Cooper taps Officer Truman on the chest, smiling, and says, “I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present.” The present? An order of two cups of “good, hot, black coffee.” There is something deeply touching about this scene. In the weird, violent, and questionable sanity of the Lynchian world surrounding him, Cooper found a way to inject his life with some lightness.