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

by Ryder Carroll

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.

The Bullet Journal will help you declutter your packed mind so you can finally examine your thoughts from an objective distance.

For you digital natives out there, fear not. Banish the image of some hunched, squint-eyed Dickensian figure endlessly scrawling away in a garret by failing candlelight. No, here you’ll learn how to capture thoughts quickly and effectively. You’ll learn how to journal at the speed of life.

For most of us, “being busy” is code for being functionally overwhelmed.

For example, “Return call ASAP!” is too short. Who are you calling back? What are you calling them back about? It’s easy to forget all that in the rush of the day. Conversely, “Call John M. back as soon as you can because he needs to know when you will have the sales figures for June ready for him” is an overly informative word salad. Let’s try again: “Call John M, re: June sales figures.” You’re saying exactly the same thing using only a quarter of the words.

(Older versions of the Bullet Journal used an actual checkbox, but eventually it became clear that checkboxes weren’t as efficient as the dot Bullet: They take more time to draw and can look sloppy, decreasing legibility.)

The Task “” bullet is fast, clean, and flexible. It can easily be transformed into other shapes, which is important, because Tasks can have five different states: Tasks: Entries that require you to take action. Completed Tasks: Action has been completed. Migrated Tasks: Tasks that have been moved forward (hence the right arrow) into your next Monthly Log (this page) or into a specific Collection (this page). Scheduled Tasks: A Task tied to a date that falls outside of the current month and is therefore moved backward (hence the left arrow) into the Future Log (this page) at the front of your book. Irrelevant Tasks: Sometimes the things we task ourselves with end up not mattering anymore. Their meaning simply expires or circumstances change. If it no longer matters, then it’s a distraction. Strike it off your list. One less thing to worry about.

Studies suggest that only around 2 percent of the population is psychologically able to multitask.

this “attention residue.” She writes that “people need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers.”

It’s a deceptively simple method to unearth root issues and expose unexpected opportunities. It does this by breaking down a seemingly large problem into its individual components.

Custom Collections should serve a specific purpose. Avoid being an information hoarder! I’ve been guilty of this myself, creating Collections to track the TV shows I’ve watched, restaurants I’ve patronized, and other minutiae. I call these “junk drawer” Collections. There’s nothing wrong with tracking what you’re doing in a Collection, as long as you plan to do something constructive with the information. An aspiring filmmaker might want to track films she’s seen as part of her education: Am I saturating myself with thrillers and not studying comedy? Someone who continually falls off the exercise wagon might track workout data and fitness milestones as a way to monitor and encourage continued progress—or spot trends where he falters. (Holidays? Those monthly poker nights? After yet another blind date gone bad?) Junk drawer Collections, in contrast, have limited longevity because they don’t provide insight.

For example, I found that writing in all caps with fineliner pens solved two legibility problems: It forced me to be more deliberate in shaping letters and to be more economical with my word choices.

Just be careful not to let your quest for the perfect pen or paper get in the way of your writing. Your pen is not a wand, it’s just a tool.

Q: Pen vs. pencil? A: Use what makes your handwriting most legible and doesn’t fade.

Leaving your first name and your phone number only should do the trick. Cash rewards are a great incentive, but so are personalized messages.