I've kept a journal for a while, but its always been a classic freeform stream of consciousness one. Then I discovered bullet journals and it seemed kind of interesting... and complicated. So I decided to figure out what I want in a journal (in addition to the free for all writing one that I have).
- bullet list of daily events of note
- mood tracking
- short reviews of stuff (beer, sushi, movies, books, music, etc)
- lists of stuff to try
- to do list (maybe even an analog kanban if I'm feeling adventurous)
- something I can easily carry with me everywhere
- fitness log
As you can see from the above list I'm basically looking to create a snapshot of my life that can be easily referenced later, with major things being expanded upon elsewhere as needed. Then I can also put a reference to the other spot so I can find it later, hopefully solving some of the duplication I've unintentionally done in the past.
A Few Days In
I'm still struggling with the why of bullet journaling a bit. I'm hoping it's just while I'm getting used to the process and tweaking it to suit me but it's still up in the air whether I will continue to use it. I think I've realized my major problem with the bullet journal, at least with my intent. I don't want to limit myself to rapid bullet point logging, and I don't think the bullet journal really does either. So I think I'll probably end up sticking to a fairly close to the original design, but I'm not holding myself to the bullet journal. It's going to be my everything journal, and if that means I have some longhand then so be it. I might also do away with the monthly outline thing but we'll see.
5 years later
It's 2023 and I found this while cleaning up the drafts folder. I'm going to publish it now. I still have the "bullet" journal though I don't think I'm using much of the original bullet journal guidelines. I currently have the following sections along with some other oneoffs.
- daily log
- weekly review
- workout log
- book reviews
Daily Log
This is now just a bulleted quick hit of things I did or things that happened at work. Every once in a while I'll include some personal thing, maybe I should do more of that. I gave up on any sort of daily goal/todo list as that created more shame than it helped.
Weekly Review
I think I've said it before, but every week I like to ask myself if this week was better than last week. So every friday I think over the week and see what worked and what needs tweaking. I think it's helped me see patterns I might have ignored or missed before.
Workout Log
I keep it simple, just the working set for the main lifts I did and the occasional bike ride. I could probably do this on my phone, but I still like handwriting it for some reason. I guess same reason I do any other handwritten journal.
Longhand Journal
I also still have a longhand journal for thoughts. I go through phases with how much I write in it, as most of it is thinking through emotions or figuring out a direction I want to go. If I remember to write them down, I include notable events like trips.
Closing Thoughts
The "bullet" journal has been fantastic. When I start feeling lazy/useless I can look at what I did over the past couple weeks to show even I feel down I'm still doing a lot. I think it's also helped keep a pace at work. I can see if I've been stuck doing repetitive things or how long something has been a pain point. I think I'll have the journal in basically this same format for the foreseeable future, with some minor tweaks here and there.