Simple Bullet Journal System for Busy Creatives

1. Introduction: At the beginning of New Year, everyone makes new resolutions. For me, the most consistent resolution was I'll start journaling every day. You see how they do it on Pinterest, YouTube, and in excitement, you start creating all these template collections that you cannot keep up after February. And instead of getting overwhelmed and going simpler, I used to quit journaling. It was taking too much of my time to maintain it. And that is one of the reasons why people fail at bullet journaling. But what if I told you it doesn't have to be that way. I have been a journaling nerd all my life. I have tried and tested different journaling methods since then every few years. But there's one thing that I kept coming back to, and that is Bullet Journal. I recently read the book by the inventor of Bullet Journal Ryder Carol, and I figured out what I was doing wrong. I got amazing new insights. And I'm going to share those with you in this class. 2. Setting Up the System: There are only two things you'll need a notebook and a pen. If you're setting this up for the upcoming New year, then preferably get a new notebook. Otherwise, any notebook will do. I'm using this old notebook that I have more than two thirds of this is blank, and I'm setting it up for only three months. I'm deliberately setting this up for a time and in a used book to let you know that you do not need a perfect time or supplies to start bullet journaling. This is not even a dot grid notebook. It's a ruled one. You can use any pen. You can even use a pencil. I'm using a fountain pen because I love filling my pen with ink now and then, and I do not have to worry about buying a new pen. I also enjoy writing with Pilot VFi cartridge system. Side note, there are different versions of this pen, so if you want the one that refills ink, then you need to specifically buy the one that says cartridge system. Let's get right into it. If you want to follow along and set up your own notebook with me right now, then you can just pause the video and grab a Notebook and pen. For the class project, click picture of your simple Bullet Journal setup and post it in the project section so everyone can see your work and get inspired by two. Now, open up the first page of your notebook and write keys. It's in the name. We need to define which bullets we are going to use. Generally, we log three things in our bullet journals. Tasks, events, and notes. I use a dot for tasks as per Bullet Journal method. A lot of people use the box, but task box is flimsy and takes time to write. A dot can be turned into anything. This is a task completed. This is a task scheduled. This is a task migrated. If I decide not to do something ever, then a strike signifies that the task is no longer relevant. For events, a simple circle will do. For notes, the bullet is a dash. Later, it could also turn into long form journaling by creating a plus sign. Then there are signifiers for important tasks and notes. A star signifies that it's an important task. An exclamation mark in front of a note signifies that this is a major discovery, an idea I can work on later. An additional thing I do since I run out of pages on one journal pretty soon is writing the ear and volume. So it's easy for me to find a particular information in the future. One of the best things that sets Bullet Journal apart from any other journaling method is an index. A dedicated index helps us easily find the pages we need later on. I'm going to assign one spread that is two pages for an index. I will also need to number the pages in journals so that I can reference them later in index. It's very likely that your notebook will not have page numbers. When I start the journal, I usually assign numbers till 20, and then I'll add the numbers as I go. Doesn't take much time to do it every few weeks. After I set up my index pages, I need to create a future log. Think of this as a calendar spread that will help us plan ahead for the next several months. I'm only setting this up till the end of this year, and then I'll start a new year with a new notebook. We have three months remaining. I'm going to create a future log just for November and December because the monthly log for October will be placed right after this. The way I create monthly log is to write all the dates first and then the initial of the days. I also like to separate my week starting on Monday. On the page, right beside I'll write all the events and tasks I need to get done. The purpose of Monthly Log is to have a bird eye view of the month. At the end of each day, I'll write down highlight of the day here. Then we move on to Daily Log, which we are going to access the most on day to day basis. 3. Maintenance: There are two sides of setting up a bullet journal, functional and aesthetic. Now, I'm not saying that functional Bullet Journal cannot be aesthetic or aesthetic Bullet Journal cannot be functional. These are two sides of the same coin. It's up to you to decide how much time do you have and what is the purpose of your bullet journal. You can always experiment with both until you find your own unique style. In my case, I'm not going to decorate as much because I'm going to use my Bullet Journal for the function. Going to write date, month, and day. I do not need to write here since we've already mentioned in the first page. Even if there are some pages left in this notebook by the end of the year, I will still start a new year with a new notebook. That being said, this is how I use my daily log throughout the day. I write down the task at the start of each day, notes as they come up throughout the day and events that happen at the end of the day. I'll also complete tasks as I go out and about with my day. Then I'll repeat the same thing day after day. If I haven't completed a task from this spread and I want to still do it, then I'll migrate to the next spread. Now, the dog bullet becomes a migrated arrow. If I'm supposed to schedule it, then I'll schedule it in my calendar app, and the dog bullet for this becomes a scheduled arrow. Tasks that are open but not relevant anymore gets a strike. Now I'll add all of this on my index tab, so it's easy for me to locate things. Once the month is over, I'll set up my new month and a task page. I'll check my future log for the events and task and migrate those into current monthly logs task list. I'll also review any open task in the Daily logs and ask these three questions to funnel all the tasks out. Is this vital, for example, filing taxes? Does it matter to me or someone I love? Example of this is if my close friend's birthday is coming up and I want to send her a gift, this is not vital, but it matters to me and it will matter to my close friend when she receives the gift. The last question is if there are any consequences if I don't do it ever. If the answer is no to all three, then I will strike it out, and that's where the life of this task ends. If the answer is yes to any of these questions, I will migrate that task to the next month's task list. If the task is time bound, like a meeting with a client, then it will be scheduled in my Google calendar. By using this method, you can also migrate your old tasks from your journals and to do list in your new journals, so you are not always starting from scratch. These are the complete basics of Bullet Journal. My productivity skyrocketed once I understood that Bullet Journal is a flexible and adaptable system. So instead of copying someone else's layout and then giving up later, I started with the bare minimum layout that was suggested in the book, and then I worked my way up. You can also experiment with different types of layouts and collection until you find what's best for you.