We’ve all see the Bullet Journal video (if you haven’t it’s here). This concept is very clean and a wonderful way of logging your moment by moment activities. A couple of quick thoughts, the migration concept that causes my head to hurt. And, the bullet journal “movement” has turned into an art project movement. The future logs, monthly logs, and collection spreads are being decorated like artwork. I love to see how people use their journals! Sometimes I look on Instagram at the endless bullet journal spreads. They are awesome. In contrast, for those of us that are using words to tell the story and not artwork, we’ve got some decisions to make about organizing how we use our journals.
If no bullets, then write for days?
One way to do it is to write, and keep writing, no date, no time, no breaks. This can be wonderfully cathartic (and the truth is I do this all the time). It is mentally satisfying. But, when you look back to review, or, you try and remember what you wrote on Tuesday of last week when you were in the same coffee shop and sat in the same chair. You will end up flipping pages and not knowing where you are in the journal!
This can be frustrating. So, some sort of notation helps even in the most verbose journaling.
Traditional vs Rapid Logging
My journaling notation is like a traditional journal. I don’t enjoy compacting and stripping down the content of my journal for “Rapid Logging” (thank you Bullet Journal for the picture). I do enjoy writing lots of paragraphs of thoughts, concerns, and ideas. So, I have developed a simple and efficient technique that has helped me keep writing. And, less flipping back and forth between collections. My thought on this is I feel like the longer your pen is on the journal page the more enjoyable and helpful it is to your mental game. Even if I’m writing lyrics to a song or a bible verse in my journal. There is no benefit for me to have 60% less content.
Date and Time Headings
As you can see on Bullet Journal’s “Traditional” page there are no date headings and no time subheadings. This is an important part of my technique. On each journaling page I put a date at the top and the time of day that I’m writing in it. I find that I write 2 or 3 times a day so putting in something like “3:00 pm” on the left margin with some white space around it. This is super helpful when I need to find something.
Let’s talk a minute about white space in your journal. I like it. I’ve met and worked with people who feel like every inch of a journal page has to be filled. Not true! I’ve noticed that I’m much less stressed if I give myself the freedom to leave white space everywhere. Plus it helps to have a little room when you review your writing to make a note near important things or draw a star next to something you want to follow up on.
Old-School Post-It notes! ❤
My second improvement to the traditional page is that I use a post-it note for my tasks. I can move them from page to page. I don’t ever have to go through the pain of “migration”. If you are a bullet journal user you would probably agree that it is a pain to have to re-write a bunch of tasks that you may or may not complete. This method is so old school but works well. I have a couple of Post-it notes that I use at a time. One for long term tasks and one for things I have to get done in the short term. I love checking off the box when I’m finished working on something.
Finally, I leave completed post-it notes in the pages of my journal as a reminder of things I’ve done when I did them.
Will you give this technique a try? Let me know how it works for you or if you have any improvements to it (please). I’m always interested in improving and I can share your improvement in my next article.
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