How to Bullet Journal

Hi, let me give you a brief overview of a method I invented that will help you track the past, organize the present, and plan for the future. I call it the Bullet Journal®, it's an analog system for the digital age. All you need to get started is a notebook and a pen. I hope it serves you well.

Best,
Ryder (Creator of the Bullet Journal®)

RESOURCES:

GEAR:

USEFUL VIDEOS AND PLAYLISTS:

[Belgarathe]

Anyone new starting this keep in mind a couple of things.
1. Use any notebook you have laying around
2. Stick with the basics. Don’t modify too much until you got a good handle on bullet journaling
3. Don’t worry about making it pretty. If you have crooked sentences or misspelled words you’re doing it right.

[alinelaura]

I have a "regular" journal and a bullet journal, and trust me, I've never been so mentally stable and organized. Thank you.

[Artemis]

Some people think that bullet journaling and creative journaling are the same thing, and they are not. There is so much value in the simplicity of this system.

[servus]

Congratulation.
You've done what what other can't do.
You've explained the Bullet Journal in under 16 minutes.

[cheyenne]

Things I love about this

1. This guy has a job doing things via the Internet but came up with a handwritten journaling concept and was able to find what works best.

2. He's not necessarily trying to capitalize off of this. Yeah, he made a journal you can buy, but he's encouraging people to use whatever and just wants to get his idea out in the world.

Idk he just seems super humble and I like it

[ItsJuicyJett]

Perfect method. I feel like people are making bullet journaling way more complicated than it needs to be, which is fine for them; but can be discouraging for people like me who are extreme perfectionists and just need something simple.

[giddies]

6 years later, still the most elegant form among all. Does anyone else feel the rise of anxiety when looking at the more colorful and recent remakes of this classic?🤣

[medcat]

As a fellow ADHDer, I am thankful that one of us came up with this concept and shared it with others. I have no idea why it evolved into something purely aesthetic for so many when its purpose was to keep us organized, yet, give us freedom/remove constraints of a typical planner. To each their own, I suppose. I am just glad that I can now put all my thoughts, tasks, random notes into one place instead of having them scattered all over the house and/or my brain. Thanks, Ryder!

[wernerwintels]

Table of Contents (for reference)
0:00 Intro
0:25 Choice of notebook
0:35 Getting started with Index
0:48 Future Log
1:23 Monthly log
2:03 Daily log and rapid logging*
2:41 Review of logs
2:49 Migration
3:37 Collections (Shopping lists/ongoing projects/classes)
* Do this to start

[DanelisAnesti]

3:16 - You've got Jack waiting 2 months for a phone call

[marthaberlin]

I am retired, age 75. First learned of this method from my college-age granddaughter. I was intrigued by what she was doing, even though she puts a lot more artistry than I would into her bullet journaling, but this perfectly fits her personality. What intrigued me most was that it was working for her. She struggled through high school and first 2 years of college keeping it all together and getting things done. In my working days, most of my jobs featured lots of multi-tasking, and I was better than average keeping myself and my job organized. I even used my own version of many of these same ideas noted here (rats! that I didn't think to monopolize on that! haha). Okay, I'm retired and my in-box is still full! Two half-written novels. Quilts in various stages of completion. Books to read. Travel. Blah, blah, blah. Life is full, thank you. Many times I've said to myself, "I need to approach my to-do lists and projects as though I am at work." Easy said. Hard to do. I'm jumping in with bullet journaling and I'm going to use what I have on hand: spiral notebooks. Anticipating filling more than one journal, I will mark the outside of each journal with my name, Bullet Journal, and beginning date. Will add end date when it's full. Your video was right on point and was just enough to get me moving! Thanks.

[maja]

A long time I thought that a Bullet Journal NEEDS to be artsy and stuff, but it never worked for me to keep a Bullet Journal artsy and decorative. I also started them because I just wanted to have a beautiful looking journal...Even though they were useless for me.
Last year during Homeschooling I felt so disorganized and wanted to start Bullet journaling to be more organized. I am picky with Notebooks but I was lucky and found a perfect one for me (dots, cream-white paper, dots, round corners, grey...)
Then I followed this Video, step by step and started my first Bullet Journal which worked for me. I completed 2 Bullet Journals since then. Sometimes I don't use it everyday and I wish I would use it more. I still forget things and also things in my Bullet Journal which I made to help me. I use my Bullet Journal especially to organize school related stuff, so I can overview (?) it better. Everytime I start a new Bullet Journal, I follow this Video. Before I start my new Bullet Journal I always go through my old one and think about things in my journal I want to change ("Layouts..."). But I often end up not doing it, because I want to keep my journal imperfect, so I don't end up trying to make it perfect.
Usually I don't decorate my Bujo. And I don't really design something or so. I write in fountain pen or pen and I use pencil and highlighters to highlight things and add a bit of colour. On some pages I do some doodling, some leaves or a flower or some dots... Just random stuff...
I love going through my old journals. They are not beautiful but I like it in general to look trough full notebooks.
I like looking through pictures with beautifully decorated journals, because, well, they are just nice to look at. I have to be careful with myself, so that I stay with my journal and that I don't think I should make my journal more beautiful.
I rather have a not beautifully designed and decorated Bullet Journal which is important to me because I can pour myself into it than having a beautifully designed Bullet Journal where I have to do so much to keep it nicely decorated and where "the Journal owns me".

Sometimes I think more people should post their Bullet Journal pages whithout any decoration or special layout, so that more people understand that a Bullet Journal doesn't have to be decorated. But it is also a private place like a diary so...

At the moment I have a lined notebook as my Summer-Holiday Bullet Journal. My last Bullet Journal got full right at the beginning of the Holidays. For the new academic year I will start a new one.

I also bought the book "The Bullet Journal Method", but it was a bit disappointing and confusing for me. Interesting for me was to learn some more details abput the story of the Bullet Journal. But the book was packed with stories from Ryders Life, and other stories which were interesting but absolutely not necessary. This was a bit disappointing, because I expected the book to be more minimalistic. I also found the book pretty disorganized and hard to look through the system of it which was confusing to me.

This comment got very long! Wow.. Didn't expected this...
I just wanted to share my experiences with bullet journaling because I thought some people might relate to this...

Greetings from Northern-Germany!

[jacelee]

Learning something new is hard in the beginning. Anything worth having requires work. Why so many trolls gotta hate on this? This guy was kind enough to share for FREE a new inovative system he came up with. You don't like it walk away and take your negativity with you. Or get yourself a journal and pour your hate into that instead.

[kevinwolff]

Just my opinion: Bullet Journals are not overly complicated at all. In fact, it completely simplifies my life. Everything has a place and a purpose. You don't lose track of tasks. You always have your work and your play right at your fingertips. It is so simple yet so genius. Don't knock it until you understand it and try it.

[MsNj]

I find it really interesting seeing how much bullet journaling has changed since its inception. It’s so neat and simple from the get go and now it’s blossomed into a huge community of people from artsy to minimalistic. I find myself somewhere in the middle with just lists not quite reaching everything I need, but finding not as enjoyable when I force the cute art style. I absolutely LOVE my bullet journal and am so thankful for this man’s invention.

[jimclarke]

I was totally disorganised and floating through life. This bullet journal has totally changed my life! Unfinished projects are suddenly getting done. I'm turning up to events and planning ahead. I'm booking things in advance! What a difference this has made to my life!

[PsychicMice]

on a side note it's pretty funny that a bunch of people on here are complaining about writing down dates as waste of time while they passively watch youtube videos

[powerpuffever]

I always come back to the original how to. I love watching flip throughs and plan with me videos but some people's bullet journals are so complicated and I get discouraged so quickly because I want to incorporate all these intricate spreads and I forget how simple the journal can be

[anthonyfantano]

3:01
Ask yourself: is this still worth my time?
• Send thank you card
If it's not, strike it out.
-• Send thank you card-
ouch

[scoogsy]

Update: I wrote a comment 9 months ago about how I’d jot this down for meetings and to do lists. I’m now completely converted to full bullet journaling.

Lessons learned:

1. When starting, as Ryder says, go simple. I started with a basic note book and used the symbols system described in this video (dots, dashes and circles). This got me started, and within a matter of weeks, I realised the value of the month log and future log

2. It took me a while to understand collections. I’ve got it now. Some people might get this from the start. For others, this is likely to come organically over time, as it did me. I’d have a bunch of dot points I’d need to write out related to the same thing. For instance selling my house. Instead of every day putting down all these dot points in between my every day dot points of - doing groceries, booking an appointment with the dentist, talk with Brett about handing off work to Tim, etc. I knew I needed one place I could keep turning back to to view a “collection” of similar tasks, notes and events that related to selling my house.

3. Don’t seperate work and personal life: I tried this to start with, and almost immediately found it cumbersome. Instead, just blend it all in one. Think about the to do lists you write every day on a piece of paper. You’d likely include a mix of personal and work stuff. Do groceries, fill up the car, take dog to vet, book leave, raise issue with boss, pay electricity bill, etc. You don’t bother having seperate bit of paper at home to split these things now, don’t split it artificially with bullet journaling.

Enjoy your journaling 😊