There are several benefits, including health benefits, of using a bullet journal. Along with the many time saving benefits, it also helps to reduce stress. Do you wake up in the morning, your mind racing with all kind of to do lists going on in your head, like a broken record? If you take a few minutes the night before, grab your journal, you can jot all the things down that you have to do tomorrow, so that your mind isn’t racing all day, and by the end of the day, you haven’t really accomplished anything. Just these few extra minutes can help reduce your stress a lot.
In an earlier blog post, I reviewed the basics of what you can include in your bullet journal, and how it can help you become more organize. I also covered several different styles of journals, from a daily journal to a gratitude journal, and many other specific topics. With a bullet journal, you can write in it like a regular journal, but the main concept is about organizing and planning your life with it.
The bullet journal works as a valuable analog asset in a digital world. It’s a way of briefly noting your thoughts, plans, events and other items of importance. It’s different than the traditional idea of a journal in that your thoughts can be jotted down on paper quickly. You’ll use just a few words and bullets (hence the name) and other symbols. No long paragraphs or flowery thoughts.
Some people use their bullet journals as to-do lists, planners, diaries — or a bit of all of those forms of helpful self-communication. No matter how you choose to use yours, here’s what you might gain from the experience.
Clarity
Are you almost always thinking that you’ve got things to do and you’re falling farther and farther behind? Most of us do. We are constantly reviewing over the ever growing to do list building in our head!
But what? And when? And how? Your first step, with a bullet journal, is to simply get it all down in writing. See what you’re up against.
Organization
Your actions are constrained by the time you have to do them. But your life won’t seem so challenging if you know how to react efficiently to the hours and days and months ahead of you.
What you hope to accomplish might be something physical, emotional, or financial. It might be as simple as a daily to-do or shopping list or as ambitious and esoteric as a long-term dream. It’s up to you. But once you can set your tasks or goals or dreams in front of you and start to construct a realistic approach to getting where you need to be, you’ll waste less time and get more done.
Stress Relief
Think about how good you’ll feel when you have a realistic plan of attack in front of you and it all looks doable. That’s what you get with a bullet journal entry — the sense that you’re moving logically forward.
You can see on a single page how realistic it is (or isn’t) to proceed according to plan within the period of time you’ve designated. How does your day or your life look now? Does it give you that little bit of satisfaction to put that check mark in the box? I have these cute free to do lists in my free printables hub.
Household Management
You’re the president (or co-president) of your own small operation — your family. Your “employees” don’t always pitch it and can be occasionally disgruntled. Sometimes there’s even disagreement within the management team. The operating budget is never sufficient, and your forecasts of future earnings are often off.
A bullet journal will help you plan your days, schedule play dates, school activities and away games, consider a job change and even plan and budget vacations or a new home purchase and move.
Setting and Meeting Goals
It’s easy to say that you’re going to build a garage, generate new streams of revenue for your business or plan your community’s party. But those are just big blocks of dreams. With a bullet journal you can slice that block into manageable actions.
Take garage-building, for instance. Think of all that’s involved. For starters, you have to plan the size and design, estimate the costs involved and figure out where the money will come from. You need building permits and to interview and select contractors, find and price building materials and schedule time.
A bullet journal lets you calmly and dispassionately figure out all that’s involved, who will do what and the steps you must chronologically take to follow your timeline. You’ll proceed with confidence, constantly updating the job in your bullet journal to correct your plans for new realities.
Is it Right for You?
Will a bullet journal improve your life? The best way to find out is to simply start one. It is such an easy and useful productivity tool that you’ll be happy to make bullet journaling a part of your business or personal life.
Why Paper?
In this technologically savvy world, you may be wondering, “Why go back to paper?” It’s a fair question. Apps are available to do most anything you need. But here are the benefits of using a paper journal:
Less Distractions – Less face it. You grab your phone to view your calendar or check your to-do list, and the next thing you know, you’re responding to text messages or viewing funny cat memes on Facebook. Paper eliminates these kinds of distractions. Many scientific studies indicate that handwriting your content will help you remember things better, as technology can have a distancing effect. Writing and actually forming letters makes you feel more connected to them and the content they convey.
Writing stimulates the portion of your brain that makes you sit up and pay attention. You’ve experienced the dulling effect of browsing Facebook or even watching TV. You can do those things with half your mind engaged. However, don’t feel like you must totally abandon technology. Technology and paper systems can complement each other.
So, if you are used to managing your calendar electronically, there’s no need to stop. The Bullet Journal has many more uses you can take advantage of.
Who it is Good For
You have most likely seen these journals on a friend’s desk, online in YouTube videos, on social media, or even in your local bookstore. You might have opened up this notebook to see what this hype is all about and upon opening the book, seeing a bunch of geometric dots all over the page, being extremely overwhelmed, confused, just to shut the book and continue on with your daily life.
Curious if it might be for you? Here are some people that the bullet journal is perfect for.
People whose minds wander and have a LOT of to-do lists:
There are a lot of people who are content with making a to-do list on a daily basis and checking off their responsibilities in a monotonous manner. However, some people are overwhelmed if they can’t keep track of almost everything in their life, they are always planning in advance. These people will have lists for everything, today to-do lists, tomorrow to-do lists, this month to-do lists, event lists, goal lists.
If you are one of those people who is not satisfied with one list and need a better organization system in your planning life, a bullet journal would work for you. The Bullet Journal gives you the flexibility to write all the things on your mind in an organized fashion.
There are no lines in the notebook, like the usual journals, just dots. And it allows you to create short lists, calendars, you name it. It will organize and separate all the things that are important to you without getting them disheveled and mixed together.
People who are creative and enjoy journaling, scrapbooking, and other artistic projects:
The great thing about bullet journaling is that it is a technique more than a product. Sure, the notebook is filled with symbols, boxes, and intricate layouts, but for the most part, the bullet journal is empty and gives you enough room to design your journal in a creative fashion. You are given a blank canvas to which you can start organizing your entire life, stay on top of things, keep track of important dates and events, and have fun with it.
When adding colorful scraps and additions to your bullet journal, you don’t interrupt any intended process that the bullet journal means.
This type of journal is not restrictive in any way and allows you to add your own creative flair without losing any productivity. Other agendas and calendar journals are super restrictive; they have set planning box sizes and dates and uses a format that you are restricted to sticking to. This can become boring and make the routine of logging and planning tiresome; making many lose interest all together.
People who have tried to get organized, but have failed using normal agendas:
Many people really have a yearning to get organized, productive and aware of their daily planning. However, they have bought tons and tons of notebooks, agendas and journals and time and time again, have stopped using them after a few weeks. If the standard journals, the ones that resemble the ones we have all grown up with since receiving them in middle school, have failed you every single time, it might be time to change to a bullet journal.
