How to be the Beyoncé of organisation
Or, ways you can hack the Bullet Journal to boost productivity and reach your goals
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The last few months have been a crazy hustle for me — studying on DesignLab UX academy full-time while also working a part-time job. Luckily the flexibility of studying online suited me perfectly as I could still travel and work out my own schedule as I liked. However it didn’t leave me much time for socialising and sleep as the course requires us to log at least 40hrs of work a week, minimum. It was definitely a steep development curve for me to be so self-disciplined but I learnt a lot on the way. A few people asked me how I managed my time to fit everything in, so I wanted to share a few ways in which I have adapted my bullet journal to help me be my most productive, happy, focused self.
In the months before I started the course I had been testing out my own system for organising my time. I had previously played around with the bullet journal system and although I liked it, there were some parts that just weren’t working for me. I spent far too much time making pages super pretty with hand-painted illustrations and not enough time thinking about how I wanted to achieve bigger goals on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
I looked to some other masters of organisation for inspiration and tried them out to see what was helpful and was was superfluous to requirement. My personal system incorporates elements of The 5 minute journal, Passion Planner, Ivy Lee method and Bullet Journal as well as a variant of a Kanban/Eisenhower task management flow.
Obviously, this is supposed to be a flexible system and everyone has different goals/workflows so I encourage you try some of them out and decide what is best for you.
The best part is it that the set up is minimal and anyone with a pen, paper and a few post-it notes can do it. No fancy stationary required (although I received the most beautiful journal for Christmas and it is such a delight to use that it definitely helps!)
How it works
Each morning I allow 20–30 mins to plan for the day, look ahead for the upcoming week and spend a bit of time reflecting on things I am grateful for, affirmations, and a brief meditation.
There are three main areas to think about each day:
- Goals: Setting daily, weekly and monthly goals
- Tasks: Prioritising workflow, scheduling when things are going to get done during the day ahead
- Self-improvement: Building/breaking habits, affirmations, gratitude, ideas and meditation.
Start with an index page
Because, obviously. Depending on how big and complex this journal becomes, an index will be increasingly important. It’s great to be able to have an at-a-glance overview of the journal, and means that you can be more flexible with the arrangement and order of pages.
Add in a Task Triage Board
Ever seen one of those Eisenhower decision making diagrams? This is based on that. It’s a fairly simple way of getting your priorities in order and not bikeshedding it.
When you have something you want to get done, write it on a little post-it note and designate it into one of the quadrants.
If it is a big task, break it down into smaller tasks to make it more manageable.
Use post-it notes so you can move the tasks around as you need to.
- MANAGE: Urgent and important
Do these things right away.(e.g. Problems, crises, deadlines)
These are fires that need putting out straight away before your little organisational empire burns.
Limit to 6 items. This will help you focus on the really tough items first.
Put them in their true order of importance and when you start your working day, do them in that order.
Don’t start the second task until the first task is completed.
- FOCUS: Important but NOT urgent
Plan to do these things asap. (e.g. planning a hen-party for your best friend)
Social commitments, relationships, recreational activities which do not have a specific start or end date. Things that will make today better.
- AVOID: Urgent but NOT important
Delegate wherever possible. (e.g. certain requests from colleagues, phone calls, interruptions)
These items may have a deadline but they are not going to cause detrimental harm if they don’t get done instantaneously.
- LIMIT: NOT important, NOT urgent
Busywork and things that do not require immediate attention. (e.g. sorting through junk mail)
- Upcoming
Things on your radar that you don’t want to forget but do not require immediate action. These could become urgent and important very quickly if totally ignored. (e.g. Mum’s birthday in 6 weeks: need to get present and card)
- Completed pile
Watch all those post-its pile up in all their multicoloured glory and feel the sense of achievement coursing through your veins. You did it. You are a grown-ass woman.
Clear at the end of the day/week. Whoop!
Calendar Month View
A double page spread of the calendar month.
Things I like to include around the outside of the calendar (although it changes month to month depending on what I need):
- Monthly/weekly goals
- People I want to try and see
- Places I want to go
- Quotes to inspire me
- Things I want to eat/cook
- Life laundry reminders
Think of some goals
A very simple list of daily tasks or goals. This is really great in helping you be accountable to yourself when trying to form or break a habits.
Things I sometimes include:
- drink 2L water
- walk 8k steps
- no tech after 11pm/bed before 12pm/wake up by 8am(to help me wind down and get better quality sleep)
- a day without alcohol/meat/dairy
- Yoga/run/exercise
Gratitude
Each day I try and write down one or two things I am grateful for. It helps me keep perspective on life. It is especially good on low days when you feel like everything is going wrong — *even then* I still have things to be grateful for. Remembering the small things in life goes a long way to tempering feeling like a victim and daily frustrations.
It’s also a great way to reflect on small victories and accomplishments.
Affirmations
Just a small way to help internalise what I want for my life. At first I found this so hippy-dippy, but the more I do it the more I see results.
“Every morning when you wake up, you can decide who you want to show up as. Write it down and affirm that every single day until you are comfortable and confident in your answer.”
UJ RAMDAS
Ideas
Pretty self-explanatory.
Ideas are awesome but sometimes we don’t have the bandwidth to set them free so I like to write them all down and circle back when I have more time and energy.
Books to read/films to watch etc etc
Because who doesn’t like a list? I like to keep a reminder of things my friends have recommended to me. It might sound a bit basic, but writing it down means I can free up some more mental space and use that energy for more important things.
Thats about it.
What do you include in your bullet journal? And how do you organise?
