How to Quit a Digital Task Management System to Start Bullet Journaling
Since I started to keep track of the tasks I needed to do to make progress in my life, I’ve done it digitally. Whenever I had even the smallest idea I was very intent on capturing it so that I didn’t miss out on the thoughts that my brain had. For the last two weeks however, I have committed to using a practice known as bullet journaling. Bullet journaling uses a single notebook to keep track of everything from tasks and events to goals and collections of notes about any other relevant subject. I wanted to explain the decision for the change, why my digital system was no longer working well for me, and the change in my effectiveness and mindfulness that I have experienced since adopting this new method.
What is bullet journaling?
In a YouTube video with Tiago Forte, creator of Building a Second Brain, the Bullet Journal Method’s creator Ryder Carroll described the practice as ‘a mindfulness practice disguised as a productivity system’. Bullet journaling uses a single notebook, in which you log the events, ideas, tasks and notes that occur as you go about your day-to-day life. The system can be used to track these things more broadly on a week-to-week or monthly basis, making sure that you are progressing towards your goals in the longer term — hence the ‘mindfulness practice’. The technique is designed to make sure that you spend as much time as possible doing work that is meaningful, so you can maximise your value provided to the world in the most efficient way possible.
My old digital system
For a long time, I used the app Todoist to track my tasks and deadlines digitally. The software was great to use — nice UI, all the functions I needed to organise my tasks for later reference, and methods for extremely fast and intuitive capture of tasks, whether on my mobile or my laptop. Recently though, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of tasks and other scraps of information that I’d accrued over obsessively capturing a lot of content that held little or no meaning to me. It was time to make a drastic change to my system — a change that allowed me to prioritise the work that would have the most positive impact on my progress and fulfilment. Having tried every task management software under the sun, I realised that it was time to try something more alternative. It was time to start a bullet journal.
My new bullet journal system
For the last two weeks, instead of being stifled by the volume of tasks that appear in my Todoist whenever I turn on my laptop, I have been sitting down first-thing, in order to start my bullet journal’s daily log. The daily log is where you add tasks and events that are occurring or due on that day, and it’s where you make notes of thoughts that come to you throughout the day. When the next day rolls around, you triage the previous daily log, adding events and rewriting tasks that are still relevant, crossing off ones that aren’t, and marking finished tasks as complete.
I use the system mainly for task management, seeing as I am at university without many scheduled events for me to keep track of outside of my timetable (which automatically appears on my digital calendar, without any effort on my part). As well as this though, I like to incorporate a traditional journaling practice into my bullet journal, analysing my behaviours, and feelings like motivation and satisfaction throughout the day. Reflection in this way helps me to understand what actions are benefitting my life, and it helps me to learn from mistakes and that I’ve made, allowing for effective self-improvement.
Comparison of the two systems
As it stands, I don’t intend to return to my original method of task management. I like the mindful element of sitting down every morning to take stock of what you have or haven’t achieved, and it increases the clarity of what you need to do today to extract the most value from the time you have. Unlike what I did with the digital method, the new system means I write the list of tasks to complete on a daily basis now. This is done by hand, causing improved prioritisation because of how long it would take to write every little detail in the same way I captured things to my digital task manager. I now have a concise list of actions I can take every day, concentrating my focus towards the most meaningful work, rather than dispersing it across too many insignificant things. Repeated writing of the task also acts as a nagging reminder for you to get your work done. If you put off something for a couple of days then your bullet journal is going to let you know all about it.
With a bullet journal capturing tasks and thoughts on the go is a lot more difficult than pulling out your phone and using Todoist’s ‘quick capture’ function. Without this functionality, you of course run the risk of forgetting an idea before you get the chance to write it down, but in my experience the risk is minimal in comparison with the other benefits of the system. So long as you keep the journal around most of the time it’s very unlikely that you are going to forget anything crucial. In the last two weeks I haven’t had any experiences where I’ve forgotten something because I haven’t written it down.
Advice for starting to bullet journal
You have to be prepared for quite a change in the way that you manage tasks, but once you’re over the transition you will likely experience improved intentionality. It’s important that you are honest with yourself when it comes to choosing tasks that you want to focus on — the method’s success comes when you can identify the minority of tasks that are going to lead to the majority of results, allowing you to act on them.
I’ve found that the system itself doesn’t take up much space in my mind throughout the day. This is useful because it means that I’ve started to trust the system, and it means that productivity isn’t becoming over-complicated — you require only a pen and a notebook. The bullet journal fades into the background so I can focus on execution, but returns again to hold me accountable when I’ve been slacking, or to remind me of an important idea that I wanted to act upon.
Regarding learning more, the internet is saturated with bullet journal content, from intricate weekly spreads to colour-coded daily logs. I wouldn’t recommend engaging too heavily in much of this information or advice. It’s more effective to examine your specific needs and what you want to achieve from your productivity, tweaking the system to best cater to these needs. Ryder Carroll’s book The Bullet Journal Method is a great start point for learning about everything contained in the basic system, which can be used as a foundation for your own system. If you don’t want to purchase the book, the video ‘How to Bullet Journal’ on YouTube is a video of Ryder himself summarising the method, without any bells and whistles attached.
Conclusion
I recognise that bullet journaling will not be effective for everyone. Indeed, some people are tied in to a certain method of task management by necessity — through their employment for example. Aside from these scenarios, I think that many people have the freedom to adapt their current task management systems — requiring only that they fully embrace something new. I was surprised at how effective bullet journaling became for me, once I overcame the initial friction of writing by hand and being unable to capture every detail of the vague ideas I have. I am enjoying the improved focus I have towards tasks that I actually consider important, and this meaningful use of time helps me execute more so I can provide more value to people every day.
I hope that this article shed some light on whether you should try bullet journaling. If you do decide to give the system a go, I hope you experience a positive change because of it. Thanks for reading.
