Mythbusters: The Art of Bullet Journaling

Nishat Blagh
Aug 25, 2017 · 3 min read

As nicely phrased by the creator of this system, Ryder Carroll:

The Bullet Journal is a customizable and forgiving organization system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above. It will teach you to do more with less.

It’s kind of like your second brain if you think about it. But there’s a lot of stigma around bullet journaling and I think it’s time to do some mythbusting.

1. it’s not a test of your artistic skills.

If you search up bullet journal on YouTube, all you’ll find are people doing monthly logs with the elegance and skill that I need but could never achieve because I am an impatient, uncreative and a rather lazy soul. I am in no way dissing these people, I just want it to be known that your BuJo doesn’t need to be like this.

How do they do that??

Back in the days, this was the primary thing that put me off of ever trying it. Watching videos of people drawing complicated with stationery that probably costs more than me was quite intimidating, and slightly heartbreaking.

In short, Function > Form

2. you’re not being asked to paint the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling

Essentially, the system of bullet journaling is only a very small base for what you can truly create out of this. Use it wisely, and it becomes a staple in your daily routine where you can carpe the hell out of your diem.

People get scared of all the symbols and these “logs” but it’s pretty simple. Here’s a basic run through:

I recommend checking out the official website of Bullet Journal where they teach you the basics of starting your own Bullet Journal system and provide inspiration on making it work for you, the site was made by Carroll himself. But you don’t have to do it the way this guy does, he’s only setting the foundation for you.

Now that we’re done mythbusting, let me tell you my experiences on using my own Bullet Journal.

My experiences

So far, it’s been nice. It can be really a “do or die” thing, where you have to commit otherwise it all falls apart and every week would be filled with incomplete tasks that get piled onto the next week or a completely empty week. That, as a result, has allowed me to get off my butt and actually get things done without the need to juggle different errands and events in my head with short-term memory loss taking its toll.

Compared to Carroll’s version shown in the video, my weekly log is different as mine follows a more boxed horizontal design so I have a good amount of space to add more tasks or events as the week progresses.

I tried to be a little fancy for once so I added a consumerism list and a list of shows/movies I still need to watch. If I’m gonna be honest, I never continued with those pages.

TL;DR

Quite the long article, but I hope I did clarify what a Bullet Journal is.

  • Function > Form
  • Doesn’t need to look beautiful.
  • It’s a very simple premise which opens the pathway to endless customisation.
  • Experiment to see what works for you.

)

Nishat Blagh

Written by

all my articles are unwanted opinions.

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