The Journal App Making Journal: Day 50

Bullet Journaling, and summary lessons from reviewing the 30-Day Journaling Challenge

Continue to journal on two questions everyday in this Journal App Making Journal.

1. What have I learned about app design and development today?

Taking a break from coding today.

2. What have I learned about journaling products / technologies / other journal users today?

Continue to look into other journal users out there under the Medium hashtag #journaling.

Featured journal user today: Jackie Schwabe

> About Jackie and her 30-day journaling challenge

In September 2019, Jackie wrote a blog about a 30-day journaling challenge, to look at ideas on how to journal and their benefits. I have grouped her ideas into the following 6 areas, and take on looking into something from each area everyday in the coming weeks.

1. General benefits of journaling.
2. Specific ways of journaling for productivity, planning, and learning.
3. Specific ways of journaling for imagination and creativity.
4. Specific ways of journaling for regulating moods and emotions.
5. How to establish a journaling habit.
6. Journaling systems, tools, and technologies.

> Key ideas I learned from Jackie today

Yesterday, we started reviewing theme #6, journaling systems and technologies, mainly comparing pen and paper vs. digital means.

Today, we cover the last part in this theme, comparing the format of a diary vs. a journal, and exploring the Bullet Journal as a hybrid of the two.

Diary vs Journal

Jackie compared and differentiated the format of a diary vs. a journal.

• To Jackie, a diary is more akin to a calendar and task management tool, and a journal is more expansive, elaborate, and topical.
• In particular, “a journal format might serve you better if you’re looking to discover something about yourself, gain self-growth, implement your goals, and relieve stress”.
• And a “combination of the two is always possible”, depending on the purpose. And below is exactly one such example.

The Bullet Journal

Jackie introduced this way of journaling by saying, “Bullet journaling has become all the rage over the past few years.” Well, somehow that rage didn’t make it out to Australia, or I clearly missed it.

So let me make up for lost time by Googling. Bullet Journaling turns out to be a method that helps people “track the past, order the present, design the future”, and create life changes through “intentional living”. “It’s best described as a mindfulness practice disguised as a productivity system”, and is invented by a New York digital product designer named Ryder Carroll. Very interesting. Sounds like a job I want =)

To support this journaling system / methodology, there are now 1) a website, 2) a book — The Bullet Journal Method, 3) a collection of paper notebooks, 4) a companion app in iOS and Android, 5) a TedTalk, 6) a blog, 7) a newsletter, 8) a reference guide, 9) a community of users, and 10) apparently a host of tutorials across the web.

Jackie’s take on the Bullet Journaling system is,

• On the one hand, “it’s one that can definitely be a little confusing”, and “may all seem a bit overwhelming”;
• And on the other, “What’s innovative about the bullet journal is that it’s not just a journal. It’s a mix of journal, planner, and organizer. Its main structure is formed around bullet points, hence the name.”
• From Jackie’s basic description, this system requires, 1) a consistent use of bullet symbols and notations (eg. circles, dashes, and asterisks), which correspond to task organisation, goal-setting, and note-making purposes, 2) an index page, 3) a monthly log, 4) a daily log, and 5) a future log.
• This reminds me of another system called Getting Things Done by another productivity system creator, David Allen. GTD is perhaps more of a scheduling and task management system than a journal.

Looks like a project is in order to review all these about the Bullet Journal.

> Summary of reviewing the 30-Day Journaling Challenge

This concludes my review of Jackie Schwabe’s 30-Day Journaling Challenge. A summary of what I have learned about journaling is,

1. On the general benefits / impact / power of journaling: They include productivity, creativity, mental health, behaviour change, self-discovery, developing self-knowledge, topical insights, personal growth, and wisdom.
2. On journaling for productivity, planning, and learning: It is an aid to plan out / think through goals, create focus, keep track, and learn by purposeful reflection.
3. On journaling for imagination and creativity: It is about replacing our expression through words with imageries, monotone with colour, and structure with free form.
4. On journaling for regulating moods and emotions: It is about externalising the intangible world of our internal mind, whether it be anxiety or fear, so it can be more clearly seen and directed towards purposeful ends, such as gratitude or better decisioning.
5. On how to establish a journaling habit: It is the same as creating any habit — by making it personalised, easy, automatic, enjoyable, useful, and simple to stick to, and it harbours the same power as all good habits —it is the powerful compound interest of long term happiness and fulfilment.
6. On journaling systems, tools, and technologies: 1) the choice between physical and digital mediums is a personal one, with its core principle being to achieve consistent use and accumulation; 2) although there is a difference between a diary (task manager) and a journal (systematic thought capture), a combination of the two can prove engaging and effective, such as the example of a Bullet Journal.

Look forward to continuing my experiment with the Clear Habit Journal to change my habits through to Day 56. And then open a new project to look into the Bullet Journal.

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