The Joy of Bullet Journaling
A gentle ritual for leading more intentional lives
Early in his life, NYC-based Product Designer Ryder Carroll was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. As he grew older, his struggle with keeping focus pushed him to design a system that would help declutter his mind; he called it the Bullet Journal®, also known as the ‘Bu-Jo’.
In his words, Bullet Journaling is “best described as a mindfulness practice disguised as a productivity system. It’s designed to help you organize your WHAT while you remain mindful of your WHY. The goal of the Bullet Journal is to help its practitioners live intentional lives, ones that are both productive and meaningful.” You can watch his full TED talk here.
Fast forward a few years, and his creation has triggered a cult-like following, with endless YouTube videos showing fantastic variations of his original methodology.
In 2019, a then-coworker showed me her personal Bu-Jo, filled with hand-lettering, pastel colors, and fun day-to-day planning tasks. My eyes lit up with delight, and from that period on, I’ve used bullet journaling to organize my everyday — a habit that brought me absolute joy, comfort, and intention in my life.
Here’s why.
The freedom of pure customization
A Bullet Journal comes as a dotted notebook with an index section. The dotted layout serves as guiding points for you to design/divide/thematize every page from scratch.
Unlike Bu-Jos, traditional planners have pre-defined layouts and content, practical for some but limiting for others. An HR manager and creative writer won’t necessarily have the same day-to-day planning system. A minimalist and maximalist share wildly different aesthetics. You get the gist.
That’s what makes Bullet Journaling so perfect. Its blank, dotted pages give ‘practitioners’ the chance to customize their spreads whichever way they like. Just imagine the possibilities of design if the same notebook was passed around to a new person each time.
Besides design and layout, the content of a planner is key. What information is important for you to track, organize, and reflect on every day, every week, every month?
This freedom of picking everything that goes in your Bullet Journal increases usability and intentionality; Bu-Jo users can become more mindful of what to do and how to lead their lives when they’ve taken the time to draw out what is valuable and meaningful to them. Here are a few cool examples from YouTube creators who show the range in customization:
For the minimal enthusiasts:
Pick up Limes
Paper and Landscapes
papery thoughts
Sheldon Evans
For the color or theme obsessed:
AmandaRachLee
leelajournals
Journal Away
The gentle ritual of preparation
Just like with any other ritual, preparing the layout and content of my bullet journal each month brings me undeniable calm and quiet delight. It became sacred to me, like a small escape from day-to-day chores, work, and noise.
I went down the YouTube rabbit hole once I bought my first notebook, and got plenty of inspiration from other Bu-Jo lovers. I also learned basic hand-lettering and calligraphic tricks to give my spreads an extra kick.
I started simple — following basic pointers on organizing yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily spreads; exploring possible topics and themes; keeping the aesthetic simple yet personalized. Once I got the hang of it, I became more adventurous.
I dedicate 2 hours every time to prepare my monthly spreads. I set up my desk with all the necessary stationery, put on some music, and start creating. Eventually, I’d enter a state of flow, where every movement feels gentle, intentional, and anchoring.
Once my spreads were done, I’d sense subtle pride weaving through me. I’d look at my work and think: “I did this from scratch.” I was also proud of learning new skills that helped me set up my Bu-Jo content. Little wins like these make room for honest joy and comfort.
The creative tracking of mind, body and spirit
As Carroll explained it, bullet journaling is designed for both productivity and wellbeing. It gives us the liberty to track our mind, body, and spirit in incredibly creative ways.
Apart from planning out professional tasks, Bu-Jo users can also design what’s typically called a ‘habit tracker’; this could include tracking vitamin intake, yoga and workout sessions, hobbies, house chores, meals, skill-building, and more.
On top of habit trackers, one can choose to write out gratitude lists, reflections, future goals, places to visit, prayers, and manifestations. That’s where the more spiritual layers are unearthed.
By joining these layers in one notebook, I was able to balance my focus and priorities — remembering to take care of myself while ticking off my to-do-list for work.
Setting out a planning system from scratch obviously requires working the creative muscle and strengthening visualization skills. We challenge our brains by turning blank sheets into meaningful content through our personal touch. Imagine how happy our Inner Child must be every time we engage in creative flows unbound by external validation.
Conclusion — The power of choice
To sum it up, bullet journaling is a ritual of choice. We get to choose what daily practices to track and how to represent them on paper. It’s that choice that (often) enables our willingness to carry through the habits. The choice of words, colors, themes, mantras, and drawings we fill the pages with reinforces ownership and proactivity. We get to bask in our creations every day.
How powerful, how healing.
