Weekly Journal 60 - Bullet Journal

tl;dr

I’m trying out some tweaks to my Bullet Journal practice.

Bullet Journal

I’ve been using the Bullet Journal method for a few years now. For the most part, my journal pretty closely follows the basic model described in the Bullet Journal book. I get a lot of mileage out of the basic collections like the daily and monthly logs without the need for complicated layouts. However, I am on the lookout for tweaks and ideas that can enhance my journal without adding unnecessary complexity. This week I stumbled over a couple of ideas that I will be implementing for the upcoming month.

Journal as a Record

I’ve always started off my daily log pages with a copy of my calendar events for the day. A part of me liked using it as a starting point and something I could glance at during the day if needed. In practice, I hardly ever look at my journal to view my upcoming schedule. I do my schedule management from my computer or my phone. Instead of writing down my schedule first thing, I am starting to record meetings and appointments in my journal as they happen throughout the day. So far this working pretty well, and I think I’m going to stick with it. It makes the entries in my daily log look like a better representation of my day. Plus, if a meeting is canceled I don’t have to cross out the entries in my journal.

Simplified Habit Tracker

The one truly custom collection I’ve been using in my journal is a habit/chore tracker spread. It works well enough, but it takes me a few minutes to set up each month, and I don’t feel like I’m getting a ton of value our of tracking habits that are already well established. Instead, I want to focus on the habits I am trying to build up. For example, habits like taking my medication and doing my daily Bible devotional are practically second nature, but I would really like to develop habits around fasting and exercise.

Starting next month, instead of creating a custom collection layout for habits, I am going to add a simple three-column tracker to my monthly log instead. I think this will help me to focus on the habits I am trying to build, while avoiding wasting time and energy tracking habits that I already do well.

What’s Next?

Speaking of things that aren’t providing value, the “What’s Next” section of these weekly blog posts is usually pretty lame. This will be the last one unless I happen to feel its warranted.