Created: 2025-02-02 Last Updated: 2025-02-02 Stage: seedling
My Bullet Journal Practice
This is a collection of notes about how I approach the practice of using the Bullet Journal Method to better manage and organize my life. I primarily see and use my bullet journal as a tool so I am much more interested in how it can help me and less interested in how it looks. If you are interested in looking at colorful, artistic notebook spreads, you will probably be disappointed in what I will share here. My notebooks are very simple and spartan. My philosophy is to try and reduce friction around using my notebook. If I feel like something is overly complicated or time consuming, then I am less likely to do it. Keeping things simple makes it easier for me consistently use my journal every day. Using my journal every day helps me to keep track of daily life and tasks, and serves as valuable feedback for self reflection and continuous improvement.
Tools
I use a large Moleskine classic dotted-grid notebook when I can get them at a reasonable price. One notebook typically lasts me three months. My pen of choice is the Pilot G-2 05 with gel ink. This combination gives me a smooth writing experience without ghosting, and I don’t have to live in fear of losing an expensive pen.
Layout
I mostly use the basic layout and spreads as described in the “The Bullet Journal Method” book and online course. The spreads I use the most are the monthly, weekly, and daily logs combined with the index and future log. Custom spreads are usually just topic or project specific lists that get their own entry in the index.
Journal - Daily Log
I primarily use the daily log as a record of my day. As events happen throughout the day, I record them in my daily log with the appropriate bullet. For example, if I attend a meeting at work and I get two tasks that come out of that meeting I would record the meeting itself as an event, and add the two tasks, I also practice a form of interstitial journaling where I record the start and completion times of most events and larger tasks, and I record a mood entry when I complete a task or event.
More to Come
This is an early draft as I attempt to codify my bullet journal practices. I’ll be updating this more as I notice things that I’m doing that are worth documenting and sharing.
