The Way of the Bullet Journal

This technique is a tool. While I can't say the bullet journal is the best for everyone, I can say that learning to export data from your brain to other systems is essential for being a creative and productive human being. If you walk away from this unenthused by the bullet journal approach, I encourage you to still take seriously the habits it helps promote.

You are a student. You have code to write. Jobs to find. Bills to pay. Life to figure out. Friends and family to love and occasionally say hello to.

All this is to say: you have too much to do for your brain to handle all by itself.

There are many productivity tools that help alleviate overload of the brain. I do not promise this technique will save you, or even remotely help you, but I do promise to provide you with the information you need to get started and decide if it's right for you.

At a high level, the bullet journal allows you to reduce (wink wink) your to-do list, event tracking, note-taking, and more to a single notebook. As much as I love the single responsibility principle, I've found this master organizational approach to be very helpful.

Who's in for a video?

Set up

In my opinion, the genius of the bullet journal lies in its setup phase. Instead of an app coming preloaded for task management, or a planner with pre-filled dates, YOU are the architect of this system. The act of building the journal's skeleton is itself a commitment to taking control of your busy life.

When I started my bullet journal in Mod 1, I started with:

The Index

Dedicate the first 4-6 pages for indexing all future pages. Any time you enter a new 'spread', or two-page view, number that page and come back to the index to mark what has been added. If the topic is already in the index, just add the page number or keep it in a range.

The Future Log

This probably only needs one or two spreads, depending on your preference. Think of this as the 6-month or year view.
Tag the page numbers for these spreads and log your first Index entries. You have an indexed journal now, you organized badass.

The Month Spread

It is February, and still pretty early on, so let's walk through a full month set up.
Left side: list all 28 days in a three column manner: number, name, and events. E.g., |#|d|-------------------|
Right side: master task list. This is a good place to store those big things that need to get done, perhaps a few weeks ahead.
Add page numbers
Add 'February Spread' to your index

The Day to Day

I find this to be the bulk of my bullet journaling. I end each night by going through and assessing my tasks, and setting up the next day.
Start each day with some date designation on the top left. I do "2/3 Friday".
At the end of that day, draw a line beneath the last line and prepare the next day.
Start an entry for today.

Symbols

Bullet Journal's website recommends some handy symbols to visually manage your data. I use these the most:

Use a '•' for a task
- Turn a '•' to an 'X' when you finish that task.
- Turn a '•' to a '>' if you have to 'migrate' it the next (or another) day.
- Turn a '•' to a '<' if it becomes a scheduled event.
Use a '—' for a note

In the margins:

Use an '!' to designate importance
Use an '👁' to designate an idea or topic to research

First Tasks

RIGHT NOW:

List at least 5 things you need to do today. The more granular and detailed the better.
DEFINITELY include some givens, such as brush your teeth or eat dinner. Train your brain to associate the completion of activity with a trip to your bullet journal.

Breaking Down Tasks

To up your task count in a way that will feel good in the long run, break down your tasks as much as possible. This is still something I'm working on. I find it 0% helpful to put my entire project for the week down as a single bullet task. It's not a comprehensible unit to sit down and finish. Instead, look at your spec or think about the feature you're working on. At my best, I'm writing down bullets for individual methods, and completing each feels really, really good.

Let's practice breaking down with some audience participation.

The Utility of the Bullet Journal

So we have our bearings on task and management. Let's up the value of this system by making this our only notebook.

Since the pages are blank, each new spread does not have to be bound for scheduling. Creative rush? Dedicate the next spread to diagramming it out or brainstorming. Notes for class? Give it a spread! Always, always, always add it and its page numbers to the index. What was that thing you thought about yesterday? Oh yeah, it's beautifully logged in your index.

For those worried about losing the bullet journal, it's a legitimate concern. I still keep a robust Google Calendar and Evernote database, but I still think bullet journaling is what keeps me on top of my game. If it feels better to 'back up' your bullet journal digitally, I find it doesn't add that much extra time.

The primary goal of all of this is to train your brain to instantly outsource anything that comes to mind. If I’m writing code I remember I'm supposed to do my taxes (which is absolutely a thing), I grab my bullet journal and write it down right away so I can get back to work and not be concerned with forgetting about it.

Fire Away

With these starting strategies in mind, the rest of this time is for you to get organized. Front-loading the time to set a clean slate is both rewarding, and it gives a tasty hint of what you can shoot for every day. The rest of this journey is about tailoring your technique to maximize your productivity and up your dopamine rewards for getting things done. If you need some tips for how to get started on cleaning up other parts of your organized life, go here and/or here (thanks to Jeff).