Deep diving for the first time into bullet journaling

 Mindfulness, Organization Tips
Jul 032018
 

I finally bit the bullet, if you’ll pardon the pun, and sank myself into bullet journaling.

Never heard of it? Well, back in 2015 a digital product designer named Ryder Carroll came up with a simplified system of journaling to help himself stay organized. “The real goal,” he says in the Leuchtturm1917 journal he developed with the Leuchtturm publishing company, “is to develop a mindful practice that helps you identify and focus on the things that are truly worth your time.” His system, in its purest form, utilizes a notebook whose pages consist of dot grids. All you need is a notebook—any kind of notebook that works for you—and a pen.

Four concepts form the foundation of his system: Rapid Logging, Collections, Migration and Indexing. Rapid Logging uses a system of customizable symbols called bullets to jot down tasks, events and notes in your journal. Collections are the way you group related entries. They can be anything you wish, but the core collections include a future, monthly and daily log. Migration is the system you use to handle an incomplete task. You can move that task to another time frame or cross it off your list because it’s not important enough to be taking up your time. Indexing is how you keep track of your collections with titles and page numbers. Ryder’s short video below explains these concepts much better than I can.

What makes bullet journaling unique

What’s unique about the bullet journal versus other planners is that you can make the journal whatever you want it to be. There are no pre-printed templates you must complete, but instead blank pages you’ll design yourself, using a system that combines substance with minimalism.

Ryder’s goal is for you to save time for what’s really important to you. You won’t throw your hands up into the air in frustration because the system you didn’t design is too complicated to maintain, or because you have to follow rules that make you itch like a sweater whose fibers give you hives.

Expensive supplies are a thing of the past because all you need are a notebook and pen. Skip, if you like, stickers and washi tape, color markers, charms, fancy paper clips, colored staples, adhesive notes, page tabs or other embellishments. Of course, you can include these items, too—your choice. In other words, you can design your journal to look however you wish. Need a traditional calendar? Grab your ruler and draw it. Need a weight tracker? Design or borrow a design from Pinterest. Are you an avid quote collector? Pick a page and start a list. You can purchase designs you can paste into your notebook, too—why not?

The official bullet journal

I debated using one of the many blank journals I already own, but in the end decided to purchase the official Leuchtturm1917 A5 notebook to see how it works. Thus far I have discovered that it meets my needs.

As advertised, most of the pages in the notebook are filled with a dot grid. What makes the official bullet journal different from other planners or journals on the market are the following elements.

  • The inside front page contains a symbol key for different types of bullets, with space for you to create your own symbols. A task, for example, is represented by a dot; a completed task is an X, and a migrated task (a task moved to a different time frame) is a “greater than” sign.

  • An index of four pages starts off the notebook with space for you to enter the title and page numbers of the collections inside the journal.

  • All 240 writable pages in the journal, beginning with the future log, are numbered so that you can refer to them in the index.
  • The future log is pre-labeled to encourage you to use it. The intent of these pages is to remind you of items scheduled far in advance. Most people organize their future log into months as shown below.

  • There are three ribbon bookmarks you can use however you wish.
  • The back pages of the journal contain handy instructions for using the bullet journal system.
  • The outside back cover contains an envelope for you to store anything you wish. I store stencils and the spine-and-cover labels included with the Leuchtturm1917 notebook.

The bullet journaling community

There are active bullet journalists on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and blogs. Take the time to explore what page spreads, tools and ideas might fit your needs. A few bullet journal enthusiasts I follow include:

Tips for bullet journaling

If you’re just getting started or are thinking about delving into bullet journaling, below are some lessons I have learned.

  1. Even if you’re not sure what you’re doing when you begin your journal, dig in. You’ll figure out quickly what works for you and what does not.
  2. Resist the temptation to tear out pages that aren’t perfect. Everything you write is a lesson learned. Create a collection of pages where you reflect on your bullet journaling experiences.
  3. Color is nice, but absolutely not necessary. Choose a smooth writing pen that won’t bleed through the paper. I use a set of Staedtler Pigment Liners that have different tip widths: 0.1 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm. I bought mine for $14.99 at Office Depot in a plastic case that stands up for convenience; you can probably find these pens on Amazon.com as well, so I have included that link in this paragraph.
  4. Aim for simplicity—if your page designs or methods are too complex, you’re unlikely to use your journal.
  5. Migrate tasks weekly and monthly unless they are time-sensitive. Give yourself time to reflect on what tasks unduly occupy your time when something else would be a better use of that resource.
  6. In a perfect world, all you need to bullet journal is a notebook and pen. There are, however, some additional tools that are nice to have. For me, these include:
    1. A pencil for drafting lines and headers, as well as a ruler
    2. Stencils for repetitive shapes (you can find a package of these for under $10 on Amazon)
    3. Correction tools: a Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser for pencils, a Tombow Mono Sand Eraser for ink pens, and PaperMate Liquid Paper Dryline Grip Correction Tape (believe me, you’ll make errors—and these tools comfort the Perfectionist hiding inside your head)
    4. Pens (black or color) in different tip widths that don’t bleed through your paper or smear
    5. A zipper pouch to keep everything together

  1. Create a collection of sample spreads so you can experiment with different designs. When I entered “minimalist bullet journal” in my Web browser, all sorts of options popped up for me to explore.
  2. It doesn’t matter what notebook you use, as long as it meets your needs. Do look for good quality paper. Smooth paper of a good weight will encourage you to open that journal and fill the pages.
  3. Don’t be daunted by the 240 pages inside a Leuchtturm1917 bullet journal. At first I feared I’d never fill them; now I fear I won’t have enough pages. As you learn more about bullet journaling, you’ll come up with more ideas than you might imagine for those blank pages.
  4. Nothing is set in stone. If what works for you today doesn’t work tomorrow, try something else. I’ll repeat what I said previously: resist the temptation to tear our imperfect pages. I started off with a daily log that was just a list, separated by dates. I didn’t like how it looked, so I switched to a two-page spread with defined spaces for each day, so I can see the entire week at a glance. I didn’t toss the other pages, however.

For me, what makes a bullet journal special is how easily you can customize it to reflect who you are. Whether you like to doodle, sketch, write long journal entries, organize or collect lists, you can use your bullet journal for any or all of these purposes. I like to collect quotes, so I include one at the top of the second page of my weekly spread. I have another collection for blog post ideas that includes a working title, a final title and a post date.

A parking lot for your ideas

Some people like to call their bullet journal their brain dump space, but I like to think of it as a parking lot for all of my stray ideas, sticky notes and even my digital notes. At my daytime job, I use Microsoft OneNote as my main organizing tool, but an analog bullet journal appeals to me because it feels more creative. Below are some of the ways I have begun to use my bullet journal. Watch for a future post that includes some other ideas.

Have you ever used a bullet journal? If so, what made you choose this type of journaling? If not, describe how it might or might not meet your needs.

© 2018 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.

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Why you should stroll instead of speed walk through your writing

 Mindfulness
Jan 152017
 

I read a post recently by Sarah Selecky of Story is a State of Mind in which she makes a case for writing by hand instead of using a keyboard. Selecky does not propose, of course, that you complete all of your creative writing this way, but instead your daily practice writing. She invites you to join her Daily Prompts group in Why should I write by hand?, spending 10 minutes each day with ordinary pen and paper. She acknowledges that you probably write faster by typing, but says this is not the point, that instead the purpose of writing by hand is to deliberately slow things down, to become receptive to details, to notice what’s going on around you, and to become the details. Interesting thought, isn’t it?

Photo by Erin Kohlenberg: (https://www.flickr.com/photos/erinkohlenbergphoto/5406459295) via: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Ours is a world in which people race to write the first draft of a novel in 30 days by participating in National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, who feel pressured to plan the next book in a series before the first one is even finished, to respond to trends and fads and events that are happening now before they disappear and are replaced by the next Big Thing. Some folks feel compelled to enroll in an MFA writing program, hoping it will give them time to focus on writing above all else, only to discover they feel rushed because that’s not all such an MFA program is about. I suspect the pressure to write a lot quickly is immense in such situations and that there is great potential for writing to become quite a chore.

Photo by mpclemens: (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpclemens/15343533039) via: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

I’m not a fast writer, in case you haven’t guessed this already. My process involves dreaming, reading, researching, mind mapping, list making and reflecting before ideas begin to take shape and finally emerge on paper. I enjoy every step of the journey. Writing is not a burden for me; I don’t fit at all the stereotype of the angst-driven writer who feels she has to write but hates every minute of it. Life is too short to do something you don’t enjoy.

The idea of writing slowly, whether by hand or with a keyboard, until your story takes shape—however you define “story,” and I am defining it loosely—is shared by Patty Dann, author of The Butterfly Hours: Transforming Memories into Memoir. I love this book, which strings together the memories not only of Dann’s life but also those of her students who write their stories 10 minutes at a time until a truth is told that helps them make sense of their lives. For more than 25 years, Patty Dann has taught a workshop at the West Side YMCA in New York City in which she assigns concrete one-word prompts that are intended to evoke memories. These words are as simple as dining room table, apron, stairs, nightgown and snow. Some of her students have taken her workshop more than once, and when they do, they never tell the same story twice. This is slow writing, thoughtful writing, writing that—as Sarah Selecky would say—makes you sit up and take notice of the details.

Photo by Thomas8047: (https://www.flickr.com/photos/93482748@N02/10745434953) via: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

In The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity, Louise DeSalvo says that “the best writing grows by accretion, over time.” She shares slow writing anecdotes not only from classic writers such as Henry Miller and John Steinbeck, but also modern ones such as Margaret Atwood, Junot Díaz and Salmon Rushdie. DeSalvo points out that to know where you’re going with your writing, you should understand your own rhythm and how you work best. You must give yourself permission to write not just one draft, but many drafts, some of them poorly. And before your finest writing work emerges, DeSalvo suggests you will have taken more time than you ever imagined to complete these stages:

  • Imagine it. Think about your topic and take notes about it long before you begin to write your story.
  • Draft it. Recognize that you don’t have just one opportunity to get your story right; you have as many chances as you need.
  • Stage it. Break your work down into chunks you can handle: writing, revising, learning.
  • Manipulate it. Figure out the order of your story, its structure, and its image patterns after you have something to manipulate. Later is better.
  • Fine-tune it. Tighten your work where it meanders, expand it where it’s thin, and work through the details of using the appropriate words, sentences, and paragraphs.

One of the responsibilities a writer owes her readers is to make them feel. Writing that shows more than it tells, or that tells more than it shows, is out of balance. It takes time to find that balance. In The Emotional Craft of Fiction, Donald Maass explains the challenge clearly through an exercise in which you’re asked to complete a questionnaire with the following information about yourself:

  • Date of birth
  • Hometown
  • Elementary school
  • High school
  • College/major
  • Occupation
  • Date of marriage
  • Other marriages
  • Current residence
  • Religious affiliation, if applicable
  • Awards/honors
  • Hobbies/interests

Then Maass asks if you and he are now best friends. Of course, the answer is no. To understand you, someone would have to ask you how you felt when you lost your grandfather, what disgusts you, what resonates with you, what frightens you, what makes you feel proud, and much more. Writing a story before you take the time to understand the inner workings of your characters is shadow writing; you must take time to acquaint yourself with your characters’ experiences and how these happenings made them feel. This is all about noticing the details, and giving your story deeper meaning. “What shapes us and gives our lives meaning are not the things that happen to us,” says Maass, “but their significance. Life lessons, revelations, changes, and growing convictions are what we think of when we ponder who we are.”

Good writing is always the result of consistent practice over time, reflection, planning, learning, and revising. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you write by hand or use a keyboard, if you pay attention to the details and don’t rush to the end. And when you stroll through your writing garden, instead of speed walking past it, take time to gaze at the butterfly floating above the day lily, to feel the sharp sting of freezing droplets on your skin, and to inhale the earthy aroma of wood smoke drifting from your neighbor’s chimney. Breathe slowly until you’ve internalized the details, become the details, and tell a story about them.

Photo by Ed Yourdon: (https://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/7168737549) via: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

© 2017 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.

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Madcap Monday vs. Mindful Monday

 Mindfulness
Feb 082016
 

When I flipped to a new tab on my browser this afternoon to perform a Google search, I was greeted by an image of a tribe of monkeys, with each monkey doing its own thing. It strikes me that this is how many of us feel at the beginning of the work week: a little scattered when focus is required, and altogether too busy. Some people refer, jokingly, to the first working day of the week as Blue Monday, especially if they don’t care for their job. Because I don’t fall into that category—I do enjoy my job—I guess I might sometimes refer to the beginning of the week as Madcap Monday, simply because that’s when I find myself juggling priorities to determine what, when and how much will be accomplished during the week.

Image courtesy of TAW4 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of TAW4 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Mondays are generally busy days for nearly everyone I know, but I wonder if they might feel less so if we sit back, take a deep breath, and deliberately slow things down. In other words, we might find ourselves becoming more productive by taking a moment to be mindful of something else entirely than the task at hand.

According to Tsh (pronounced Tish) Oxenrider in My break-up with busy, “It’s like we don’t even think ‘busy’ is a unique, situational status in our lives. It’s strange to not be busy.” When our schedules are so full that we cannot even breathe, Tsh does what on the surface seems counterproductive: she takes a walk. I have found myself doing the same at work, to be honest. The building in which I work is campus-sized, and it takes a while to walk from one end of the building and back. When I return to my desk, I have a fresh outlook, a new store of energy, and focus.

It’s not just in the traditional business world that you encounter that phenomenon of being too busy. You can work at home and have so much to do that you don’t know where to begin. That’s when it’s probably best to simply take a break and do something that gives you pleasure. Maybe that means you’ll read for 30 minutes, take a walk, listen to some music while you close your eyes and think about absolutely nothing, or maybe you’ll pull out some colored pencils and color in one of those adult coloring books that are so popular right now. Possibly you’ll take a few moments to water your plants and trim the brown leaves.

While I was recuperating from surgery, John brought me some African violets to tend.

While I was recuperating from surgery, John brought me some African violets to tend.

Whatever you decide to do to beat back that sense of being too busy, you’ll want to give it your full attention. Maybe you will decide to do nothing. So, give nothing your all, and just let the moment stretch out. I have never meditated, at least not officially, but I suspect that’s what meditation is all about.

Possibly your way of taking a proverbial walk is to think about what makes you happy. And that’s what I am going to do in this post . . . I’d like to share with you three small pleasures that simply make me feel calm, appreciative, or glad. You’ll notice that each pleasure involves the senses—sight, sound, scent, and touch—as well as movement or the lack of movement.

Sitting in front of a fire, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, is a wonderful way to practice mindfulness. I like to move my rocking chair close to the warmth, listen to the crackling flames, and allow the wood smoke to drift my way. And then I think about nothing at all. The result is often clarity about some issue or problem, likely because you’re giving the subconscious part of your mind space in which to work things through.

Crackling Fire

For my birthday, my husband presented me with a tin of 72 Prismacolor® colored pencils. I can’t wait to try them out on the designs inside the adult coloring book below. The pencils are butter-soft with rich colors, and blend beautifully. When I color, it’s not just about what I see in front of me, but also the sensation of soft lead pressing into the paper, that makes me feel calm and surprised, by turns.

Coloring

You can practice mindfulness while enjoying flavors. It doesn’t take long to mix up a fruit smoothie, topped off with a ball of vanilla bean ice cream. The first swallow is pure pleasure, so take it slowly and enjoy each sip through your straw. For just a little while, don’t think about anything but the flavors rolling inside your mouth and sliding down your throat. When you’re finished, you’ll have new energy for your next project.

These glasses are a bit overfilled, but they didn't stay that way long. To make two full glasses, blend the following in your blender, using pulse/chop mode: 1 banana, 2 cups of orange juice, and 1 cup of frozen strawberries, and 1 cup of frozen raspberries or mixed berries. Top off with ice cream, and add a chocolate hazelnut "straw" for fun.

These glasses are a bit overfilled, but they didn’t stay that way long. To make two full glasses, blend the following in your blender, using pulse/chop mode: 1 banana, 2 cups of orange juice, 1 cup of frozen strawberries, and 1 cup of frozen raspberries or mixed berries. Top off with ice cream, and add a chocolate hazelnut “straw” for fun.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed, whether it’s at the beginning or the end of the day, take a few moments to stop. Stop shuffling papers, stop taking calls, and stop making lists. Change gears, and just live in the moment, at least for a while. You’ll be glad you did.

© 2016 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.

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