Why Bullet Journaling May Be Right For You

To stay organized and productive, it's important to keep and maintain:

• calendars

• to-do lists

• work notes

• personal logs

• goal trackers

• project lists

• and much more

But it's easy for all of these notes to become spread out over multiple journals, notepads, post-its, computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. Your to-list might be separate from your personal journal. And your journal might be in a different notebook than your work projects.

That's why I started a Bullet Journal back in January. A Bullet Journal is designed to bring all facets of your life into one notebook. You can fill it with daily logs, personal reflections, personal goals, notes, goals, calendars... anything. The great thing about a Bullet Journal is that it's highly customizable. 

Now that we're half-way through 2017, I thought I would share how I've been using my Bullet Journal, assess how well it's been working for me, and reflect on what I've learned from this exercise.

First, I've been using a standard, lined Moleskine notebook for my journal. I love these notebooks, but I think for my next Bullet Journal I'm going to select either the dotted Moleskine, or the grid Moleskine. Either of those will help me with my Bullet Journal layouts. You are welcome to use any notebook, although you can purchase an official Bullet Journal notebook from their website. 

I've been using my Bullet Journal to keep a record of the following:

• Monthly Log - an action list for the entire month

• Daily Log - a record of what I've done throughout the day (this log serves as both a to-do list and also a personal journal)

• Goals and Habits - Using a grid system, I keep a tally of my personal goals and habits to track my progress in each area of my life.

• Prayer Journal - a list of things I'm praying about throughout the month

• Projects - a master list of all the video production and post-production projects I have to complete throughout the month

• Movies and TV Shows - a list of things I'm watching throughout the month

• Books - a list of what I'm reading throughout the month

• Notes - I always set aside a few blank pages for notes I take throughout the month

I've been reading up on how other people are using their Bullet Journals and those posts have given me good ideas of other things to track throughout the month, so I'll probably be adding other items in the near future.

So far I've really enjoyed this system. There's something about physically writing things down that helps me to remember. Plus, everything I need is in one notebook, as opposed to many.

If you're interested in starting your own Bullet Journal, there's a great "how-to" guide on the official website, or you can check out this BuzzFeed article.