- Hey friends.
Today I want to talk to you about how I've been using
the bullet journal system this year in 2020
and what things I've sort of changed from past years.
I've been using the bullet journal system
for a few years now
and each year I tend to make a video
talking you through how I'm setting up my bullet journal
and showing you how I use it to
stay productive and get things done.
Every year that I set up a new journal
I like to look back on what I felt worked from last year
and what I want to do again
or what new things I want to try
and there's been a few developments this year
I'm doing things a little bit differently.
I've maybe gone off the official bullet journal system
just a little bit, but I want to show you anyway
because it's still, the intention behind bullet journaling
is still there, it's an analog way to quickly take notes,
arrange your life, organize things and to do lists
and get things done
and it is my main method for organizing
my day to day and weekly tasks.
So without further ado,
lets jump in and I'll show you
how I've been using the bullet journal system for 2020.
(upbeat music)
All right, so lets start with the book itself.
This year, as with last year,
I've been using the LEUCHTTURM1917 journal
with the dot grid.
Got a second camera set up here so I can show you
what I've got going on.
So you see it's just a page with small dots
and I've been using the MUJI 0.5 nib gel black pen.
It's been my favorite ever since
I started bullet journaling
and it's my favorite thing to write with
so I keep a stock of these.
This one, I broke the end off but hey.
First thing that I set up in my bullet journal for this year
as I do every year, is the future log.
So this is how I set mine out
just with a calender, the month and then the days
and I like to put an underline on the days
that I will be away from home traveling somewhere
and then spots around the days that I take as vacation days.
So as you can see, because of this whole pandemic thing,
yeah, really it was only January and February
that had any travel in it,
the rest of the year all this travel,
any plans that I had have started to be canceled
so I haven't found myself using this future log as much.
It definitely was more of a travel,
vacation planning thing for me.
What I've been trying to do though
is plan what I want to do each month while I am at home
and putting some monthly focuses in next to the months.
So in April I really focused on creating a font
that I'm currently working on,
hopefully will be launching soon, this month actually
because that's what I've put as the focus for May
is to get that out for sale
as well as arranging a new series that I'm working on.
So yeah, this has been how I've adapted
the future log this year,
it's been more about planning what I want my focus to be
for each month since I'm not traveling
and so I don't need the future log for travel plans
sadly at the moment.
Let me bring over last year's journal
just to show you what I used to do for each month.
So the start of my months used to look something like this
where I'd have one page with all of the days
with travel that's happening or events to be aware of
and then I'd plan out each week separately in here
so that I could make sure I was getting the things done
that I needed to do for the week.
Near the end of last year I found myself
just not flipping back to this page enough
and not actually making use of it.
I would forget things that I had planned to work on
because I wasn't looking back at this page.
And I've talked before about how habit trackers
which I have one of these that I tried last year as well.
I'm great at making a habit tracker at the start of the year
in a bullet journal and then just forgetting to come back
and actually mark it off with actually working on a habit.
I'm not in the habit of looking at the habit tracker
let's say that.
So I have a new system for
figuring out my monthly plans now.
It actually is not in my journal at all,
so this is what I mean when I said that I was going
off script for the bullet journal.
I've been using a little note card
that looks a little like this
I will put it under this camera here so that you can
see it a bit clearer.
These sit on a little calender easel
that I have on my desk
and I've actually just been writing on the backs of
a calender that my friend Alexis gave me last year,
these sheets and you sort of like move it for each month.
I've been making my own calender to use as a habit tracker
and to use as planning for the month.
The reason that habit trackers haven't worked for me
inside a bullet journal
is for it to truly be something
that is going to reinforce a habit
and to help me get something done, help me build a habit,
I need to be able to see it,
it needs to be in front of me all the time
and it's just too easy to ignore to be honest
if I'm having to flip back to a certain page
in my bullet journal to check if
I've done that habit or not,
that's just not something that's going to work for me
but what has worked though is having this calender
so here's how it works.
I draw out a little calender on the card
and then what I've been tracking mainly has been exercise
so every day that's circled is a day that I
did a purposeful workout.
So I'm really proud of this one,
this is like the most that I've worked out
in probably, I don't know, a few years time,
to get this many workouts done in a month.
Definitely has something to do with being stuck at home
and you know, not having anywhere else to go
but to do at home workouts
but yeah, it's also really helped to have this habit tracker
so it sits next to my desk and I can always see it,
every day, I can see that the day hasn't been circled yet
and so if I want to keep that promise that I made to myself
then every weekday I need to be working out,
I need to have that day circled.
You can see here on the 12th I have a cross,
something I also want to track is writing,
days that I actually set aside writing time,
get some writing done, I only did it once in April though
so that's not impressive
but like looking at this I can see that I only did it once
and it tells me that I need to be prioritizing it more.
Something else I really liked from my plan for the month
in last year's bullet journal though
was picking a focus for each month,
a focus for what I was going to work on.
When you have a full time job and side projects
it's really hard to get everything done that you want to
there is always more ideas than there is time in the day
to fulfill them all
so setting a focus, an intention for the month
that I want to finish my font
and then some notes about what things that I needed to do
in order to make that happen
as well as a couple of other little tasks
that I needed to do as well
like taxes, fun stuff.
But this sits next to my desk
and I see all the time what my focus is,
if I've worked out that day,
what the next thing might be on my list of things to work on
and that's been super useful and I'm loving the system.
So, I know it's not technically a bullet journal
but the idea is the same, right,
it's an analog tracking of tasks
and helping me get things done.
So yeah, I just wanted to share that
that has really been helping me on a monthly basis.
I didn't actually plan out any other set pages
at the start of this journal like I did last year.
I just think the start of the year was,
honestly it was a busy time,
I was in New Zealand traveling, visiting my family
and I wasn't really thinking about
planning ahead for my year in terms of my journal.
So what I have been doing for this is using it as a space
to keep project plans for any projects that I'm working on.
So at the moment, working on my font,
my goal with it is to launch it and start selling it
and so this is where I can keep a running list
of everything that I think of that needs to happen
in order to make this project come to life.
So this is where I put tasks
when they're not assigned to a certain month
or a certain week,
I just know they need to happen at some point
and so I write them in here so I can remind myself
what needs to happen for it.
So, in terms of the day to day tasks, as you can see,
if you haven't seen one of my bullet journal videos before
by the way, I would just say this now
that they are not neat,
this is not one of those beautiful bullet journals
that's super artistic and creative,
no, mine is fully about just being productive
and getting things done
and I have very messy handwriting
that probably only myself can read but that's okay.
So lets take a look at some of my weeks.
You'll notice these pages are a little bent
and that is because I have been using a new way
to plan weekly and daily tasks
that I saw on the YouTube channel,
plant based bride I think was her name,
she had a video talking about her bullet journal setup
and showed this method for your week
and I really liked it.
So let me show you how it works,
by setting up a new week I guess.
So tomorrow, Monday, is going to be May 11th
so I just write the date at the top here in a little box.
Next to it is May 12th
and we'll just continue on across the page.
Then, what I'm going to do is fold this page in half
then on the side here I'm going to write...
This week.
So, now, are you seeing where I'm going with this?
I can have this folded over
and I can write in here a list of all of the tasks
that I need to get done this week
and then no matter what day of the week that it is
I will be able to see those tasks
and remind myself of what I need to be getting done
and fitting into my time throughout the week.
I like to split my tasks into work tasks and personal tasks
and how I've been doing that is writing work tasks
at the top of the page,
personal tasks on the bottom half.
So for example, tomorrow night I have Spanish class
so I'm just going to write that in there.
I have been using the bullet journal system still of
the bullets themselves
so a circle like this means it's an event,
if it's a task,
like say I need to do my Spanish homework,
oops I just wrote homework for that one didn't I,
class homework, round here.
A dot like that means it's a task that needs to be done
and when I do it I cross it off.
And here's my sample of some crossed off tasks
on other days.
Then I have my work tasks above,
so I know tomorrow I need to do like catch up,
I need to work on a wire frame
so those come up the top of the page.
In this column here of the this week tasks
tend to be mostly life admin, side project tasks
and I'll kind of group them as I go if I can,
like I know need to respond to Concepts,
they want to interview me for their blog
and that's a thing I need to do next week.
So that's going to be there
and every day that I'm planning out my tasks for the day
I'll be able to refer over to side and see
that that's something I haven't done yet
that I need to fit in at some point.
You see as we get to,
what is this, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
we just flip it over
and we go Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
and we always see the this week on the side
I think it's really cool.
Let me show you in an action with the previous week,
see, we just got all our tasks.
Thursday, I can flip it over and still see that.
It works so well, I love the idea
and this is definitely feeling like it's getting more into
like organized planner territory
but what I still like is anytime I need to
I can take a full page just to start writing some notes
whenever I need to.
This was some notes from a meeting
that I had with a colleague
so it sort of just hangs out in the middle there
so my notes are kept alongside my tasks still.
I think I've talked about before how I haven't in the past
really got along with planners with boxes drawn in them
set up for you because it's a little bit confining
and I like the freedom that a bullet journal brings.
So, yes, like I said,
this is sort of limiting that freedom a little bit
but I still definitely feel like I have the control
to make it be whatever I need it to be
and it's been helping me get things done for sure,
I've been so productive these past few months
using this method of doing my weeks in particular.
There's lots of things that would usually
fall through the cracks that I've managed to get done
so that's been really cool.
At the start of every week, so like right now it's Sunday
so I'll probably sit and do this
after I film this video actually,
I like to plan what I need to get done this week
in terms of moving my projects forward,
whatever my focus is for the month
which this month is getting my font launched.
Write them down on the side in this list
and then start to plan out the next day.
I don't like to plan out too many days in advance though
so I'll just see what I get done tomorrow
and then move on to planning the next day on that day itself
or maybe in the evening the night before.
So that my friends is a look at how I've been using
the bullet journal system this year.
I hope you're not disappointed in this video
because I know that it is very different
from the beautiful, gorgeous, very structured
bullet journals that I see.
Honestly I do believe this system is about
helping you get your work done
and so the point of it is that
it can be flexible to adapt to whatever you need from it
and what I need from the bullet journal system
right now this year is something that's more focused on
the day to day tasks and getting them done,
just like getting my life in order
and it's been really helpful.
That along with using my separate calender system,
taking some of the ideas from the bullet journal
but having it on show all the time.
Keeps things top of mind for me
and helps me get things done without me having to like
rewrite my monthly focus at the top of
every single page of journal for example
which is something I've seen other people doing
but it's not something that I can be bothered with.
Thank you for watching this video.
If you use a bullet journal system yourself
I hope this video gave you some ideas for
some things you could do to be more productive with it
or maybe, like me,
there's some things to do with the bullet journal system
that you just haven't been able to connect with
and it hasn't been able to help you
like habit tracking for example.
Maybe this video has given you some ideas
for how you could make that work,
taking the idea but using it in a slightly different way.
Thanks for watching, I hope you have a good week
and if you're not subscribed to my channel already
I'd love for you to click that subscribe button.
I normally make videos about design 'cause I'm a designer
in case you're new around here.
And every now and then I talk about productivity
and getting things done, remote work,
that sort of thing as well.
So yes, hit subscribe.
Making new videos every single week
and I will see you in the next one.
Bye.
(upbeat music)