I have been using Ryder Carroll’s BulletJournal techniques for organizing my analog journal for about 6 months now. There are several things I really like about this system.
- It is easy to maintain
- It lets you carry around just one paper journal that you can use for everything; e.g., to-do lists, project notes, work and activity tracking, study notes, etc.
- It is very easy to customize to fit your needs.
Regarding that last point, I would like to share my current setup.
Pages
Main Index (one full spread)
- Page Title:
Index <from-date>-<to-date> - Entries for
- Monthly calendars
- Collections
- Page numbers recorded on right side
Recurring Tasks (one full spread)
- Page Title:
Recurring Tasks
Future Tasks (one full spread)
- Page Title:
Future Tasks
Monthly Calendar/Tasks (two spreads, if necessary)
- Page Title:
yyyy-mm (month) - Left two columns for every other row (two rows per day. if necessary
carry-over to second spread)
- day (1-31)
- two letters of weekday; e.g., ‘Mo’ for Monday, etc.
- Right side of first row for each day
- Page number for the start of the Daily Calendar for that day
- Entries
- enter significant events on that day
- appointments
- task references
- Monthly tasks are listed following last day of month
- Enter TODO items for the month (see Bullets below)
- Include day numbers or weekday names in square brackets
- Examples:
- @E ☐ TODO [WE] Flowers For Mikie
- @H ☐ TODO [1, 15] Vacuum the cats
Daily Calendar
- Title:
yyyy-mm-dd (day) - Entries: See Bullets below
Collections
- Title: Whatever is appropriate for the collection
- Entries: See Bullets below
Continuation Markers
- Used if Index, Calendar, or Collection fills up page and has to carry to another page
- Add
--> <new-page-number>at top of original page (by title) - Add
<-- <old-page-number>at top of new page (by title)
Bullets
- These are used to mark the type of entry that follows
- ◯ event entry
- ☐ TODO entry
- Leave two grids on left of marker for GTD contexts:
- @A - Anywhere
- @C - Computer
- @E - Errand
- @H - Home
- @M - Meeting (Agenda)
- @O - Office
- @P - Phone
- @S - Someday/Maybe
- @W - Waiting-For
- Include optional due date by including [DD=mm/dd]
- Leave two grids on left of marker for GTD contexts:
- · General Note entry
- >> Journal entry
- ↓ Check-In (at a location)
- ↑ Check-Out (from a location)
- Other entries:
- (A) Audio entry (music, podcast, audiobook)
- (B) Book Notes
- (C) C3 - Caring, Connecting, Committing
- (D) Drink entry (water, coffee, wine, etc)
- (E) Exercise entry (cardio, resistance, stretching, etc.)
- (F) Food log entry (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack)
- (I) Idea for project
- (L) Learning (language, math, etc)
- (M) Measurement entry (weight, blood pressure, resting heart rate, sleep, etc.)
- (N) News
- (P) Pen/Ink/Paper related note
- (S) Supplements/Medicine
- (R) Relaxation (meditation)
- (W) Weather entry
Procedures
Starting New Month
- Initialize full-spread monthly calendar and full-spread monthly tasks.
- Carry over unfinished tasks from previous month
- Scan recurring tasks and write them in on new monthly calendar or monthly tasks
- Scan future tasks and write them in on new monthly calendar or monthly tasks.
Starting New Day
- Initialize daily calendar
- Carry over unfinished tasks from previous day
- Write in any appropriate tasks or appointments from monthly calendar and monthly tasks