Are you a disorganized person? Is your mind always thinking of more than two or three things at the same time? Do you get feelings of being ‘very busy’, yet find that you accomplished very little at the end of the day?
Everyone knows that there’s just too much information vying for our time and too much cluttering our brain. And often we may have ideas flying through our minds, crying to be captured, yet getting lost in the bustle of too many things to do. Well, the Tempo team uncovered something that could be just the thing to help get those thoughts in order and get your brilliant ideas organized. It’s called The Bullet Journal.
You only need two things: a notebook and a pen!
The technique is all in the form of “rapid logging”. The way we tend to do things is to write everything over and over again, until we do it. This becomes a chore.
“Rapid logging” involves just keying in the important points without having to expound on stuff.
It consists of four key components: Topics, Page Numbers, Short Sentences, and Bullets.
Topics and Page Numbers
These two go hand in hand every time you write on a page of your journal. The topic is a direct title of anything – it could be a date, a meeting, the name of your pet… it could be anything under the sun. Usually beginners place a date to start getting organized.
You then put a page number so you know where you placed the content. As you go along, you begin to develop the habit of putting a topic and a page number for each page that goes in your journal.
Bullets and Short Sentences
This part is the central theme of the “Bullet Journal” – as it’s aptly named. Each item contains a short sentence containing one of three categories: Tasks, Events, and Notes with an addition of Signifiers if needed.
Tasks
Task bullets represented by “•” will be an actionable item you have to do. Eg “change the beddings” “look for gifts for Mom on Souq”. Depending on completion and how your day goes, you then get to mark each item on the Tasks Bullets as follows:
- X = Task Complete – if you managed to complete the task
- > = Task Migrated – if you did not complete it and you just intend to do it at another day.
- < = Task Scheduled – if you did not do it the day before and promised yourself to do it today.
Events
Events are represented by an “O” Bullet. Usually these are date-related entries that could only occur at a certain day within a week, month, or the year. Either that or something unexpected happened.
Notes
Notes are represented with a dash “-“ Notes include: facts, ideas, thoughts, and observations. Notes are entries that you want to remember, but aren’t immediately or necessarily actionable. This Bullet works well for meeting, lecture, or classroom notes.
Signifiers
Basic signifiers include:
Priority represented by an asterisk “*”
Inspiration represented by an exclamation point “!”
Explore represented by an eye: an O with a period in the middle.
Now that we’re done with the single page bullets, we can now proceed with the Framework of the Bullet Journal. They are: Index, Future Log, Monthly Log, Daily Log.
Index
The index comprises of the first few pages of your Bullet Journal. It acts like your very own table of contents.
Future Log
The future log is a collection of things you wish to plan months or years ahead in advance.
Monthly Log
The monthly log helps you get organized on the things you need to do for an entire month. Consisting of only dates and single bullets, you pinpoint the most important tasks of that day.
Daily Log
The Daily Log is designed for day-to-day use. At the top of the page, record the date as your topic. Throughout the course of the day, simply Rapid Log your Tasks, Events, and Notes as they occur. If you don’t fill a page, add the next date wherever you left off and you’re ready to continue.
The Bullet Journal was created by Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer from New York. You can check the full guide here: bulletjournal.com
Have you created your Bullet Journal yet? Share with us a page of your Bullet Journal along with a selfie, and explain how it transformed your life and we’ll feature it in the next Tempo!
All images and info taken from www.bulletjournal.com
