What's your favorite organizational system? How do you stay up to date with the important items in your life? Maybe you don't even have a system. We all juggle a lot of information on a day-to-day basis. From time to time, everyone could use a little help on their daily tasks, planning their next big trip, or even ensuring their bills are paid on time. There are numerous ways to approach organizing these elements. The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, and Design the Future by Ryder Carroll introduces an inventive way to attack these key issues we all face.
The Bullet Journal Method (BuJo for short) is an ingenious organizational system that many people use as an alternative to a journal, or a traditional planner. The best BuJos feature a symbol format that allows you to easily customize your own page layouts, similar to below. The symbols are the syntax that makes this method so useful. By simplifying tasks, notes, and events into a bullet point format, the BuJo method allows you to focus on only that which is essential. Writing effective bullets is the key to success for a productive and mindful journal. Too much information and your mind may lose sight of the goal. Too little information and your bullet may be ineffective.
• Task
X Task Complete
‣ Task Moved
--- Task Cancelled
◦ Task Moved
* Priority
! Inspiration
In college, one of the most popular ways to retain information is by writing the information out or using flashcards. Like flashcards, the Bullet Journal is solely a handwritten process. It allows you to customize your organizational habits as much or as little as you see fit. Many experts suggest that by writing things down you may improve your memory. Carroll offers that by writing out your day to day life and actively organizing your future, you are creating an archive to look back on and learn from. See what worked and what didn’t work. That is essentially the main point, no pun intended, of the bullet journal method.
Why use a notebook? According to a New York Times article titled "Why is Productivity so Weak?" every year from 1950 to 2000 Americans increased their productivity around 2.3%. However, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not until 2005 did we start to see productivity decrease on a year by year basis. Carroll attributes this decrease in productivity to an increase in technology, information overload, and other online distractions. He goes on to suggest that when you are forced to write, you are also forced to unplug and, hopefully, bring more clarity to your thoughts.
You may be wondering “Why not use a software or a phone application instead of a notebook?” Flexibility. Today's organizational applications have a tendency to do one task extremely well, or many tasks not so well. With a notebook, you are in control, and you can customize as little or as much as needed.
Although your Bujo can be a place of combining several important aspects of your life, not everything is to be included. Things not to be included in your journal: passwords! Passwords and other potentially sensitive information shouldn't live in your handwritten notebook. Much like a checkbook from your bank, your BuJo is something you likely would not want to lose. For a list of potential ways to store your password, you may review our previous blog on this.
At DWM, we have several organizational tools and processes to assist us in servicing our clients. Our core software for relationship management and consistent workflows is Junxure, the leading Client Relationship Management (CRM) software in our industry. In addition to Junxure, our monthly, weekly and daily checklist enables us to make sure we never miss a beat when it comes to assisting our clients with their long-term goals and adding value on a continual, proactive, basis.
In a world where 5-year-olds now know how to use an iPad better than some Millennials, it may not hurt to go back to the basics. For some, these organization pieces come as second nature, but for others, it does not. For your personal life and day to day activities, you may consider the addition of a Bullet Journal (BuJo).