Bullet Reboot

You don’t need a resolution, you need a review process.

A new year is always a time for starting something new. Traditionally, this would be New Years Resolutions, and in my case, a new theme for my blog. But this year I’m not setting any resolutions, because I know they aren’t goals, they are merely dreams without a plan. And I still like my blog theme so I’m leaving that alone too. But I do still have some newness.

Firstly, we renewed our mortgage. This is actually a bigger deal than it sounds, because it means that finally, after two years, we are both happy to stay in the house we bought. It’s been a rough two years and we weren’t sure if this was both the town and house in which we wanted to stay. But I’m settled into a new job, and we’re finding new routines, and it’s generally going well.

But the next new thing is a combination of newness and refreshing something I already had. Bullet Journalling.

The truth is, I tried Bullet Journalling a few times before it really stuck. Honestly, I don’t know how I would have survived the pandemonium of working through the pandemic without this process to help me.

If you haven’t heard of Bullet Journalling (or BuJo), that’s understandable. It’s was all the rage a few years ago, and then it faded away. Probably because a lot of the imagery around it was of extraordinarily intricate drawings and immaculate handwriting, and it all looked like too much of a commitment. That’s a shame, because it’s a very simple process. You don’t have to make it elaborate unless that helps you.

The creator Ryder Carroll describes it as a “mindfulness practice disguised as a productivity system”. He created it as a method of staying organised and calming the mind. It keeps your thoughts and appointments organised with minimal effort and helps you to establish new routines and habits.But as it can be minimalistic or creatively detailed, it can be in any style you like.

So far it has prevented me from feeling overwhelmed. Work at the old job was chaotic from the first lockdown, and despite the country opening up, the workload continued to be relentless. The process of bullet journaling over time helped me realise what was manageable and what was unsustainable. It helped me become aware of my workload (professionally and personally) and gave me the the tools to approach it methodically, and yet with the freedom to express my goals and challenges in a way that worked well for me.

If it’s something that might help you, I highly recommend reading bulletjournal.com (the original source), and speaking of, here are links to good summaries of what Bullet Journalling is:

• Bulletjournal.com – the original source by Ryder Carroll (overview video)
• This page on the bulletjournal website was by a BuJo blogger I’ve found useful (Boho Berry), as her planning style was a bit more relaxed than the original. Ryder Carroll does month logs/calendars and other pages that I find excessive and distracting for my purposes, it works better for me to have a monthly to-do list and a weekly planner, rather than have a monthly planner, and a weekly planner, and a daily log….
• Example of how creative-types use bullet journals – bullet journal images on Instagram put some people off because they can be very elaborate, like these!

I will also post my own favourite tools for bullet journalling at some point. I tend to stick to an Index, a Future Log (which I forget about!), my main pages and a rolling weekly. But more about that later!

^{Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash}