Bullet Journaling - The Most Valuable Tool In My Productivity Arsenal

I think it’s fair to say that discovering the Bullet Journal method pretty well revolutionized my productivity this year. Oh, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing, of course, but I’ve definitely seen a major increase in both personal and professional output this year with the Bullet Journal being the only major change to my lifestyle.

First book on the left, current book on the right.

By comparison to last year, however, my late fall slump only lasted a couple of weeks. Bullet journaling got me back on track with my goal of reading through the Bible in a year and has kept me on target since. This blog and my youtube channel have seen almost consistent content updates since February. At work, particularly as we’ve become more focused on embracing the Agile mindset, it’s made morning standups ever so much easier, since I can refer to yesterday’s log for the “I did X” and refer to today’s log for “I commit to do Y.” Daily journaling also means practicing breaking down tasks into manageable chunks, another vital Agile skill.

One of the best aspects of the Bullet Journal is that it functions like a mini planning session at the start of each day. The daily log is a huge help in tracking what I need to do in a given day, what tasks I have coming up, and what I’ve rolled over for too long despite committing to complete. In addition to the standard Bullet Journal notations, I added a count to each daily task to show how many times it’s been rolled over. It’s definitely an eye-opening experience to see that you’ve been “meaning to get to” some project for over a month, without really lifting a finger to actually do it!

Granted, I don’t use only the Bullet Journal. All of my writing planning projects, long term home improvement plans, and other upcoming projects get stored in a set of Trello boards. Tasks get pulled into the Bullet Journal when I have an open slot to add something, and then get worked as they come up.

Taking "Bullet Journal" literally.

So far, the biggest problem I’ve encountered is running out of notebook room. My first book only lasted four and a half months. My second one should last through the end of 2018, but trying to fit an entire year into one large volume is going to be an interesting challenge for 2019.

Whether I end up splitting 2019 into two volumes or not, the Bullet Journal is here to stay as a part of my productivity. I’ve tried a lot of different solutions over the years, but this one has stuck like nothing else really has.