A year and a half of Bullet Journaling

Believe it or not, I've been Bullet Journaling for almost a year and a half now. That is by far the longest I've continuously used a particular system in the past 10 years.

I call it Bullet Journaling, but it's really my own modified system I detailed in this post awhile back. That's the beauty of the Bullet Journal system, you can shape it to your needs.

As you know, I've gone back and forth with the Bullet Journal vs day per page diary debate for a long time. Well now I think I can put that to rest. I never had this level of satisfaction with my day per page diary.

Just to make sure, I looked back through some of my old day per page planners recently. The bottom line was, I could use that one page each day as my planner, or as a journal but there wasn't enough space on one page for both planning and journaling. Bullet Journaling (in a blank notebook) solves that issue entirely.

My Bullet Journal is anything I need it to be at that moment. When I went to Iceland, I wrote pages and pages about our trip. When I have a busy day, I fill a two-page spread with tasks and notes. I write my Christmas lists, plan my kids' birthday parties, let my kids draw in the book and generally keep myself sane.

As you can see in the photo at the top of this post, I've been using the same type of notebook this whole time: large blank-page Moleskine notebooks. But for my next notebook I'm thinking of branching out to something else. Probably a Leuchtturm A5 size for the wider page. But I'll stay with the blank pages because I love the freedom.

I contributed to the Bullet Journal Kickstarter recently and am looking forward to my new notebook and to the new BulletJournal.com website and becoming a member of the Bullet Journaling community!

Hooray for Bullet Journaling success!

Bullet Journal downsizing?

Here's the post about my Bullet Journal downsizing I promised. Sorry for the delay!

On purpose, I brought no planners with me on our trip to Iceland. I did bring my Bullet Journal notebook, to record my trip. But all my planners were left at home. I wanted to focus on my trip and not think about my normal daily routine.

We hadn't taken a trip outside the country in 2 1/2 years, so it had been a long time since I needed my planners to be truly portable. When I only needed my planners at home, they were free to get larger and larger, like planner Pleistocene megafauna.

In my normal daily life I use two books every day: my Bullet Journal notebook, and my weekly planner. Both had become rather large.

My Bullet Journal notebook is a large Moleskine, with my gorgeous but heavy leather Oberon Designs cover on it. The notebook and leather cover combined weigh about 600 g. I stopped carrying it around with me about 3 days into my trip, because we were walking so much and it's heavy.

My weekly planner had inflated into an A4 size notebook that I had hand-drawn weekly pages in. For planning, it's great. But it doesn't fit in my bag.

The whole time I was on my trip I thought, as soon as I get home I'm downsizing my books! This happens just about every time I travel. It's like a planner Big Bounce, with an inflationary period (when my planners get larger and larger) followed by the inevitable contraction (when I get fed up with the lack of portability).

As soon as I got home I moved into my Franklin Covey Compact size binder for all my planning, even far-future. I wrote all about my new setup in this post. It's not lighter than my A4 notebook/ planner, but its smaller footprint allows it to fit into my bag easily.

For now the main question is what will I use for my notebook/ Bullet Journal. I've been using unlined large Moleskine notebooks all year, and for the most part they are great but there are a few issues. Some things like lists that need to be carried over when I switch to a new notebook (every 3-4 months) will be solved by putting them into the ring binder.

The whole time I was on my trip I thought, I absolutely must downsize my Bullet Journal! It might be enough to leave my beautiful leather cover off the notebook. Or I might switch to this gorgeous A6 day per page diary I ordered from Aspinal. It cost a ridiculous amount of money, but I've been wanting one for the better part of a decade so I finally took the plunge. I love the idea of a little leather book I carry with me everywhere all year.

(PS my photos in poor light don't do it justice. Here's the website with better images.)

If the A6 page isn't big enough for me each day, I could use a notebook, but smaller than what I've been using. The Paperblanks Midi size notebooks are 4 3/4 by 6 3/4 inches, which are nice and portable. I've had this gorgeous Lindau cover one for a few years, waiting for a purpose. This might be it.

But now that I'm back home and using my notebook again, I'm resistant to change something that has been working so well for me for a year now. I'm even resisting changing to the lined Moleskine I planned to switch to in January (this awesome Hobbit one) because I'm liking blank pages so much. Maybe not using my leather cover will make it light enough. Or, maybe the weight and size don't matter when I'm not traveling, and next time I go someplace I'll just use a smaller notebook for that trip.

I'll continue to use my current notebook (large unlined Moleskine, my 4th this year!) until the end of this year, then decide whether to convert to the little daily book, or another notebook.

Aw, didn't you guys miss my planner angst? Just when I thought I had my planner situation figured out forever, my needs changed and everything was overthrown.

Bullet Journal brain dump and new signifiers

Sorry, in my last post I said I would discuss which books I might use when I downsize my Bullet Journal. But after a few days back home using my Bullet Journal like crazy, I realize it may not be necessary or even possible. More on that in, hopefully, my next post.

But this morning I came up with something I really like and wanted to share with you right away.

I did a brain dump of all the things I need to do today. I didn't take any time trying to arrange them on the page according to type of task, I just got them all out on paper as I thought of them. But then when I looked at my tasks, I realized some needed to be done at home, some on the computer, and some were errands I need to make a trip out to do.

I needed some way to sort these tasks so their contexts would be more obvious. I tried to think of little icons to put, but I'm not a drawer or doodler so nothing came to mind. I went for just letters, which makes more sense to me.

Below you can see my list. Please don't be too distracted by the rock covering a name. (When looking around for some small item, I realized I have rocks all over the place. I like rocks.)

Anyhoozle, if you can read my handwriting you'll see E means Errand, H means Home, W means my daily dog-walking, and that sloppy unidentifiable thing is an @ which means something I have to do at my computer. (I don't have a smartphone so I have to do emails when I'm sitting at my computer, which is not all the time.)

I really like this, but I wonder if icons would be better so I don't start confusing letters. Can you think of any better signifiers I could use to distinguish different types of tasks, especially ones that need to be done in different locations?

My ongoing debate: day per page diary or notebook/ Bullet Journal?

I know, I know. Why does this bug me so much?

Backstory for those who haven't been following the saga:

For years I struggled to journal. Finally in 2013 I had great success with a dated day per page diary. The dated page prompted me to write SOMETHING every day, or else the page would be wasted. So I got in the habit of capturing details every day. It was grand.

But I struggled a bit with the book. It was heavy in my bag, and sometimes a page per day felt limiting.

About this time last year I busted into a notebook/ Bullet Journal instead, and enjoyed the freedom. But for some reason day per page diaries have a charm that pulls me back. I just like them.

Now that I've been using a notebook/ Bullet Journal for almost a year, I can evaluate the pros and cons of each system. Get ready for some serious geekdom:

Dated Day Per Page Book: 

Pros: 

• I love the aesthetics of the chunky book. 
• Superior archiving and easier to find things in one book all year. 
• Captures a snapshot of my day. Easier to flip through and see one page/ day at a time. 
• Easier to see trends over the entire year like when flowers bloomed, leaves turned etc. 
• Edited to add: I like the progression through the book as the progression of the year.
• I like the content of DPP diaries (maps, conversions, etc). 
• Having a dated page per day makes me fill in as much as I can about the day, which sometimes causes me to write MORE. I don’t like empty spaces. 
• Can fill in things on days ahead of time, like what to bring along to places. 
• Kids can draw pictures and borders on upcoming days for a nice surprise when I arrive at that date.
• Timed lines help me map out my day better… 

Cons: 

• …but I tend to become a slave to it, looking at it all day to see what I should be doing at any giving moment. 
• Content tends to be more businesslike, simple log book with less depth. 
• Limited to one page per day. Have to make choices about what is worthy of being written on each day’s page. 
• Heavier book. 
• No space for lists and non day specific items. 

Plain Notebook/ Bullet Journal: 

Pros: 

• Can be whatever I need it to be at that moment, even different day to day. 
• Kids do drawings on the pages without restrictions.
• More FUN/ in-depth content. 
• Lighter book. 
• I get to use several books per year, a new book every 3-4 months which helps satisfy my urge to use new books. 
• More space to stick things in, although I hardly ever do. 

Cons: 

• Doesn’t have the content of dated DPP diaries. 
• Several books each year means relevant lists must be copied over or lost. 
• Have to dig out old books to look up past information.
• Harder to find things in pages. 
• Despite having unlimited space, sometimes I actually write LESS because I don’t feel the pressure to fill the page. 

I like both, for opposite reasons. The structure and content of day per page diaries vs. the freedom of undated notebooks.

So what I'm trying out now is pre-dating two weeks of day-on-two-pages in my notebook/ Bullet Journal. That way I have a good compromise: I can fill things in ahead of time, and having two pages already designated for each day encourages me to write more.

Which do you like better? Dated daily pages (like Hobonichi etc.), or a notebook/ Bullet Journal? Why?

How I use my planner + Bullet Journal notebook

Tina commented on yesterday's post on my Bullet Journal notebook changeover asking how I use my planner along with my Bullet Journal notebook system that I described in that post. I started to write a "short" reply but it got really long so I decided to just do a separate post about it!

It's all very personal so I won't be able to show you any photos of my pages, not that you would be able to read my writing. (I keep telling myself, if it's worth writing, it's worth writing legibly! Anyway...)

But I can tell you lots of specifics and examples of how I use my Bullet Journal system along with my planner.

I call it a Bullet Journal, but it's really not. That's a common buzzword these days, so when I say that people automatically have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about, but I have modified the BuJo system to my own needs.

First of all, NO forward planning goes in my Bullet Journal. None at all. All forward planning goes in my planner. I wrote a post last year on how I used my planner along with my day per page diary, and all of the part about how I use my planner still applies so you can see that in this post here. In today's post I will focus on how I use my Pseudo BuJo system.

Some people might not like to use two separate books. But after years of trying hundreds of different planners trying to find a system that works for me, using two separate books is a small price to pay for a system that works so well for me. Using a separate planner allows me to plan the entire year in one book without rewriting. I use up a notebook in 3-4 months, and I would not want to have to rewrite all my forward plans several times per year. Also the two separate books help me keep their purposes separate: forward planning only in my planner, day to day recording only in my notebook. Another advantage of separate books is I can have them both open side by side so I can see today's details in relation to the rest of the week and my weekly task lists.

As you saw in yesterday's post, I'm using a large unlined Moleskine notebook for my journal. I wrote some details of how I use it in my Journaling Lessons Learned post. But today I will give you some day-by-day detailed examples of how I use this notebook.

The evening before, I start a fresh page and write the day and date at the top. Then I leave some space so I can write significant events right at the top of the page where I can see them easily. Then I write if my husband is traveling, and any scheduled events or appointments I have that day. Then I slot in MUST DO tasks for that day. I only write tasks I MUST DO THAT DAY, nothing that is optional because these would mix in with the Must-Do tasks, and I need to be able to see easily what I absolutely must do that day. Then if I get those done, I look at my weekly task list (in my planner) to see what else I can fit in today.

Therefore my day is planned the evening before, and I wake up knowing exactly what I have to do today. As the day rolls on, I record things right in the notebook. Sometimes I use one page for a day, sometimes less, often two pages.

Bullet Journal symbols: I don't really use them. I have my own very simplified system using only asterisk *  box []  dot . and arrow -->  Here is what they mean:

       [] Task. When the task is finished, I check it off.

      *[] Very important task. Do these first.

• Information/ notes. For example if I phoned someone, I tick off the To Call box and write a dot under with notes on the phone call, who I spoke to and what they said, and the number I called so I can call them again if I need to follow up. Which brings me to...

      ---> Follow-up action or ongoing. To continue the phone call example, under the dot information I'll write --> Sue will call me back next week when the new stock is in. That way I know the result is not complete yet.

This is why I love using unlined pages: I can write between lines easily. If I'm writing on lined pages, I don't have as much space between my writing to make notes like this unless I skip lines, which feels wasteful to me. Without lines, I can always cram more writing in between.

If I've written something that becomes irrelevant I line it out. For example this morning I had written Call G's friend's mom to arrange playdate tomorrow, but I had to line it out this morning because G is sick so I can't make play plans for her for tomorrow.

I record emergent tasks (those things that come up during the day that you hadn't planned but get done anyway), so I have a record of when I did them.

Here's a real-life example: I record online orders with the amount, which card I paid with, confirmation numbers, etc. I keep a list of these in the back and track when I ordered, when it shipped and when I received it so I make sure I'm getting everything I ordered. For example I ordered something back in October, they shipped it to me but the contents were wrong with an invoice to someone else, so they said they sent it again but I never received the replacement. I called two weeks ago (noted in my BuJo and on the monthly reference book) and they said it had been shipped, but if it does not arrive today I will be emailing them again, armed with ordering dates, confirmation numbers, phone conversation details and the entire timeline history, all thanks to details written in my BuJo and easily referenced in my monthly reference booklet.

Here's another actual example from today: my daughter has been ill for a couple of days, and when my kids are ill I write their symptoms and note when they stay home from school. Thanks to my BuJo and handy-dandy monthly reference calendar, I noticed she had a similar thing back in January where she was off school the same number of days, and that she often gets a tummy ache when she has a cold. In my monthly reference booklet on the day I write "G home from school, ill" then on the day's page I write her symptoms. That way I have a quick reference of sick days, and can look up what was wrong.

What else? I pretty much write everything in there. For example, yesterday my daughter was looking at a book of British birds and asked what the genus and species names meant. So in my notebook I wrote Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (remembered from "King Philip Came Over For Good Steak") and explained classifications. Years from now it will be fun to look back through my notebook and see that she was interested in taxonomy that day.

Also every day I write the weather and temperature, and anything else significant. When I walk in the forest I write in my book which birds and wildlife I saw, and what flowers are blooming. Yesterday the daffodils in front of our house started blooming so I wrote that too. As I continue to do this, it will be fun to compare year to year. For example last year was a very snowy winter and spring came late. This year the winter was very mild (although rainy) and things are blooming already.

This gives you a good idea of how I use my BuJo. I don't write my feelings. I did that in journals years ago and found the emotional dumping was not helpful and not anything I wanted to read again. This is just a record. I do write when I'm happy or excited about something, but again it's factual. There's no pontificating here, which I did endlessly in previous journals and did not like.

I also don't decorate my BuJo. You'll find no washi tape here. I'm not artistic, and I find decorations distracting (and time consuming) so I don't do them. But, when we are waiting somewhere (like at a restaurant) and my kids are bored, I hand them my book and colored pens and let them draw. It's fun to have my kids' art in my book, and years from now I know it will be great to see their little-kid drawings in my book and see what they were thinking alongside what we were doing that exact day.

All of this goes from the front of the book. Anything that happened today goes right on the page. Anything non-day-specific like my online orders tracking or list of stuff I need next time I go to Ikea goes in the back of the book. I don't index these, because it's easy to flip through the back pages to find what I'm looking for. When I first started Bullet Journaling, I mixed lists between daily pages and it was a nightmare to find anything, even with page indexing. This way is much easier for me: daily record from the front, lists from the back.

I carry my journal with me absolutely everywhere, so it's important that the book is light enough or else I tend to leave it at home. That was my downfall with a dated day per page diary last year, because I need the big A5 size page but the thickness of the daily book meant it was too heavy. I'm really enjoying the large Moleskine blank notebooks because the narrow book is lighter than other comparably-sized books and is relatively thin, and very streamlined.

This post turned out to be very long! And it might sound complicated, but it's actually very simple. I just write everything in my notebook, and take it with me everywhere.

If you have any other questions let me know in the comments and I'll be happy to answer!

Bullet Journal notebook changeover

I am very pleased to report that I have been so happy with my modified Bullet Journal system, I have filled my first notebook and am continuing on to a new one!

First, some background if you haven't been following along: Back in December when things got really busy I started using my large plain-page Moleskine notebook as a modified Bullet Journal and experimented with three different types of indexing to see what I would actually use. You can see that experiment and its results in this post here.

I learned that I work best recording my daily stuff from the front of the book and putting lists and non-day-specific notes in the back of the book, not mixing lists and notes into my daily records. When the daily stuff from the front meets the lists and notes from the back, it's time for a new notebook!  You can see other journaling lessons I've learned in this post here.

So now it's time for the changeover to a new notebook!  I've enjoyed the freedom of blank pages so much I went for another blank-page notebook. And even though Moleskine paper isn't my favorite paper in the world, I went for another Moleskine because the narrow book is lighter than a Leuchtturm or other similar-size books, and I liked this green cover for spring!

December 2013-February 2014 in Yoda notebook, March onward in green!

 I love how the ivory paper looks with the green cover.

The only indexing system I'm using is creating a quick overview of chronological events in the monthly booklet I wrote about in this post here. The monthly booklet holds January - December 2014.

On the front of the booklet I write when each notebook starts and stops so I know which book to look in for the details of any particular day or event.

I'm so happy with my planner for planning and my notebook for recording, I plan to use this method indefinitely. I love the freedom of being able to jot whatever into my notebook without worrying about filling up the day's page.

Yesterday this arrived in the mail: the new Moleskine softcover notebook in Orchid Purple.

This notebook has plain pages, but it also comes with dotted pages which is new for Moleskine. I pre-ordered this notebook from Amazon UK and it shipped when it became available. This notebook has 196 pages, so in page number and overall book weight it is between the normal hardcover notebook (240 pages) and the Volant notebook (96 pages). It has a placemarker, an elastic closure strap and back pocket, which the Volant notebooks do not have. Because it is lighter than the notebook I'm using now, I plan to use this one in the summer when I'm on the go a lot. The green one should get me through June, so that will be perfect timing.

It feels great to be happy with my system!

Guest post: Christine's Bullet Journal system in her Day Runner Harmony desk size binder

Huge thanks to Christine for sharing her Day Runner system with us! Her work situation recently ramped up enormously, and she's using her new system to get her through this super-busy time. Here's Christine:

One week ago I learned that my boss is retiring in May and I’ll need to cover for her until her replacement can be found, which takes typically 4-6 months. In the interim, my weekly job hours will jump from 20 to 40. 

This is not precisely a happy development, since I know from long experience that working full time sends my diet and exercise programs into a tailspin, plus my writing is just now being published and I want to keep that momentum going. 

However, it is what it is. I will have 17 events to coordinate before October (by which time her replacement will surely be found). Most of them will be pretty basic, lasting just a few hours and requiring at most a single performer, but one will be an all-day event with multiple performers. 

Prior to this rather overwhelming development, I had been vacillating between a Moleskine bullet journal, a Franklin Covey compact binder with a two page per day diary, and a Day Runner Harmony classic size binder with a weekly calendar, unable to decide on a final format. I happened to be carrying the Harmony planner on the day I learned the scope of what was coming, and I am very glad for that, because only that format is capable (in my estimation) of handling this job. 

I put all relevant event details into the monthly calendar, and all the contact info into the A-Z, and there is no way I am going to jeopardize this data by changing formats until all these events are complete. So guess what, my 2014 planner decision has been made, at least until October, when my requirements will change again. 

Here is the Harmony Day Runner Planner. It holds 8.5” x 5.5” paper, with 7 rings. 

The binder is fabric covered and much lighter than comparable leather binders. It has a secretarial pocket, a few cards slots and a notepad in the back. It features an undated monthly and weekly calendar format, and the divider tabs included are Calendar, Notes, To Do, Information and Addresses. After Addresses are the A-Z Tabs.

I have of course completely gutted, replaced and rearranged everything. Here is my layout:

First, I have a flyleaf in front of a meal plan and shopping list I found at the Goodwill.

Behind that, I keep my annual goals, projects and resolutions on a single page.

Following that are my separately purchased monthly pages. 

These are Day Timers tabbed monthly calendar pages I bought at WalMart for $10 last year. They are so functional: 6 rows of weeks mean no cut off days at the end of the month, and lined day boxes are helpful. Also the “action list” at the end of the week is a perfect place to write down the 8 most important things to do that week. 

The front and back of the monthly pages are big lined pages dedicated to lists and notes. The months are separate, so you can insert pages between them. This is the first monthly format calendar that I’ve really loved and found workable.

In between the months I put the project pages chronologically for each event in that month. I was going to put them in the A-Z pages but there are too many (sigh). I’ll use top tabs to separate them as the information builds up. In the A-Z I keep a master checklist of all programs with a grid for every publicity venue to check off as they are promoted, and I also have a template of the procedure for hiring performers, and a master budget sheet so I can see whom I can afford to hire. 

After the month pages there is a section tabbed “To Do,” and this is my bullet journal section. 

I replaced the weekly pages from this planner with a bullet journal. Notes, daily and weekly plans and lists are written on quad paper. I made a pretty today page marker because I don’t usually decorate these pages. At the weekend, I bring forward all undone tasks, add events and notes to the monthly calendar, transfer lists into the A-Z, then unceremoniously dump the older pages. So, unlike my Moleskine, this adaptation of a bullet journal has no permanence. That allows me to write fast and furious, dump my anxieties and fears along the way, and not worry about how it looks or if anyone will ever read it. 

Given the circumstances, I absolutely must keep everything as simple as possible so I don’t lose information and have terrible crises and nervous breakdowns. Abandoning the weekly calendar is forcing me to use the monthly pages to full capacity, which is why I love their design, with plenty of room for lists and notes! 

The A-Z (which has an archival counterpart in a separate binder on my desk) has an index at the front and holds only highly relevant information. 

Information like the book club and writers group rosters and schedules, expense registers, petty cash envelope, lists of home and car maintenance tasks, procedures and routines for both work and home, major purchases, health notes, prescription numbers go in here. Plus of course address and phone numbers for work contacts. 

Yes, I’m mixing work and personal, and I do work for local government, so that’s probably not smart. I can take personal pages out of the A-Z pretty fast, and there’s never more than a week of bullet journal in there anyhow; I’ll just back up my monthly calendars in Evernote so I don’t lose my personal dates and deadlines if worse comes to worst and the planner is seized for some legal purpose (I even have a backup Harmony in my supply cabinet). 

This is probably the simplest ring bound arrangement I’ve ever used. Plus, I’m taking all my notes on 7-hole punched classic-sized notepads, so I can put the information straight into my binder without rewriting. I don’t want to take any chances at all right now! Zero replication of data, zero rewriting and weekly removal of deadwood are my three magic bullets to get me through the coming challenge. 

The binder fits into my handbag and weighs in at 1.12 lbs. or 508 grams. It’s no trouble to carry. 

In case you wonder, I have 4 other desk-based books in service: The first is a classic sized Aurora binder for bill paying and budget tracking, one is a classic sized Day Timer Malibu that holds vehicle data plus gardening and home repair notes, one is the aforementioned A-Z archive, and the other is my Plannerisms planner, the only bound book of the bunch, in which I am tracking my diet and exercise. 

Christine thanks again so much for sharing your system with us, and best of luck during this busy time!

My 3-part indexing system in my notebook

This originally was part of my post on the 2014 Star Wars notebooks, but the indexing part got so big I decided to take it out into a separate post so it was more easily referenced.

This is the notebook I will use first in 2014 as my daily records, lists and notes. It is the Moleskine 2014 Star Wars notebook, large unlined with Yoda's quote. You can see more details of this specific notebook in my review post. But my indexing systems can be used in any notebook or Filofax.

 

I'm planning to use it as a sort of Bullet Journal. First I numbered all the pages:

Monthly Index:

At the beginning of the book I labeled pages for January through June, with a two-page spread for each month. (I figure it will take me six months or less to fill this notebook.)

This will be my monthly index where I will index events from my daily pages, which I will start right after the months and work from the front. So for example on my daily page I would write that my son's tooth fell out, and on that month's page at the front of the book I would write the date and that his tooth fell out that day. That way I'll be able to reference events easily.

Index pages at the back of the book:

At the back of the book I labeled several pages for my Index, where I will reference information like lists and non-day-specific notes (which I will write in the back of the book). For example I will write which page my household maintenance list is on. That way I can find information easily.

So my daily pages will start from the front of the book, and my lists and non-day-specific notes will start from the back. When they meet in the middle, the notebook is full!

At first I was disappointed that Yoda was only available unlined, but now that I have it I think I will enjoy the freedom of open, unlined pages.

Color-coded index:

I used an undated notebook for about a month in October and while I liked the freedom, by the end of the month it was starting to turn into a jumbled mess despite my index system. Looking through the notes and lists pages I discovered I had a limited number of specific topics: home, blogs, Plannerisms planners work, kids, personal, job search etc.  I am tempted to switch to a Filofax with tabbed pages, but I do want the permanence of bound pages especially for my daily record. So I will incorporate a version of DIY Fish's genius color-coded index for my topics so I can easily find related pages in my book. You can see the details of DIY Fish's color index system in her guest post she did awhile ago here on Plannerisms, click here to see.

Once I had this idea, I couldn't wait to set up the color-coding index! Here are some quick photos (sorry for the poor image quality taken hastily in my sunny windowsill):

On the back and front endpapers I wrote my index code: purple for me, pink for my daughter, orange for my son, light blue for my husband, green for financial/ home/ car, dark blue for my blogs and planner/ notebook stuff, black for the publisher of my Plannerisms planners.

So for example, when I make lists of weights of notebooks and planners, those pages will be tagged with a dark blue square at the edge of the page. When I write my notes on updates for the 2015 Plannerisms planners, those pages will be tagged with a black square.

 You can see the colors at the edges of the pages.

I'll match the location of the colored squares on my written pages too, for easy indexing. Within my written pages, I'll use that corresponding color to circle or underline the referenced information. That way if I have a lot of different topics (on my daily page for example) I can find each referenced bit of information easily. This also allows me to write in whatever color pen I have with me, and use my color references later when I index my pages.

I have specifically not used red yet, and am saving it for something important. I might decide to use it for very important things in general, or if a topic comes up that specifically needs red I'll use it for that.

Running 3 types of index systems simultaneously (dates, page numbers and colors) will be an interesting experiment to see which is most useful to me.

***Update January 27, 2014: I've been using this notebook for almost 2 solid months now, and it's 3/4 full. Here's how I'm using each individual indexing type:

Colors: I stopped doing the color-coding at the page edges after just a few days, it was too much to keep up on. However I do use colors on the pages by circling things relevant to my kids in "their" colors. That way I can find things relevant to them easily.

Page numbers and Index pages: I haven't been using the Index pages in the back of the book at all, and stopped writing in them after about 3 weeks. I have my daily record starting from the front of the book and my lists from the back, so it's easier to just page through and find what I'm looking for than it is to look it up in the index. I do like the numbered pages though, because I reference them within the book. For example "see list pg 38" or "see phone number pg 82" so I don't have to rewrite info within the book. I'll continue to number the pages in my future notebooks.

Monthly dated index at front of book: This is the only index I actually use. I will continue to do this, but in future notebooks I think I will draw grid calendars for the monthly index because it's easier for me to remember events spatially on the page with the month grid calendar.

**Updated again:  I made a monthly booklet that I put in the back pocket of my notebook for my monthly dated index. It has 12 months of month-on-two-pages grid calendars where I write my daily index. I can move it from notebook to notebook as I fill each book, and still have the full year indexed in one booklet without having to re-draw grids every few months. You can see how I made this monthly booklet in this post.

I have really enjoyed having unlimited space to write each day. I usually use two pages for each weekday, with my schedule on the left page and the right page for notes and journaling. Saturday and Sunday usually only need one page each. I'm working on ways to add more structure to my pages. I'll keep you updated on my use as it evolves!

Bullet Journal notebook ideas

Ever since my Bullet Journal post a couple of weeks ago, I've been thinking about what types of notebooks would work best for this system. (If you don't know what the Bullet Journal is, please read my post about it and follow the links there to learn about it, then come back).

As I noted in that post, the Bullet Journal system needs to be combined with a longer-range calendar for forward planning. I played with a version of this with a Moleskine Monthly notebook, which would work great for a little while, but with only 50 lined pages after the month calendars it wouldn't last very long.

I tried hand-drawing monthly grids into a notebook, but it took a really long time and I realized it wouldn't be something anyone would want to do every couple of months when they filled up their notebook. In the end it didn't matter for my own personal use, because I use my Plannerisms planner for all forward planning and am now using a notebook (this one) for a daily record and for all lists and notes. It's working great for me and I'll write about it in a later post.

But just today I had a realization that if someone wanted to plan ahead and do a Bullet Journal in one notebook all together, there is a very obvious solution.

Use a notebook, or planner, with monthly pages.

Here's an example: this is a 2013 Paperblanks Ultra size Poe Tamerlane weekly planner I bought a couple of months ago. It was really cheap, and I loved the cover, so I bought it to use as a notebook. But today I realized it would be perfect as a Bullet Journal (or any notebook system) plus forward planning.

The horizontal weekly format works well as a notebook because it doesn't have breaks between the days and the dates are easy to ignore. A week + notes format would work nearly as well (Paperblanks calls their week + notes format Verso) but a format with vertical daily columns probably wouldn't work as well because the columns would break up the page too much.

Anyway, this planner has monthly calendars for all of the current year:

And all of the following year:

So this would be useful as a notebook any time within the two-year period. Fill in the monthly calendars for forward planning, and use the rest of the planner as a notebook. If you start it at the beginning of the year, you could even use it as a weekly planner from the front and a notebook from the back and start a new one when the content meets in the middle.

Any brand or size of weekly planner with month calendars would work well for this.

If you want more pages in the book, use a day per page planner with monthly calendars and just ignore the date on each day's page. It can be hard to find day per page planners with month calendars included. Paperblanks day per page planners have month calendars. So does the Quo Vadis Journal 21 (which you can enter to win in this post, click through here) and the Time Traveler day per page planner has month calendars too.

Another obvious option would be to use a planning notebook with monthly calendars like these I reviewed awhile back.

I think monthly calendars in notebooks are very useful. What do you think?

Bullet Journal

Huge thanks to my friend Rori @rorirants for showing me the Bullet Journal! Apparently I live under a rock (and am obviously behind on my Life Hacker reading) because I hadn't heard of it yet. I love it! Thanks Rori!

If, like me, you hadn't heard of this before, go watch the short video here and check out the website bulletjournal.com. There's nothing for sale, it just shows you how you can turn any notebook into a planner/ journal/ listkeeper all in one. I'm a big fan of all-in-ones! Anyway, go check them out then come back so we can discuss.

The Bullet Journal system is elegantly simple yet allows you to capture, and access, an enormous amount of information.

Things I love about it:

• How it grows organically. You use it as you need it, you can start it any time and there are no wasted pages. Whenever you need to write a list, you plop your list right down on the page. And there's unlimited space for lists!
• When you need to sketch out your week, you make whatever weekly format works best for you (horizontal, week + notes, vertical columns, family grid etc.). In fact, you can use a different format each week if you want to, whatever works best for you that week.
• As I mentioned before, I love that everything is in one book. Monthly planners, weekly breakdowns, daily records, journaling, lists, forward plans. There's only one book to grab when you need to look something up or write something down.
• Because the pages are numbered and indexed, you can find information easily. Because you index events into the monthly calendar, those are easily referenced too. And because it's in a bound book, archiving is a breeze.
• You can use an A5/ 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch notebook, which is slimmer than a day per page or ring binder version, write as much as you want every day, and still avoid that huge planner craziness I talked about yesterday.

Tweaks I would make, your mileage may vary:

• This works well as a catch-all capture device, but not so well for planning beyond the current month. To do that you'd have to have a master calendar either electronically or on paper to transfer things into your notebook each month for monthly planning. Something you could do though is just write your whole year's worth of monthly pages (or more, if you like further planning) into the front of your notebook and use that as your master calendar rather than just going month by month.
• Transferring undone tasks month by month wouldn't work for me, I have to do that week by week. Small tweak though.
• Personally I would start the Index page in the very back of the notebook, that way if the Index takes up more than one page you don't have to worry about it. When the content meets the Index back pages,  the notebook is full and it's time to start a new one!

***Edited because I meant to add: in the video he uses a squared Moleskine, but Leuchtturm notebooks have better paper and the pages are already numbered with Index pages already at the front of the book so that eliminates those steps for you. 

What about you? Have you tried the Bullet Journal or similar system? How did/ does it work for you?