First of all, I want to differentiate "bullet journaling" from my particular brand of journaling. Bullet Journaling is a concept discussed by Ryder Carroll in his book of the same name. I've never read his book - although I want to - and I only have a passing familiarity with the concepts he describes. However, I have found through my own forays into social media, like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook - that the concept of "bullet journaling" has taken on a life of its own. There are countless social media posts tagged #bujo and #bulletjournal as well as blogs and Etsy shops that actually have nothing to do with Carroll's concepts, though they have adopted his terminology.
To be clear, I don't take exception with this. In much the same way that Americans use specific trademarks as umbrella terms, this is quite common. For example, many people throughout the American south use the word "Coke" to refer to any soft drink. From what I understand, this is a common linguistic phenomenon.
That said, much of what I do falls squarely into what many on the Internet would call "bullet journaling": habit tracking, behavioral logging, inspiration, motivation, planning, and artistic expression. Again, what works for me is different than what I find working for many people; I don't use a lot of art, just the occasional doodle or maybe a geometric design I can replicate with a protractor, compass, or ruler. I don't add washi tape, stamps, or other aesthetic accents. As a full-time professional, I simply don't have the time to devote to these skills, and I don't have the desire nor the income to invest in the highest quality supplies (hence the whole concept behind this blog).
I encourage you to take everything I discuss with a grain of salt. What works for me may not work for you; consider it as a starting point. I do know - from both personal experience and from a psychological standpoint - that journaling is highly effective in understanding and modifying human behavior! In other words - habit tracking WORKS, whether you are trying to break habits, start new ones, or simply understand things about yourself. This is because the following phenomena are well documented with empirical evidence:
- Human memory is highly fallible
- Writing tasks down improves the likelihood that a person will do them, because again - see above.
- The best way to achieve goals is not only to set them, but to make them specific, measurable, and attainable.
How does this correlate to journaling? Well, several ways. First, we can't change behavior, whether that's how we eat, sleep, keep hours, or work, without first understanding what it is that we want to change. And the easiest way to understand that behavior, considering that the human brain is likely to "revise" our memory, is to track the behavior in real time.
For example, if I want to start waking up "earlier", I don't start by setting my alarm earlier; if it were that easy, I would already be doing it! I need to first identify why this is hard for me. The most obvious solution is that my sleep habits need to change, primarily in that I need to start getting more sleep. The way I do this through a journal is to track when I go to sleep and when I wake up each morning (which I do before lunch the next day - I don't track the night-of because it would probably be aspirational, and therefore, inaccurate).
Over the course of a couple of weeks, I notice that I am waking up pretty consistently about 8-9 hours after I go to bed, even on weekends. I also notice that I am going to bed pretty consistently - even on weeknights - much later than I should, in order to be able to realistically expect myself to wake up early.
Now that I have an idea of what habit I want to change, I'm going to set a specific, measurable goal: wake up by 6 AM. I know, based on the review I've conducted of my existing behavior/habits, that I'm going to have to go to bed by 9 or 10 PM in order to do this. So I'll start going to bed earlier, and more consistently, each night, until I reach my goal.
There is no way to convey the feeling I get - how incredibly motivated I am to keep going and how proud of myself I feel - when I color in my tracker boxes and know that I am staring my own personal success right there on the page. It's far more inspiring to continue your success than to be fearful that you will fail.
This is what sleep tracking is all about, although it can apply to anything: losing weight (probably the most common thing I see), drinking more water, taking medications, improving your mental health, socializing more regularly, being more grateful, reading more, cleaning more, saving more money... the list goes on.
And again - the reason that this works is based on scientific evidence!
So in order to get started, think about your day-to-day life and what makes you happiest and what you are dissatisfied about and would like to change. The idea is to continue forward momentum on the good things and begin tackling those challenges, one little bite at a time.
Over the next few posts, I will share with you how I have set up my own journal, step-by-step, and how I have set up my professional journal. The idea is for those of us who learn by example to have a starting point to consider when setting up a journal.
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