Hi, this is writer creator,
the bullet journal method. And today I wanted to talk
about how you can get started bullet journaling very quickly. From the outside, looking in the bullet
journal method can feel intimidating. I get it. Especially if you look on social
media, there are countless examples online, the interpretations range
from super elaborate to hyper minimal. No two bullet journals look the same,
so it can be really hard to understand what it actually is or where to begin. That's the most common question I get. Where do I begin? So I thought I'd kick off the new year
with five tips to quickly get you started. if you're new or you need a
refresher, I invite you to watch the four minute tutorial video. It's a quick overview that
touches on some of the main tools of the bullet journal method. It's a great place to get started. Many are actually surprised by the
videos, especially when they compare it to what else they've seen online. I'll drop a link to that below. the bullet journal method
is at heart a toolkit. The first question is how can
these tools best serve you? Ask yourself, why are
you watching this video? What brought you here? Try to trace your curiosity
back to its origin. Chances aren't you discover the
bullet journal while trying to find a solution to a specific problem? Perhaps you want it to be more organized
or productive or creative or mindful. Whatever your need may be. Start there, use your challenge
to set an intention for your bullet journal practice. To do this simply write down
what you want to get out of it. Maybe it's a few sentences, a brief
mission statement or a bulleted list. Just make sure that it's based
on your lived experience. Most productivity tools and
methodologies failed because we should ourselves into them. I should read more. I should be more organized. I should journal maybe, but why again,
a tool is only as good as its ability to fix what's broken or build what's needed. Defining your need will allow your
bullet journal practice to serve a real purpose from the very beginning. That's critical for it to work. Don't worry. You can and should change your
intention whenever you need to. So don't overthink it. Here are three common intentions
for bullet journal practice: I intend to use my bullet
journal to be more organized. I intend to use my bullet
journal to be kinder to myself. I intend to use my bullet journal
to focus on what I can control. You can use whatever
intentions make sense to you. Just be sure to write them down. You can use them as anchors. If you feel like your practice is
beginning to drift, plus, it's fun to see how your intentions change over time. though, there are no wrong intentions. Make sure that they're structured in
a way that aren't outcome focused. A big part of bullet journaling
is focusing on the process. Your intention is there to give
you a direction, not a destination. Now that you have your intentions start
capturing your thoughts related to their focus in your notebook throughout the day. If you're using bullet journal to help
you weather depression simply capture the thoughts that come up throughout
the day, get them out of your head. If you're overcoming trauma, you
can log events that trigger you. If you're trying to be more
productive, write down things you have to do as they come up. Notice and say, write down all the
things you need to do ahead of time. You're welcome to do so if you like,
but when getting started, the important thing is to form a habit of capturing
your thoughts as they bubble up. Don't worry about planning or
templates or stickers, simply capture your thoughts on paper. That's all you have to do. When starting something new. It's easy to get discouraged by either the
complexity or the effort that's involved. So one starting out with
bullet journaling, try to keep things as streamlined as
possible to reduce friction. Your goal at the beginning is
to simply do more than nothing. That may not sound like a
really aspirational goal, but the long-term impact of doing
something rather than nothing. Can't be exaggerated. We want to focus on the compounding
effect of incremental change Once you've been capturing your thoughts
for a while, chances are you'll start to identify missing pieces in your practice. If you feel like something is
missing, then you've identified a real need, that's when you can
start adding pieces to your bullet journal For example, once you're used
to writing things down, you may want to start categorizing your thoughts. That's when you can introduce the
concept of rapid logging, which will help you categorize your thoughts
into tasks, events, and notes. Or if you start capturing thoughts
about different topics, you can start using collections to separate
your thoughts into different topics like school work and home life. Once you've added a bunch of collections,
chances are you'll need a way to find them again quickly for that. We can add the index The power of the bullet journal
method comes from its adaptability. It's comprised of various different
tools that can be mixed and matched to create a toolkit tailored
to your unique circumstances. The trick is picking the
right tools for the job. BuJo tools are powered by your needs. If you ever come across a bullet
journal tool that adds no value or is no longer useful, then
you can simply leave it behind. A driving philosophy behind the bullet
journal method comes from legendary German product designer, Nita ROMs, who said
, which translates to less, but better. It applies to most everything we do in
our practice, including the tools we use. There's one last point that
I want to leave you with. And I think it may be the most important,
especially when you're just starting out. As I mentioned before, there
are a lot of incredible examples of bullet journals out there. Be they artistic or minimal. They paint these portraits of
hyper-organized perfect lives. The truth is that we're all just
doing our best to figure it out. Myself included. Sometimes we get it right. And sometimes we don't. Buju is not about perfection. It's about purpose. It's designed to help us spend more time
with the things that actually matter and less time with the things that don't. We do this by paying closer
attention to our lives, by recording them one note at a time. And that is how you begin. I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions, please
leave them in the comments below. I use them to create these videos. And if you'd like to learn more
about bullet journal, please be sure to sign up for our newsletter at
bulletjournal.com and check out the links below for some more resources. Thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next one. Happy bullet journaling.
