- Bullet Journals, daily
planners, to-do lists. If you're anything like me, you've tried to solve the chaos of
your life only to fail. Let's fix that. Thank you to Skillshare
for sponsoring this video. Hi there, I don't know if you know this, but my life is a mess. And it's not for lack of trying. I've used apps, planners, sticky notes, Bullet Journals, whiteboards. I own four white boards. Why do I own four whiteboards? But it's the same story every time. These organizational solutions work for a little bit, but then fail. It creates this cycle of
planning, productivity, getting overwhelmed, giving
up, and the cycle restarts when I see some new
stationary and get inspired I'm sick of it. And you may be too judging
by this Google trend data on Bullet Journaling. Every year without fail,
people seek out this hobby only to inevitably peter out in this perpetual planning fallacy. It seems like we're doing
something wrong, but what? And while it's important not
to take graphs at face value, I made a whole video about it. I don't think my claim
is too far off base. How many organization
apps have you abandoned? How many planners do you
own that are half empty? In this video, we're gonna
figure out why that is. And more importantly, how to avoid it, let's get started. Of course, it all started
with a Google search that led me through a
rabbit hole of articles that ended at yet another 300 page book. This time I read "The Accidental Diarist: A history of the daily planner in America" by Molly McCarthy. The book strings together
analyses of old diaries and planners to identify
the origin of the habit that inspired this video. You know, somebody
commented on our last video that my job is basically
making book reports, and it's not even a lie at this point. If I thought that book
about olive oil was dry, well, this book was simply arid. Not to say it wasn't good,
it was neat and romantic. However, I did the thing
where you read the page, you get to the end, and then you'd realize you didn't register any information, so you need to do it again,
I did that several times. Anyway, here is the evolution of the daily planner in America. It all starts with the almanac, kind of like the smartphone
of the 16th century. It's an annual reference book with dates, weather forecasts, and
other local information. This book was imported
to colonial America, alongside a habit of
sewing in blank pages. On those pages would go
a chronological diary, or as George Washington put it, where and how my time is spent. This practice of recording
one's days on limited pages, familiarized people with
regular abbreviated forms of writing about themselves, the foundation of modern journaling. As the years progressed,
almanacs fell out of fashion and were at a place with
pocketbooks that invited users to input more information
than ever before. Demand only grew as people saw the opportunities held between the covers. It was a way to track finances in the rise of colonial commerce, a more accurate time piece when mechanical time
had yet to be perfected, and an account for one's time to God. By the mid 19th century with printing cost at an all time low, and
literacy at an all-time high, it's place was secured in
the cultural landscape. The pocket book or diary or journal was marketed under many names, but it was consistent in its promise. It was a way to make time one's own. With a journal time was
more than days and hours. It could be money spent and earned, distances traveled and places explored. It captured the rhythms
of life as it was lived. People saw this power
and refused to let it go. So nowadays while the form and technology may be more diverse, that promise, that reclamation of time remains. Okay, so what really struck
me about the evolution of the daily planner is how
responsive the design was. Like there would be
this product, this book. And then people would just
use it wrong on purpose. They'd write in the margins,
they'd sew in pages, they would spread out one annual planner over the course of years. But then after seeing how
people actually use the product, publishers would update their designs, only to have it revamped
by people all over again. It was this iterative process
that was driven by the people who were actually using the product. They didn't just comply with the framework that they were given. They broke and bent it to work for them. However, I don't wanna buy a $30 planner only to ignore the guidelines. So when I try and think
of an organizational tool that has it built in to allow for this kind of
flexibility and iteration, I can only think of Bullet Journals. It's a minimalist journaling system designed by Ryder Carroll. It uses a blank notebook which makes the cost of
entry relatively low. Traditionally, Bullet Journals
are made up of four modules, a table of contents, a six-month view, a monthly view and a daily view. However, in a throwback to
17th century pocket diaries, the Bullet Journal method
embraces flexibility and encourages users to
define their own layouts using modules they find
online, or otherwise invent, things like habit trackers,
weather forecasts, or savings goals. And when it comes to Bullet Journals there is only one person I can think of talking to, I'm nervous. Hi there, Amanda, how are you? - Hi, I'm good, how are you? It's Nice to meet you,
thanks for having me. - This is AmandaRachLee, an artist known for her Bullet Journaling videos that have amassed over 150 million views. Do you mind telling me
why you started journaling and Bullet Journaling? - I felt like just writing down my tasks was kind of not enough
for me to like motivate me and for me to feel good
about getting stuff done. So about four years ago, I discovered Bullet
Journaling on the internet and it was just kind of fascinating to me how customizable it was. - The more we talk, the more I realize that Bullet Journals had
the flexibility I needed. But I didn't know how to start. - Somebody who's just starting out, who's feeling a little bit overwhelmed, maybe because the past year
and a bit has been a lot. What tips do you think
you'd have for them? - 2020 did not turn out
how any of us expected. And there was that whole
running joke of like, what was the point of buying
a 2020 planner, you know? I really always recommend for
people to start off simple and then they're able
to add like any modules or things to their productivity system. I kind of like viewing it
almost like a time capsule. And when I'm writing in my
Bullet Journal or journal, it's very much so like me time. Yeah, you can kind of use it as a hybrid of like a journal
planner, anything else, it's kind of all up to you. - I love that, sweet, thank
you so much for chatting, bye. Okay, so y'all know what
this is being leading into. I'm making a Bullet Journal, but not just any Bullet Journal, because I think that
there are three reasons why my past attempts have always failed. Number one, I just copy
a layout I found online without thinking if it actually worked with the way I live my life. Sure I could try and
experiment and iterate based off of that layout, but then there's problem number two. I feel really bad about messing up cute and expensive notebooks. I know it's dumb, but
they're leather-bound and they're like $30. I would rather leave it pristine than waste pages with experimentation. And last but not least,
there's problem number three. They just seem like a massive commitment. Like I got to fill out this whole notebook with stuff I do every day? What if I don't do anything that day? Is there just gonna be a weird blank spot? What if I'm too busy to fill it out then? Like, what's the point? So here's my solution. - [PA system] We appreciate your... - I'm gonna be making my own notebook, and it's only gonna be for one month. So I'm just using stuff I own, And then a couple of other things I got from the Dollar Store. So it comes out to like less than $10. It's low commitment and it forces me to reconsider the system that
I'm using every single month. That's long enough for
me to get used to it but short enough for me to power
through any inefficiencies. So join me in my first
attempt at bookbinding. I wonder how this will
go, probably not well. I was actually hoping to
design the pages on my iPad because I have the handwriting
of a five-year-old, but I don't have a
printer because I'm not 50 and libraries are closed
because of the panorama. Aargh, okay, how many pages do I need? I want 36 pages, and I'm gonna split each one of these into four. Shout it out with me. Say Dora the Explorer, yell it out kids. It's, nine? It's nine, big brain. (upbeat music) Ah, I was just trying to
get these satisfying clips and it's just not happening. (upbeat music) Oh Christ, oh it cuts like (laughing) yeah that didn't work. Where's my box cutter Found it. Oh, damn she's whipping
out the toolkit, I did it. This goes here, ooh, successful. (upbeat music) So I folded all the pages in half and now I'm gonna fold them in half again, just so that they're small enough to fit into my butt pocket, which
is honestly the only pocket in women's jeans that can hold anything. So I'm just gonna (snaps fingers) cool. I did it. Is this butt pocketable? Oh, ooh, I'm not gonna show my butt 'cause you guys are weird sometimes. I made the cover from some craft bags because I liked the look. See that's about, that's
like perfect size. I cut it down to size. Okay, time to bind it. Poked holes in the spine, (screaming) and cut, and stitched it all together. I'm kind of shocked at how easy that was. Does it pass the pocket test? It does, and I just realized that my graph paper is bigger
on one side than the other. This is one size and
there's the other size. - They're the same picture. - Okay I gotta clean up like all of this and all of this before I get started on filling out that notebook. (upbeat music) I just made this journal for February. Cause I've already given up on January. Anyway, I made the first page a side quest basically it's one habit I wanted to pick up next month
and a reward if I do it Bought an exercise bike
at the start of quarantine and then never used it. So that's my goal for February. And if I do it, I get yogurt pretzels. Now it's time to actually fill
up the journal part of this. Then I made two page spreads
for every single day. For now I only intend to put in to do's. Because I have a digital
calendar for events and meetings the tasks primarily go on the
right side while my feelings for the day like a
journal, go on the left. Look at that, it's not even centered. I need to be okay with making ugly things. And now I'm done. It's a new day because I ran
out of sunlight yesterday because the sun is only
around for like five minutes. So I decided to keep my
layouts extremely simple for two reasons. One simple is usually
better for beginners, but also while I appreciate the artistry that people like Amanda
put into their journals, that's not me, but that's okay. And actually I think that that
is the biggest takeaway I got from everything I learned for this video. It's that you can't expect a system that is bought off of store shelves or found on internet
tutorials to work perfectly for you because they
weren't built for you. Your life is complex. It has its own unique tempos and timings and nobody but you can truly know them. Now, I don't mean sitting
around thinking about thinking but rather acknowledging that the system that you're right now no matter what it is
probably isn't perfect. But instead of giving up,
instead of waiting for a new year a new stationary to inspire you ask yourself what's the problem. Is it too much work? Is it in the wrong medium by asking these questions ever so slowly you begin to break the system
so that it works for you. Eventually, I hope that
this little notebook becomes part of a greater collection. Each one, a step towards making my life feel a little bit more in control because right now it doesn't and all of that work might come with a little bit of a bonus. You see the book I read
"The Accidental Diarists" Accidental. It's named after people like me, or maybe you
who just needed a tool to organize their day-to-day lives or their households. Every
day or every so often they'd jot down the things that they needed to do or have done. And over time they had pages on pages documenting their lives. Sure a simple dinner a week
from now might just be a dinner but 10 years from now, it
could be the anniversary of something bigger than you
could have ever imagined. Our lives are made up of little moments, thoughts, and to do's. And all I can hope is to have a system that works well enough to capture it. I hope you do too. (soft music) Hey there, I hope you liked that video. If you did, please consider
sharing it with a few friends. It goes a long way on YouTube. You may also want to
check out our playlist where we figure out why
things are the way they are. Like, Why Do Crimes Expire? Or How Do Conspiracies Work? But stick around for a second because we are thanking Skillshare for sponsoring this video. If you don't know Skillshare
is an online learning community with thousands of classes
covering just about any skill from entrepreneurship to
video making to journaling. Now, journaling is not only great for organizing your future. It's also amazing for
reflecting on your past. Luckily Amanda has a class called Art Journaling for Self-Care, 3 Exercises for Reflection and Growth it's short, and it provides
a really nice framework to explore your joys and challenges. But Skillshare is way
more than just journaling. They're always launching new
classes that Melissa, Taha and I are using to keep
our video skills sharp. And you can join us for
less than $10 a month with an annual subscription. But here's the juicy bit, the first 1,000 of y'all
to join skillshare's learning community, by clicking
the link in the description will get a free trial
of a premium membership. So whether you want to explore new skills, deepen existing passions
or get lost in creativity get started with Skillshare. But either way have a lovely day. (soft music)
