I’m a firm believer in a number of things, two of which are applicable here:
- Tactics are important, but can also be a distraction and a place to hide.
- Experiment around and find something that works for you.
Those two things said, I’ve had a number of people ask about my approach to productivity and overall organization. I go kind of old-school with this, using an analog system that has served me well. It’s a variation of the Bullet Journal, and largely was influenced by Tim Maurer’s own Bullet Journal productivity system that he wrote about back in 2017.
I’ll share it not as a “You should do this as well” – but more as a “This has worked for me, and maybe you can modify it to make it work well for yourself.” I’ve been wanting to write about this for awhile, but I also wanted to make sure it was something I myself was going to stick to. Two years in, I think I can say it has some staying power.
We all have different amounts of responsibilities and roles as adults. For me, these include a husband, a father, a disciple, a financial advisor, a business owner, a youth sports coach, and a member of a youth sports organization’s board — to name a few.
There’s a lot going on in life, and a lot to keep track of. And even though I seek to NOT be busy, I don’t want to drop responsibilities. And that’s why I’m such a big fan of this system, because it can incorporate all the different areas of life into one space in a way that our calendars, CRMs, or inboxes can’t.
If you’re brand new to the Bullet Journal idea, it’s probably smart to start with a high level overview of what it is – which its founder, Ryder Carroll, does here.
There’s a number of reasons I prefer this analog approach, which I’ll briefly outline here and then get into the specifics of how I use the system myself.
Benefits of Analog
A focus and a reminder of what I’m doing. This sounds super simple — but when we actually take time to write out what we are supposed to do or have committed to doing, it can be a shocking experience. When everything is automated in a digital context, we lose sight of just how much (or little) is in front of us. There are also responsibilities I have in the home, in my office, on the football field, and in board rooms that aren’t all within the same digital system. Writing them down in one central place zeroes me in on what needs to get done, and I don’t have to try and remember where a certain reminder or to-do is at. It also helps me identify things I should be delegating or deleting out of my life when I have to hand-write them down.
Less dependence on screens. I stare at screens long enough as part of my job. I make intentional efforts to not be looking at screens, including the first hour of each day. So during that first hour, I’m able to mentally prepare for the day by taking a look at the Bullet Journal and not my phone or computer. As I shift away from a meditative and contemplative mindset into my vocational mindset, the Bullet Journal is a fantastic transition tool before opening the floodgates of outside information and voices.
A chronicle of sorts. I just wrote about this in a different light of habits. I have weekly planners that my dad had back when he was my age that I find super fascinating. I even have an ancient hand-written registrar and inventory list of my great-grandfather’s car dealership. I love looking into these and getting an idea of what their daily and regular lives looked like. I think it would be a legacy of sorts to capture something of the same for my own kids to look back on. Sure, maybe my Google Calendar and Quickbooks and other digital tools will be somehow preserved, but I have a feeling that the digital graveyard of old data will be much harder to find meaningful things than something hand-written.
Customization. I can make this thing to be whatever I want it to be, and even over the two years I’ve been doing it, it’s evolved a fair amount.
It works. Honestly, this reason alone could stand by itself. It’s too easy to snooze alerts, pushback CRM reminders, and ignore emails in a digital sense. There’s a great irony at play here. Writing everything out seems to be more inefficient, especially if it’s captured somewhere else digitally. But what I’ve found is that when I do write it down, I’m so much more likely to get it done because I don’t want to have to write it out again. And the dopamine just hits a little better when you see the black box colored in on crisp paper compared to seeing something similar disappear on a screen.
The System
Alright, let’s get to it. Here’s what the Bullet Journal system looks like for me.
Materials. First off, as I said with the tactics above — don’t get stuck here. The materials are a secondary issue. You can use whatever notebook you want to use, and whatever writing instrument you want to use. I personally use the actual Bullet Journal product itself because I love the quality, the three different bookmarks, and the general feel of it. I also use a 0.7mm Sharpie S-Gel (because it’s the best pen ever created) and a 6″ stainless steel ruler (because I like straight lines and it fits inside the notebook).
Intentions. On the opening pages of the Bullet Journal is a page simply titled “Intentions.” This is where I list my different purposes or callings or – well, intentions – in life. As an advisor, as a father, as a husband, etc. It helps to set the WHY of what we’re doing, which is always a helpful thing to do.
Key. Also in the beginning of the BuJo is a “Key” page, a place where we can create our own code of sorts. The BuJo will have suggested ones that would work just fine, but I’ve modified mine to look like this. One thing that shocked me the most with this was the “Irrelevant” key. I’m a checklist maniac, and if I write something down to do, I have a really hard time NOT doing it. Even if I shouldn’t do it. So the idea of simply crossing something out was somewhat of a euphoric moment for me. Again, experiment around with whatever keys and symbols work for you. These are what work well for me.
Index. One of the downsides of analogs is that they’re not really searchable. That’s where the Index can come into play. If there’s an important event or phone call notes or something along those lines that I want to make sure I capture and easily find in the future, I can use the Index as a sort of Table of Contents.
Monthly. Now we get into the real meat of the system. Each month I start out with a two-page spread of the month ahead. On the left page I run down the days, separated by each week. I used to use this as a forward-looking scheduling tool, but didn’t find it helpful. So awhile ago I switched to using this as a Chronicle, and I fill it in as the days go by. It serves as a memory/keepsake reminder of things I want to remember. And I absolutely love looking back on it.
On the other page I write down things I need to get done for the month. In an ideal world where I operate 100% proactively, I could complete this all before the month begins. But in the real world, I’m not 100% proactive. And so while I dump a bunch of things in here initially, I end up adding to it throughout the month to remember to get something done.
Habit Tracker. Again, I just wrote on habits being a sacred ledger of our lives, and this is where I track them. I used to use digital tools for these, but for a number of reasons I find it just better to track in an analog fashion. I also share them with a small group of friends (who then share their own with me) to keep each other accountable and sharp, and it’s super easy to simply snap a picture of each week and send it over to them.
Weekly Planner. This probably takes the most effort on a regular basis – sketching out the week. Two-page spread again, similar to the Monthly Planner. In it I’m going to capture all appointments/events that are on my calendar (and my family’s calendar that I need to be aware of) on the first page, and on the second page I’m listing everything I need to get done in the next seven days.
It’s probably worth noting that not EVERYTHING I do for my advisory firm flows onto this. In fact, very little of it does. Shoutout to Quivr CRM for being a rockstar in this area for me.
And again, while the weekly planner is slightly more proactive than the monthly, there’s still things I’ll add to it that need to get done even once the week starts. (Editor’s note: I just now noticed that I happened to snap photos of a week when I got everything done. Usually there are a few things that get migrated to the next week. Or crossed out as Irrelevant.)
Daily Bullets. And this is where the action really takes place – the Daily Bullet. This is my guide for each day. I try and complete it the evening before, so I know what I can expect (to some degree) on the following day. I’ll write down scheduled appointments, the tasks I want to get done (sometimes starring 2-3 as Most Important), track habits for that day, and try and wrap up with one thing I’m grateful for at the end.
Reflection
There are liturgies of sort built into this system. At the end of the day I’ll reflect back on what I got done (or didn’t) and look into the next day. At the end of the week I’ll do the same, migrating things or reflecting on positive notes. And at the end of the month I’ll look over things on a much more macro basis, and plan out the next month. It’s a time of contemplation that is super beneficial for me.
As Tim said in his original article, the system is larger than the individual components combined. By looking at things from a grand Intentions standpoint, then to a Monthly view of things, then narrowing that down to a Weekly, and then to a Daily focus we can make serious headway towards what we really want to accomplish in life, one task at a time.
I stole a lot from Tim (and have told him as much). Feel free to steal from me whatever is helpful for you as well.