bullet journal

Why BuJo?

More than a to-do list, bullet journaling is a way to give attention to those things we are creating, changing, and caring for.It gathers our days and reveals their patterns, offering a clearer frame for directing our life’s path.This is not a system for deep research. It is a logbook, a tool that helps you stay aligned across the different buckets of your life. You use BuJo to track where you are in the process of each one:

Everyone defines their buckets differently, and not every bucket needs to live in your journal. Many people begin by tracking only what feels urgent or measurable- work, money, obligations. That’s a fine place to start. But over time, the journal can gently widen its lens. It can hold questions as easily as tasks: what travel looks like for you, what makes a trip restorative rather than exhausting, where play hides in an ordinary week, and how to invite it more often. These entries don’t demand answers. They mark the trail. Attention, when consistently given, has a way of rearranging the landscape.

Step 1: The Dump
15-30 minutes, repeat at least three times

On loose paper, write everything in your head:

Don’t judge your thoughts. If something feels unrealistic, like bungee jumping, hiking the globe, studying hieroglyphics, or too mundane, like scheduling an oil change or doing the laundry- it doesn’t matter, write it down.

This is not a one-and-done exercise. Plan on at least three sessions, spaced over several days. Store your pages in a safe place for your return- the black box that you keep by your desk might be a good spot.

The more time you can spend with this step, the richer your practice will become- like enriching the soil with compost before planting the seeds.

But this is not an easy task. Sometimes you may feel stuck. Nothing comes to mind. That is ok. It’s part of the practice. When this happens, stop. Do something mindless like fold the laundry, wash the dishes, or take a walk.

Movement frees thought. When your body is occupied, your mind is free to wander, and that is when ideas surface. That’s when you return to the page.

Bullet Journaling is not about grand gestures. It’s not about attaining degrees, money, social status, or whether you hit certain milestones.

It’s about growth- expanding our awareness so that we can better align our actions to match the things we truly value and want to see more of in our lives.

Without alignment, we experience stress. Stress is not the price we pay for creating a life that we choose. Stress is our body’s way of communicating: This is not what I’m here for.

Bullet Journaling is a practice that exercises the mind, moving between deep concentration and pure freedom of thought. Like lifting weights or doing yoga, progress comes with practice.

Step 2: Celebrate

Pause and appreciate that you just accomplished the hardest step.

Step 3: Set-up Your Journal

Choose a journal carefully, one that will last but is not so precious that it feels awkward to use. This writer likes Moleskine's selection of journals. These are some considerations:

Moleskin has both small, medium, and large bond books. The middleway often feels just right.

Hard and soft covers are available. The hard covers are difficult to squeeze into an overnight bag.

All the pages in Moleskine journals are made of quality paper, creating a pleasurable writing experience. There are options for grid-based pages, but I find that when I use them, the grid feels like a kind of confinement. The soft, creamy blank page feels inviting and limitless.

Moleskine journals have back pockets to slip in bits of paper you want to save, like receipts, fortunes, and this year’s solstice intention.The journals come with a ribbon bookmark so that you can easily return to your current page. And there is an elastic band that holds the journal closed. A nice feature that indicates, this is private.

Create an index
20-30 minutes

Open the journal to the first two pages. This is called a spread.

Create a key
5-10 minutes

This is a reference guide to quickly identify different types of entries. Write the key on the inside cover.

suggestions:

HINT: To start, don’t create too many, as it can confuse, especially if you are not used to using them.

Organize the Dump

On a separate piece of paper, start sorting the dump into piles of similar items, then give each pile a name. These are your buckets.

You can always add buckets. You might find after doing this exercise you missed one. If that happens, you are more than getting the hang of this:)

Kinds of Buckets

Buckets are topics or themes. Some examples:

Some buckets are overflowing, some hold very little but what they hold is precious. Some buckets need daily or weekly attention, others can wait and still others might feel like their weight is no longer worth carrying.

Things to consider for your buckets.

Give all of that some thought. Make notes for all your buckets. It will help with future steps.

Enter Buckets

Create a spread for each bucket. Include: goals, aspirations, responsibilities, and notes. It’s ok to use more than one spread for a bucket. In some cases, a single spread might hold multiple, related buckets. The amount of content will determine how the buckets are organized.

Make your Future Log

On the next two pages, divide the spread into four quarters or twelve months- your preference. In each section, indicate which bucket and what actions will be attended to.

This is a map, not the plan. It is a reference to schedule out the year.

Example:

First Quarter

Second Quarter

Make your monthly log

New month = new spread

Left page

Right page

Daily or weekly log
daily 2 - 15 minutes a day

HINT: Whether you do a daily log or a weekly log, or both, will depend on the complexity of your life and how often you return to the journal. A weekly log is a good place to start adding a Daily Log as needed.

Daily and Weekly Review
10 - 15 minutes

This is where BuJo becomes powerful. The more you review, the clearer the path

HINT: If you continually move something ahead, what is that telling you?

Set your default rules

Default rules are the agreements we make with ourselves to help us move forward when we are not in the mood- the minimums that tell us, yeh, but do it anyway.

examples:

The journal serves you. You don't serve the journal.

Final thoughts

BuJo is a system that helps us stay focused on matters most, allowing us to live our lives rather than constantly manage them. It serves as a map, but not one that covers the whole world.For deeper dives, research, study, or long-term projects that require extensive notes, separate notebooks are often more helpful. Still, many BuJo principles can help bring order and clarity to that work as well.Thank you for reading this far. Preparing this outline has deepened my practice. I hope you find it useful too.