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30 March 2018

Free for All Friday No. 489 by Nan

After about 9 months of using bullet journals and a weekly bound planner, I've started to transition back to using a Personal-size Filofax, with one-page-per-day. I had started to want more daily detail than the weekly allowed.

I find the transition is harder than usual. Instead of finding it a refreshing change, I'm struggling with it. I feel disoriented and less likely to write things down. Maybe it's because the bullet journaling was working well for me before I decided to change. Maybe it's something else.

Have you ever experienced this?

Naturally as this is Friday please feel free to discuss anything ring bound planner or organizer related.

11 comments:

  1. What if you tried bullet journaling in a ring binder? There are lots of videos on YouTube about it.

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  2. I printed the months of the previous year and the current one on one side and the months of the next two years on the other side of an approximate A6 sheet. I adjusted the size of the text and margins for the correct alignment of the two years on each side of the sheet. It would have been convenient to use my two years at one glance format on paper as I was designing layouts on the computer. Without it I viewed the dates in a window on the computer and returned to the file of my format.

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  3. I just don't get bullet journaling. Where's the diary? I know there's a monthly page, with a line per day! What about my seven meetings in a day when I'm in London? Where do they fit? This is just one of the issues I have. I'd love it if someone could enlighten me but the whole bullet journal thing looks like emperor's new clothes to me....

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    1. One of the popular aspects of bullet journaling is how customizable it is. Your have 7 meetings in a day, okay, your monthly layout would look different. Some draw their months out like blocks, not the lists. I don't use BuJo planner style, but I understand needing to fit a lot of information into a calendar square. I'd suggest YouTube, but that's a rabbit warren of stickers and calligraphy.

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    2. Thanks Cori, but spending 2-3 hours a week drawing layouts by hand and ending up with something I could have bought at the store just seems like a lot of effort for nothing! Still, each to their own. :)

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. I'm completely behind you on this David. I know that the constant re-working, re-writing and re-laying out of lists and events are a boon to some people, because it aids their ability to remember and to organise, but for me it's just a complete waste of time. Lists for todos - yes. A written out diary? No way!

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    5. Perhaps I should clarify.....I keep a paper diary, but it's the blank starting layouts I don't do by hand. My diary always has been, and always will be, on paper!

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  4. If the clarification is for my benefit, David, there's no need. I distinguish between a written diary (on paper, as I also use) and a written out diary (where the whole diary including days, dates etc. needs to be written out before use, as with the bullet journal system). I remember first watching the video from the founder of the bullet journal system. The whole "how to make lists" thing is fine, it's the basis of many systems (including the whole overhyped GTD system) and, though it seems obvious to me, I get why many people need to adopt a system to structure it. But then the video went on to "just" write out the whole month's dates, one per line. And I thought: why? And what do you do if you have more appointments in a day? It seems that the answer is to re-write the whole month again with more space. At that point I switched off. Many people find the constant writing and re-writing of tasks and appointments helps them to remember them. To me it's just wasting the time I'm saving by being organised. I don't get why it is so popular, but then, I know that my brain is not structured the same way as that of most others. As you said, each to his/her own, but if anybody could explain why they think this is the best way is running a diary, I would also very much like to understand why! :-)

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    1. Graham to answer your question late: technically the Bullet Journal system was never meant to be a planning system. It's a way to organize your notes as you write them, Rapid Logging style. People got confused by the monthly planning pages but if you listen carefully to the video you will note they are only for an overview. Ryder Carroll, the creator of the bullet journal system, uses an electronic calendar system for scheduling and planning. He did a podcast several years ago where he discusses the bullet journal system: https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/70 At about 20 minutes they discuss how it's not intended to be used as a planning system. So if you are confused as to how people use it for planning, rightfully so! There's more on this topic in this post: https://quovadisblog.com/2016/06/writing-wednesday-simplified-bullet-journal-part-3-planning/ Bullet journaling is not the same thing as just drawing out your planner pages by hand. You can incorporate hand-drawn planner pages into a bullet journal, but the essence of bullet journaling is rapid logging using bullet points and signifiers to organize as you go. I hope this helps!

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    2. Thanks Laurie. Much appreciated.

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