Hardcover
Published Oct. 23, 2018 by Fourth Estate.
For years, Ryder Carroll tried countless organizing systems, online and off, but none of them fit the way his mind worked. Out of sheer necessity, he developed a method called the Bullet Journal that helped him become consistently focused and effective. When he started sharing his system with friends who faced similar challenges, it went viral. Just a few years later, to his astonishment, Bullet Journaling is a global movement. The Bullet Journal Method is about much more than organizing your notes and to-do lists. It's about what Carroll calls "intentional living": weeding out distractions and focusing your time and energy in pursuit of what's truly meaningful, in both your work and your personal life. It's about spending more time with what you care about, by working on fewer things. Carroll wrote this book for frustrated list-makers, overwhelmed multitaskers, and creatives who need some structure. Whether you've used a Bullet …
For years, Ryder Carroll tried countless organizing systems, online and off, but none of them fit the way his mind worked. Out of sheer necessity, he developed a method called the Bullet Journal that helped him become consistently focused and effective. When he started sharing his system with friends who faced similar challenges, it went viral. Just a few years later, to his astonishment, Bullet Journaling is a global movement. The Bullet Journal Method is about much more than organizing your notes and to-do lists. It's about what Carroll calls "intentional living": weeding out distractions and focusing your time and energy in pursuit of what's truly meaningful, in both your work and your personal life. It's about spending more time with what you care about, by working on fewer things. Carroll wrote this book for frustrated list-makers, overwhelmed multitaskers, and creatives who need some structure. Whether you've used a Bullet Journal for years or have never seen one before, The Bullet Journal Method will help you go from passenger to pilot of your own life.
The book covers both bullet journaling basics but also a variety of task management strategies. It helps reading this book multiple times as you progress through the technique. I mostly bullet journal through an app but the practice of daily journals and reflections help immensly regardless of the medium.
The book presents a simple, but flexible, system, which is actually a mindfulness practice. Have all the important data in one place. Don't forget important events. Write things down before you do them to mitigate impulsive decisions (I'm a master of those). Set goals for the day/month, and define priorities (goals, not obligations!).
Reflect on the past to notice patterns. Only once you notice something you don't like, you can take action on it. This is the most important part of the system, in my opinion. In addition, it also makes you notice things you did well, a very important practice.
In the old days, you used to depend on interruptions. Now interruptions depend on you. 💪
I bought this book (fortunately, as it turned out, in a Kindle sale) with the intention of finding out how to use Bullet Journaling, as one of my friends said that they found it useful. However, it quickly descends into a sales pitch which combines the author's backstory with "case studies" showing how amazing Bullet Journaling is and OMG IT COMPLETELY CHANGED/SAVED MY LIFE!!! I should have been slightly more suspicious that 300 pages was probably a bit long to explain what turns out to be a convention for what style of bullet points you should use for your lists and how to move items between them.
If you want to learn Bullet Journaling, there are lots of free guides (video and text) which tell you exactly how to do that, with no rhapsodising about the method or its life-changing outcomes.
