Comments on: 7 Surprising Things I Don’t Track in My Bullet Journal

By: Kalyn Brooke

Kalyn Brooke — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 23:55:52 +0000

In reply to Michelle Wolker. Wow! Sounds like you have a bit of work ahead of you. I'm glad I could help!

By: Michelle Wolker

Michelle Wolker — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 09:26:05 +0000

Ok, so I just read your other post about how you use Google Calendar and Todoist instead of future log. Then I see here you also use YNAB.
These are the 3 apps I have relied on for years after hyper researching and narrowing down for Todoist and YNAB. It just made me laugh that my first time on your site I see this. An App kindred spirit.
I did also have another app, I think it was called Zapier, which would send new scheduled appointments from Todoist to my Google calendar for me. I later opted to do that manually as it was a bit unreliable.
I found my way here today as I have come back to starting again with Bullet Journaling which I think is the missing gap. I did try to reinvent the wheel with it years ago by creating the spreads on Excel instead of having to manually migrate everything, but I found it cumbersome to have to go to my laptop every time to check my planning. Of course I realize I was trying to cheat the system and go against the actual purpose of it, but I knew I wouldn’t keep up with all the manual entering.
This time I am working on creating as simple but effective system as I can that works for me. I’m merging two ideas.
The 4 page daily with a rolling weekly log with a faux dutch door. Some time blocking sections on those pages as I need this.
Also the 1234 method which categorizes daily tasks and then I do a group of 4 with 1 from each category in a specific order to gain momentum and stay focused. I hope it works out. I think it was an ADHD hack.
It was interesting to read what you said about using digital apps rather than future logs. It seemed to me doubling up if I retained Google calendar, but it works so well for recurring events and birthdays and such.
I think its much safer for me to have noisy digital reminders for the periods where I just don’t look at anything.
I wound up having to switch to a really good customisable reminder app on ios called Alarmed for everything, for a few years. It was only supposed to be temporary to get me through a slump. Now there is about 100 reminders on there a day and even with oodles of different reminder sounds, I’ve finally started to ignore it. So its time for a big rehaul! Thank you for your helpful information.

By: Kalyn Brooke

Kalyn Brooke — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 21:20:30 +0000

In reply to Me.

Of course you can put things in your future-track! I may have worded that a bit poorly. What I meant was, unlike a “standard” planner you don’t have 12 months pre-done so you can look at each months tasks and appointments in a calendar. Because of this I track these events a bit differently – but some put these in their futuretrackers as well. 🙂

By: Me

Me — Sun, 25 Nov 2018 21:20:30 +0000

You said you can’t plan ahead in the BuJo, but isn’t that what the future log is for? Or am I thinking of something else?

By: Kalyn Brooke

Kalyn Brooke — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 15:00:04 +0000

In reply to Lisa.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience, Lisa!

You are right on – everyones journal is going to be different – everyone is going to use it in a different way. And I’m always finding myself inspired to try out new layouts and systems when I see how it’s working for other people. Sometimes they work for my brain, and sometimes they don’t. 🙂

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 06:10:03 +0000

I agree so much with this article – sometimes, there’s a better way than bujo! I love my bujo, and I track all kinds of things in it, using a two-page spread (A5 sized) for each day. I started bujo because I had so many lists, tracking all kinds of things, mostly for medical reasons, and bujo allows me to put them all in one place. Plus, it’s a huge creative outlet for me. But all that said, one of the things I cannot keep in my bujo is my calender. I do write each day’s events on my daily page, and I have a 2-page spread I call my 4-Week page which is a calender holding the name and time of up to 3 events per day (just for quick glancing ahead – I create a new spread every 3 weeks), but the details (where, who else will be there, where do I park, etc.) all go in my iPad calender. I can plan months in advance, and there’s room to write as many notes – or add as many events – as I want. And it’s portable; in fact, I take it almost everywhere I go. My bujo stays at home unless I need to show it to someone (like a doctor). I can always make new entries when I get home. And then I can color code everything with my markers (don’t want to carry those around).

The other thing I don’t bujo is my meal planning. I have a chart set up on my computer for that. I love finding new recipes online and saving them, so they’re handy when I’m planning, and I’ve also computerized a list of favorite recipes to reference. Both that list and the meal planning chart are so easy to erase, rearrange, or cut and paste – paper can’t begin to compete! Once I’m finished planning, I’ll move to my bujo for grocery shopping. I have a 2-page spread with the days of the week and the word “List” around the edges of the pages. Using one small Post-It per meal, I transfer my meals to the bujo. Then, under “List,” I attach a larger Post-It, where I keep a running grocery list for that upcoming week. On shopping day, I just pull my list out and head to the store. When I write the list, I mentally divide it into sections corresponding to sections of the main store where I shop so my list is basically in order. Makes shopping very streamlined! I do have one more step: I write my meal plans on my daily pages when I set them up the night before, just for easy reference the next day. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I would meal plan/grocery shop no matter what, and the other steps take no time at all.