One of the very first pieces I wrote on Medium was about bullet journaling.
How to Quit a Digital Task Management System to Start Bullet Journaling
Bullet journaling uses a single notebook to keep track of everything from tasks and events to goals and collections of notes.
It was also the first piece on the platform that got recommended to a wider audience.
Unfortunately, I have always been someone who can’t stick with a system for a long period of time, and I no longer bullet journal.
Considering this, I thought that my decision deserved a story written about it so in this piece, I’m going to give you some insight as to why I stopped bullet journaling, and how I manage my writing and task management now.
Let’s get started…
It all comes down to values.
Back when I was bullet journaling, I was struggling with compulsive internet and screen usage, installing apps for no reason and serving no purpose, as well as scrolling on social media.
The bullet journal was a function to disconnect myself from the online world whilst focusing on my work. I liked the fact that it took a long time to write entries and clarify everything in the journal on a daily basis because it slowed down my brain and forced me to be mindful at least for a period of time every day.
Since this point, I’ve improved my relationship with being online, through spending more time creating more content than consuming.
Now that my time’s spent creating, I need the simplest and most efficient methods of working possible.
So what do I do now?
Bullet journaling never quite fitted in with the way I managed tasks and notes. It was too heavy-duty, better for someone who had a lot of events and commitments to keep track of.
This caused me to leave bullet journaling, despite the love that I had, and still have for writing on paper with a pen. I still do this and will mention in what form later in the article.
Since stopping bullet journaling, I transitioned back to using Todoist to manage my tasks. I love the quick add features that the app has, allowing me to take notes of important things using my voice at any point on any of my devices, iPhone or MacBook.
This process has the least friction of any that I’ve found for capturing information and turning it into usable notes or content ideas.
Bullet journaling every day also occasionally stopped me from getting work done. I’ve found that in the past, I’ve neglected journaling and noting down tasks when I’m at my most productive because I already know what to do and where I am in the flow of work.
Having to write down my tasks every day, giving each special bullets depending on what sort they were was a distraction when I just wanted to open up my laptop and write.
Instead, what I use pen and paper for now, is long-form mindful journaling about my thoughts and feelings, in order to learn how to control them.
This takes deep introspectiveness and focus, so is not a habit you can do on a screen. I spend some time at the end of each day unwinding, writing and making sense of my thoughts.
Pursuing my inner truth this way helps me to stay on the path towards self-actualization, calms me down and centres my focus before going to sleep. Sleeping on these thoughts and realisations also helps me stay motivated and prepared for what’s to come in the future.
I still think that bullet journaling’s a great way to manage tasks and other short notes. I used it for a couple of months, which is quite a long period of time in comparison to many other task management techniques and software that I’ve tried, therefore it’s a very viable option.
Taking notes on paper will forever be one of the purest and classiest ways to manage your knowledge.
I hope you’ve learned something from this piece as to why I’ve quit bullet journaling, and as always, thank you for reading!