8 August is celebrated as Bullet Journal Day. I went into the day questioning if I should continue using the Bullet Journal.
I have been using a Bullet Journal since September 2015. This does not mean that I have a neat pile of notebooks from September 2015 till today. I have written and then abandoned Bullet Journals. I have not been consistent in the last two years.
Since then, I have added a pocket 3.5″ x 5.5″ notebook to the writing practice. Both practices have evolved.
I have been using a pocket notebook to write most things that I was earlier using the Bullet Journal for. The pocket notebook was less of a strain for me to write.
It was similar to using Keep compared to using Obsidian or OneNote.
I had borrowed Hiran’s notebook system as a basis for my own. I asked Hiran if he had changed anything in his notebook system, which I had borrowed. He had made a few changes but none that affected me.
I could not think of anyone else who used the Bullet Journal. This only added the sense of not wanting to continue to use Bullet Journal.
I have found that the Bullet Journal community is now a two-tiered one. One that uses the basic system and adapts it for their own personal use. Another that wants to be part of an official community and are ready to pay for this.
The Bullet Journal website offers two plans for being a part of the community – a Foundation Plan and an Advanced Plan. But, both of these are quite expensive.
I attended Ryder Carroll’s One Hour to Get Unstuck webinar. He shared the practice of Life Inventory which is the first exercise of the Advanced Plan.
In the webinar, he suggested taking a life inventory under 8 categories today – Environment, Work, Relationships, Finances, Personal Growth, Physical Health, Mental Health and Play/Leisure. He then asked us to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. He then asked us to journal why we gave the rating we did.
He then suggested that we imagine we have gone ahead by 12 months. He asked that we use the same 8 categories so that the improvement would have been good enough of a change a year later. Rate. Journal.
The Advanced Plan then says that the journey from now to 12 months from now is a story. We can choose the story and plan it – which is what the Advanced Plan covers, but with a community.
After attending the webinar, I think I will give the Bullet Journal practice one more year. I will give this practice of Life Inventory a chance. I will not be joining any of these plans, though. I would rather co-opt my wife as a partner in crime.
Ryder has updated many aspects of the Bullet Journal which are not in the book of the same name. People in the plans mentioned above supposedly get these updates as well, earlier than they are shared elsewhere. Ryder is a practitioner still using the Bullet Journal and hence, this is understandable.