by Toni Twitty
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Expert in Oklahoma City
Bullet Journaling is a simple way to stay organized and focused in your daily life. One of the best parts about Bullet Journaling is that because the format is free-form, you can create a bullet journal that best fits your needs. While it’s highly personalized, there are a few basic “rules” to bullet journaling.
First of all, you can use any blank book for your bullet journal. Bulletjournal.com has journals you can buy, but you can also order one off of Amazon or grab one at Staples. I have this one. The general Bullet Journal layout includes an index, future log, monthly log, monthly tasks, and daily log. The creator of the bullet journal has come up with a simple system using circles, bullets, <, >, lines , and x’s. In short, you put an empty circle at the beginning of events, and dots (bullets) at the beginning of tasks. Once you’ve attended an event, you fill in the circle. When you’ve completed a task, you make an ‘x’ over the bullet. But what if you decide a task isn’t important? Simply mark it out because we don’t care about it anymore. If you decide that a task can wait for the future, you put a < sign over the bullet and move that task to the future log. If you would rather just put it off until the next day or the next month, you use a > to show that you moved it forward.
So how does this produce Zen? I personally began bullet journaling in August, right about the time our kids started back to school and all the activities, meetings, work stuff, sports, holidays, etcetera, were beginning to ramp up. Regular planners were too structured for what I needed; I was writing stuff down all over the dang thing and then I could never find that tid-bit when I needed it! I found myself waking up several times per night thinking about all the things I needed to do the next day. Sometimes I had that pit in my stomach, ‘Oh no, I forgot to do x, y, z today,’ feeling. Enter the Bullet Journal. All of my events, meetings, conferences, kids programs, games, practices, et al. are in my little pink book. It allows me to prioritize my to-do list so that I can focus on what’s important and week out what’s not so important. Laundry? It can totally wait until tomorrow. Repair nail in tire? That’ll need to get done asap. I put my weekly grocery list and meal plan in my book; when a new meal is a big hit I put a star next to it and can go back and see exactly what it was. If I question if we missed practice, I can see whether I filled in the little circle or not. When we are making plans, I can easily tell my family whether we are free or not. Kids produce a construction paper butterfly at that they made at school but didn’t give you until the middle of cheer practice? My journal has a pocket! The thing I probably love the most is that I can easily keep track of what bills are paid and when they are due. Before the Bullet Journal, I would be on my phone at 2 am checking to make sure I paid the electric bill this month (because who can remember when they last logged on to the electric company’s website? And did I pay it, or was the bill not ready yet? Or did I just look at it? Ahhhhh!!!). Now, I have it all recorded and if I’m concerned, I just flip through my journal and voilà! Back to sleep I go! I also have taken to writing down my daily tasks for the next day before bed- this allows me to go to sleep with peace of mind that I will not forget anything the next day.
If you’re tired of being overwhelmed or just want a better way to manage your business and family life, Bullet Journaling is probably something you would like to give a try. Check out this video from the creator of the Bullet Journal; it shows you how to create a Bullet Journal and gives examples of how the symbols work. Some people get really fancy and draw elaborate title pages, or make awesome charts. I am just enough ADD that I could get lost in doing all that, but luckily I can barely draw a stick figure! If you are artistically gifted, check out Pinterest for tons of ideas. However you roll, I hope that Bullet Journaling brings you the little bit of zen that it’s brought to my life.
Toni Twitty, M.Ac. is an highly respected expert Acupuncturist located in the Oklahoma City, OK metro. She specializes in resolving pain and in treating chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia and fatigue, facial rejuvenation, and fertility. www.bewellokc.com
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