As you might know, the traditional bullet journal goes day by day – which is the beauty of the system, because it flows with your needs. This planning system, this tool, helped me become more productive and tackle the tasks that eventually add up to what I aim to be an intentional and fulfilling life. For me, being productive means minimizing the time I spend doing life-depleting, redundant, or ineffective tasks while maximizing the time I spend doing life-giving or creative endeavors.
When bullet journalists begin or set up their bullet journal, I see questions about whether or not to use digital in addition to paper, or if that’s “allowed.” First of all, it is YOUR planner, you can do whatever the hell you want with it, including digital hacks. It is not an “or” conversation, it is a “yes, and” conversation. We can absolutely do both, and I certainly do. If you’re interested in how I use both digital and analog hacks and processes to help me be productive, go forth!
In planning I have several key principles:
My planning principles: 1) The purpose is the point. 2) Work smarter, not harder. 3) Free up your RAM. 4) Personal on paper, collaborate on the cloud. 5) You can’t plan for everything. // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
Written with a zebra nib in cork pen holder. Inked with Kuretake Gansai water color. (these are affiliate links)
The purpose is the point. In our achievement-based society it is tempting to add to-do list items just to have them, have as a badge of value to our families or workplace, or do things because you feel like you “have to.”
This might show up as never-ending tasks in one day, crowd-sourcing suggestions for all the extra collections you should have in your bujo, getting ideas for the “best” layout, or impulsively buying the latest planner goodies you saw on Facebook. I’ve fallen for this before, hence my dish of washi tape in my shelf (sigh).
But I challenge you to join me in thinking about what the point is. What is the PURPOSE of that collection? What is the PURPOSE of that new purchase? (I’ve said it before and say again – I will not enable you buy shit just to buy it – and don’t make it harder for me, either!) What do you need the layout to do for you? Why ARE you doing that task?
I find that once I have a clear reason, it becomes much easier to prioritize and manage where I put my heartbeats. Without the purpose, you will spin your wheels for little reason and little movement.
Using the bullet journal along with digital apps – you can do both and be more effective // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
Work smarter, not harder. I am awesome at some things, and not awesome at others. Some tasks just don’t play into my strengths or would take me MUCH longer to do with more effort. To manage my weaknesses and minimize this ineffective time, I like to automate whenever I can, and design my world to be as easy as possible. Here are the ways I try to do that: (remember – I do not have children! that would be a completely different game!)
Free up your RAM. RAM is what allows your computer to multi-task at varying amounts. Your mind works similarly – it is a valuable resource and there is a limited amount of stuff it can handle at a given time. Make decision-making easier so you can use your brain power elsewhere. Let go of remembering the small stuff so you can focus on strategic, complex, or creative endeavors. Here’s how that shows up for me:
Using the bullet journal along with digital apps – you can do both and be more effective // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
Personal on Paper, Collaborate on the Cloud. One of the benefits of a paper system is that the act of writing engages your brain differently so you can remember more, think deeper — but this falls short when you have to coordinate with other people. If it’s just for my benefit, I write it in my bujo (tasks, project planning, strategic thinking like for my someday-Etsy shop or journaling). While coordinating on things like workshop agendas or HUGE ever-changing projects, I want to be able to easily edit and share with others. Just because I CAN do it on paper doesn’t mean it’s the best use of my time and energy given the work at hand in the same vein that you wouldn’t use a paper map when you have a GPS. Here are the things I use:
Using the bullet journal along with digital apps – you can do both and be more effective // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
You Can’t Plan for Everything. My adage is that “life is written in pencil, not in pen.” Everything can change in the moment. I can’t plan for a particularly joyful moment when friends get good news, or needing to listen to someone who just got dumped, or when co-workers want to get happy hour. Plans are intentions but not set in stone. A beautiful life is happening around you and it beckons you to join it – and you CAN. Since you’ve written down what you need to do, it allows you to masterfully re-prioritize and put something aside for what is emerging in this moment and drink it in. Because the point is to live your life, too.
So that’s a peek into how I use both digital and analog systems to make my life a little easier with more joy – how about you? Are you all paper, all digital? Both?
Yours,
Jessica
7 Comments
Great info and love the quote “a beautiful life is happening around you and it beckons you to join it” Just lovely!
I’m glad you enjoyed that bit – we can’t forget about what all the planning is for!
Love the tips and how they’re organized into memorable points! I’m an advocate of half-and-half myself (gCal, Trello and Evernote all the way!) because there is a therapeutic side to rapid-logging, journaling, or braindumping on paper but going digital for other tasks is super efficient!
Thanks for sharing!
This is such a good post, it’s even nearly got me tempted to try and attempt a shared digital calendar with my other half. Before reading this I would have classed myself as 100% analogue for personal planning but you’ve got me thinking about in a different way now…Thank you!
Oh my goodness – I mean, I grew up with the Google Calendar so it’s woven into my life – but it is SO nice to be able to see his schedule at a Glance, we put in shared reminders like Rent or cat appointments, errands – it’s magical. Let me know if you consider it!
Very useful and I do some of the same. Two comments: 1) I am a slow and poor “phone typer”, so setting up calendar events and reminders while on the go is a challenge. 2) where do you talk about how to set up a shared calendar. Neither of the “heres” worked for me, and your internal search engine only brought me to this post.
Ah! Strange – I thought I linked them and they didn’t link – here 🙂 http://prettyprintsandpaper.com/2015/08/04/how-do-i-plan-for-the-week-the-day/
You must log in to post a comment.