How does keeping a bullet journal fit in with my digital system

In this article, I will explore why I keep and use a bullet journal and how it fits in with the rest of my productivity and acknowledgement management system. You can read more about my productivity and knowledge management system here. My last update was written in 2023.

My productivity and knowledge management system is my second brain; it helps me process information and, hopefully, convert some of this information into knowledge. I also use it to manage my life, including my writing schedule.

At the heart of this system sit two applications, Notion and Obsidian. I use Notion to manage my productivity system, and Obsidian hosts my note-taking and personal knowledge management system. So why did I also see the need to keep a paper-based bullet journal?

Why I decided to incorporate a bullet journal

I had kept a paper notebook for a period during the pandemic. I stopped using a paper notebook as I started using digital note-taking applications such as Notion and then Obsidian. But around Christmas 2021, I realised that I needed to write on paper, and I came across some YouTube videos and articles that mentioned bullet journaling.

I bought the book The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll, which I read quickly and became obsessed with the book, so I bought myself a notebook to try the Bullet point method.

In the bullet journal method, you have to migrate tasks from one time period to another and as you have to have to write it down physically. Digital task management systems don’t have that limitation, meaning that your task list can quickly get out of hand, adding another lever for stress from your evergrowing task list. I still remember the joy of transferring my tasks from Notion into my bullet journal and deleting those tasks that weren’t important enough for me to write down. And even now, a year later, my task list on Notion has hardly any tasks on it due to my bullet journal. Sometimes, a little friction in a system is a good thing.

Bullet Journal and Digital Tools: A Hybrid Approach

The bullet journal has the concept of a daily note. It is one of the key reasons why I have kept up the practice of using a bullet journal, as it allows me to quickly capture an idea quickly and return to whatever I am working on, which is especially useful when I’m in the middle of something as it enables me to stay in the flow while capturing my thought. For example, I often find that an idea will come to me when I’m writing. I quickly captured the idea in my bullet journal, enabling me to let go of that thought before I returned my thoughts to what I was working on.

I also use the daily journal to do a morning brain dump to unleash any streams of consciousness that come to me, which I enjoy, and occasionally, I come up with what could be a good idea.

I also regularly use my bullet journal to capture ideas and thoughts during brainstorming sessions, and I use my journal as I can quickly capture my ideas without breaking the flow of my thoughts too much. It is also a more natural process than brainstorming with a keyboard.

I also use my bullet journal’s future, monthly, and weekly log sessions to capture and manage tasks. These captures will get duplicated on Notion at some point. I should now turn my thoughts to Notion.

The notion application is the best productivity tool I have used, and that is why it sits at the heart of my productivity system and is currently the home of my content management system, which I use to track the writing of new content I’m working on.

I also use Notion to track my goals, projects and tasks, and the tasks will eventually end up in my bullet journal.

The syncing of tasks happens weekly when I do my weekly planning session. During this weekly session, I create a page to capture the tasks I plan to do that week. I carry over tasks I should have done in the previous week. That bit of resistance makes you realise what tasks you need to do. This resistance helps me to keep my task list at a reasonable size.

Conclusion

What I hope you will take away from this article is that you don’t need to have a solely digital or paper-based system to organise your life and that it is possible, if not advantageous, to have a hybrid system.

Why don’t you look at your system and see if a hybrid solution would work for you?