What is Bullet Journaling?

Bullet journaling is a method developed by Ryder Carroll and is a way of organizing schedules, reminders, to-do lists, goals, and habits in a single notebook. It’s normally done on a dotted journal, although I tried it on a regular lined notebook and adapted the format for my needs.

Here’s what I changed about the existing bullet journaling format:

• Schedule: I didn’t find any use in adding my daily schedule here because of how fluid my day can be. Writing it in ink didn’t give me the flexibility to modify things without it looking messy.
• Reminders: While there was value in adding reminders here, and I did use this from time to time, I don’t use this aspect of bullet journaling often. It doesn’t provide me with an alert the way Google Keep or Apple Reminder does.
• To-do lists: This is the main reason I use a bullet journal and something that has benefited me enormously. Not only do I get a visual reminder of what needs to get done, but I also free up headspace knowing it’s written down and can be referred to anytime. If something’s for the next day but doesn’t belong in my ‘Monthly Brain Dump’ (more on that below), I use a ‘>’ instead of the standard bullet point. When I plan the next day, I convert it into a bullet point.
• Goals: I do use this section but modified it by printing my goals and sticking them into my journal instead of writing them down. While the original intent is to write them manually, printing them helped me create sections and gave the notebook more structure. It just worked better for me.
• Habits: I didn’t use a traditional habit tracker. Instead, I added habits as items on my daily to-do list. This gave me the flexibility (maybe not always a good thing) to try out new habits and remove the ones that didn’t stick. For ones I wanted to do consistently, like going to the gym, I added them to my daily list. Currently, one habit that I’m trying to incorporate into my daily life is to increase my protein intake by having a protein shake daily and so I’ve added that into my daily to-do list that I prepare at the end of each day for the following day. This overlaps with the to-do list, but I didn’t see the need for a habit grid. Once a habit becomes part of my routine, I stop including it.
• Collections: These are notes and tasks grouped by theme or nature. I have a collection called Words where I jot down fairly common words I’ve heard before but never really knew the meaning of. I use this page to track and revisit those words, especially when I want to start using them more often.

Here’s what I introduced to the format to fit my needs:

• Monthly Brain Dump: A space to jot down things I’d like to get done that month that aren’t necessarily goals. For example, in May 2025, I added “Go for bi-yearly teeth cleaning” as a reminder that it needs to happen but isn’t scheduled yet. If it doesn’t get done this month, I just move it to the next month’s brain dump during my monthly planning.
• Eventually…: List of tasks or goals I’d like to get to at some point but that don’t need to happen in a specific month. For instance, I have “Clear my Gmail inbox” here; something I’ll only tackle when I have a light month or when it becomes really urgent.
• Mood Tracker: The inspiration behind this came as a curiosity and lack of data behind how often I experience a bad day and how my mood evolves over a long stretch. This often reveals a pattern or helps me be grateful on how good I’ve been feeling generally before experiencing a bad day. I normally do this right at the end of my day, as part of my night routine (which I’ll go into more detail in a future blog post), which signals to my brain that I’m unwinding and it’s time to call it a day. The rating system I use here is not what you’d think, I don’t go from 1-10, where 10 is when I’m in the best possible mood but the opposite. I rate it from 0-10, where 0 is when I’m stress-free and I don’t have a lot on my mind mentally and 10 is when there’s too much on my mind and I’m going through a rough day. The reason behind this counterintuitive rating system is to show bad/stressful days as a spike as opposed to a drop when I plot all this data into a graph, where the y-axis is the stress levels and x-axis are the days. Another reason why I called it a ‘Mood Tracker’ and not a ‘Stress Tracker’ is because I wanted it to incorporate all forms of stress, whether it’s just low mood, a stressful day, or just a “sticky” thought that won’t go away.
• Win, Worry, Grateful: I got this inspiration from Sahil Bloom as this is one practice he swears by. Basically, at the end of the day, he as to include one win during the day, one thing he is thinking/worried about and one thing he is grateful for. This activity doesn’t have any immediate benefits but it’s a nice activity to add especially on days when you know you don’t have much to celebrate about but still have to think of a win or something you’re grateful about.
• Paperclips: I use different colored paperclips to mark pages that are important to me like key collections or my goals page. This saves time when I need to refer back to something quickly.
• Bookmark Ribbon: I use it to mark the page with tasks for today, so I can flip to it easily and check what’s still left.

These are the internal benefits I’ve experienced:

• Peace of Mind: Writing things down for a specific day or month is incredibly freeing. I don’t have to walk around with the fear of forgetting something important. If it doesn’t fit this month, it goes into the ‘Monthly Brain Dump’ or the ‘Eventually…’ list.
• Reduced Brain Fog: Similar to the above that once it’s written down, it’s out of my head. That lets me be more present and get back to what matters in the moment.
• Increased Productivity: Having a physical list to cross off makes me more productive. Even if just for the satisfaction of crossing something out and getting that little dopamine hit.
• Reflection: On rough days, looking back at previous Mood Tracker entries reminds me that overall, I’ve been doing pretty well. It helps me reflect on how I’ve been feeling and whether there’s anything I want to shift or adjust.

Final Thoughts

To put it simply: I don’t think I’ll be going back to not using a bullet journal. Sure, I’ve missed a few days, but just knowing I don’t need to keep everything in my head is such an advantage and a feeling I want to hold onto. As soon as I put pen to paper, it’s like my brain lets go of that thought and I can return to what I was doing.

It does take a while to get used to. There’s trial and error in modifying the system to suit you, and yeah, carrying a physical book around can be a bit annoying but it’s absolutely been worth it for me. I wouldn’t recommend trying this out on your phone either; there are mindful benefits to pen and paper that I really think are worth looking into.

My opinion? Try it for at least 30 days before you decide. You might find it improves your life just like it did mine. Thank you, Ryder, for introducing this method to the world and genuinely improving mine.