The Bullet Journal Method

Gostei muito de conhecer a metodologia do Bullet Journal e vou incorporar seu uso em 2024, até já comprei um caderno para isso. Único problema é que em determinado momento a leitura do livro se mostrou arrastada pra mim, pois ele possui muito conteúdo de auto-ajuda que não interessava para mim. Segue minha resenha por capítulo, para você ver se interessa ler o livro inteiro ou não. Eu acho que o próprio autor podia seguir seu conceito de menos é mais e lançar uma versão "pocket" do livro. Seria interessantíssimo ter uma versão mais reduzida do livro, de bolso, apenas ensinando a técnica, sem o conteúdo de auto-ajuda. Vamos à resenha por capítulos:

1. Preparação: me incomodou um pouco o convencimento do autor sobre a eficácia do método. Se estou lendo o livro, já estou curioso a respeito do método, então não considero esse convencimento importante. Considero que o próprio método em si já é convincente por si só, pra quem tem interesse;
2. O sistema: leia essa parte, esse é o coração do livro, é aqui que você realmente aprende o Bullet Journal, esse poderia ser o livro de bolso;
3. A prática: auto-ajuda, auto-ajuda, auto-ajuda e auto-ajuda, pule se não tiver interessado;
4. A arte: complementar ao cap. 2, mas não é essencial pra quem tá começando, leia se tiver interessado apenas;
5. Conclusão: leia, bem curtinha, dinâmica, lembra o próprio formato do Bullet Journal.

Espero que tenha sido útil

(This review is more about the book rather than about the system, which is a completely different topic).

Writing a successful book about productivity system, you are allowed to wax philosophical, musing about things like mindfulness, purpose, and The Zone. But you also must be precise in describing the how and the why - especially with a system that is idiosyncratic - something it took you years to tailor to your specific needs. And this is where I think this book falls short.

The Author's writing style is uplifting and engaging but it constantly veers into long philosophical asides about human nature, life and everything in between. The principles of the BuJo system are presented in a pretty free-form if not haphazard fashion, without much system (no pun intended), very few examples and, honestly, not very convincingly. At the end of the day, I found myself simply not very engaged. Where many other productivity system canons make you want to drop the book and jump into implementing it (and then of course to follow it religiously for 3 days, then less rigorously, then declare it a failure in 2 weeks and finally to move on), this book made me yawn and question what the fuss was all about - after all, this is just an idiosyncratic marriage of a to-do list and a journal.

Maybe it's old silly me or maybe the author just doesn't do justice to an otherwise great personal organization system, but I failed to see the light. If I might offer an advice to the Author: provide more worked examples and more emphasis on benefits derived from following those examples. Provide a quick reference on the process and the techniques. It might make your system more compelling for the uninitiated.

I encountered the BulletJournal method in 2016, and originally, I resisted it a bit, despite my curiosity... I have tried so many methods to stay on top of my tasks and feel like my life isn't spinning out of control on a regular basis. Some worked ok, some frustrated me thoroughly, some were just too high-maintenance (looking at GTD here), and having my productivity system fall apart was a pretty regular experience.

I'm glad I yielded to that curiosity. Like Carroll, I have ADHD, and somehow my brain responds better to a handwriting-(on-paper-)based approach than to digital tools. I also need an approach that provides structure and clarity, while being flexible enough to adapt to my needs and easy enough to keep it up as a daily habit.

The Bullet Journal method is a cross-over between a to-do list, a journal, project planning and, if you want to, even a calendar, kept with a system of symbols and shorthands that Ryder Carroll calls "rapid logging". The only things you need are a notebook (any notebook you want; I started with a very cheap notebook) and a pen.

My daily planning session now takes no more than 5-10 minutes (as a rule) and has become a cherished start into my working day. While I slack off on some days - mostly weekends or vacation -, the system as a whole has not "fallen apart" for me once since I adopted it as my one self-management method. I use my Bullet Journal for ToDos, project planning, logging exercise, tracking habits and sometimes for journaling (something I rarely did before last year).

So, I was a pretty regular user of the BuJo before "The Book" was published; I hesitated to read it and wasn't sure if I would learn anything new or useful from it. And you don't need to read the book if you just want to use the method; there are good explanations of the core method on Ryder Carroll's homepage as well as on Youtube. However, I found a treasure trove of information, hacks, ideas, and how-tos in this book that helped me deepen my practice and get even more use out of the method. I keep going back to the book to review Ryder's suggestions as they become relevant to my needs in terms of planning and organization.

One caveat: Because the book encouraged me to do so much more with my journal, my BuJo has become a bit messier than it used to be before, and I now go through 2 or 3 notebooks per year instead of one.

Hard to review this book. On the one hand, I've been keeping a Bullet Journal since January and it has been a life changer. Really. I mean this is a GREAT tool. Counterintuitively analogue, but better for it. This book does a very good job of organizing a teaching method for anyone interested in experimenting with their own Bullet Journal. I use mine for pretty practical life planning (kids, work tasks, upcoming appointments) but it has relieved me of making multiple lists and also breaking down anything I'd ever want to accomplish into a very logical and easy to navigate system. This style of journaling really works for me. It feels like such a huge change, and so useful, that I want everyone to have this feeling. For that, being able to hand someone a book that they can look over on their own time and discover this method is very useful. So these are all reasons I would rate this highly. Without any exhausting or unnerving proselytizing from me anyone who gets this book learns the basic method of bullet journaling and how that method can bloom into an art.

The negatives of this book have very little to do with the method itself. I found Carroll tiresome and this book overstayed its welcome fast. It's too long. It drones. It's kind of condescending. I get the impression that I would never want to be trapped in a conversation with the author, or even an elevator.

This is probably just something that bothered me but hey that's what reviews are for.

The core idea behind the Bullet Journal is that it's a planner that's written by hand. This encourages you to be concise in the notes you take; and when you have to copy all of your unfinished to-do items by hand to the next month, you're more likely to consider each one and see whether it's still worth doing. And unlike a phone, a paper notebook won't distract you with friend notifications and incoming messages.
On this base, Carroll has developed a method for keeping track of to-do items, plans, schedules, and more. He goes through each step, giving examples and advice, and pointing out how to tailor the system to your needs.
Unfortunately, the practical advice interwoven with an equal part of crunchy-granola daily-affirmations-style self-improvement life-coaching glurge. Some of the pull quotes would be perfectly at home on a inspirational image, hand-lettered with a beach sunset in the background. It's best to skip over those parts, and the book would have been better if it stuck to explaining how to make a plan and complete a project, and trust that the reader is smart enough to figure out on their own how best to live their life.
At times, Carroll mentions scientific evidence that supports his claims. But he cites sources like the Science section of the New York Times, rather than primary sources or researchers in the relevant field. Given the problems with science reporting, his conclusions are... I won't say wrong; a lot of them are likely to be right, but I don't trust science reporters to get it right more than, say, 65% of the time. Don't let that stop you from trying bullet journaling; just don't do it because you trust that it's scientifically proven to make your life better.

A stoicly mindful productivity system

The ornate, time consuming and questionably useful "spreads" that are, unfortunately, the most common introduction to "bullet journaling" obscure a thoughtfully designed framework, the aim of which seems to be helping people understand themselves better.
This book does a much better job of laying out the foundations and showing how to adapt the system to your own needs. Behind it all is a fusion of stoic philosophy, mindfulness and pop psychology, delivered in a fairly restrained fashion. While the book is clearly trying to sell you on the merits of the system, it sticks to testimonials and personal anecdotes rather than evangelical lectures.
I think I'd have liked a bit more insight into how he came to this formulation and the history of its development but there are some allusions sprinkled throughout.
Definitely worth a read if you find productivity systems like gtd or konmari interesting. Otherwise you probably already know if this is worth your time or not.

I've been a fan of the Bullet Journal for awhile (see my blog post on it), though my use of the method is admittedly somewhat inconsistent. I wanted to get back into it for the new year, and the publication of this book was as good a chance as any do so.

I read the book from cover to cover, which was probably a mistake given my familiarity with the subject matter, as it went over each component of the method in detail. That said, those who are not familiar would do well to read it through fully to understand all the pieces. Once you become familiar, the book has a pretty easy layout that can be used as a quick reference.

I found Part III, "The Practice," to be the least compelling, though I imagine some people may find they like it the most. While the section had some good ideas, it was too long by half, and it simply reiterated the same concepts over a bunch of different specific implementations. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but abstract thinkers could get by with reading one or two of the sections within Part III and simply do a wash/rinse/repeat for the rest.

I recommend the Bullet Journal method for anyone who is looking for a better way to organize their tasks/projects/goals and whatnot (including their book-related goals!). The book itself is good as a handy reference, though most of what it says can be found online for free, and often more succinctly.

Finally, for those who didn't bother to click through to my blog post above, keep in mind that pretty, artistic templates and headings have nothing to do with Bullet Journaling. If you're scared away because you're not an artist, then I present below the first question and answer from the FAQ on p. 291:

Q: I'm not artistic. Can I still Bullet Journal?

A: Yes. The only thing that matters in BuJo is the content, not the presentation.