Bullet Journal: Pros and Cons(?)

So many entries ago, I mentioned my discovery of the Bullet Journal method. For those of you who don't know this method, the Bullet Journal method is where you create daily entries with tasks, ideas, and/or events. Tasks are usually written at the beginning of your day, while ideas and events can be recorded at any time depending if you like to write it down. After each month, a new monthly calendar page is created along with planned events. Then that month's daily entries begin again.

That entry was posted last year in August, when I was a senior in college. I can say that was one of the busiest times of my life. I had no energy to write in my journal but I really wanted to record my events for those days. The Bullet Journal was a dream come true! Well, now I have graduated and am working several part-time jobs to cover my loans. My days aren't as busy as before. To be specific, I'm still busy with work, but my current work doesn't require too much planning. Many of them are spontaneous or have too many variables to make future plans. That leaves my planner almost completely blank.

Right now, I'm looking back to consider the Bullet Journal since I was eager to use it back then. However, when I went back to review the concept, I came across some things I never thought of before. Maybe it's because of my new life style or my journal objective changed. I don't see how I would love the Bullet Journal. So let me break down my opinion for you to understand what I'm seeing.

PROS

- Daily "Bullets": This is definitely the best part of the concept. Each daily entry, there are tasks, events, and ideas marked with bullets. This allow easy tracking, recording, and planning on a busy schedule. Also, by writing this up at the beginning of the day, it helps with prioritizing certain tasks and keeping up with productivity.

- Flexibility: The Bullet Journal is very flexible. Each entry can be customized to one's liking. There is no limit to how many bullets can be under each entry (however, having so many doesn't really mean being productive since there are only so much hours each day). Also if there is a special list or entry needed, it can start right on the next blank page. There's no pre-made designated area for each entry. It's all up to the user.

- Reviewing: It is very easy to review over past tasks and events to see if anything needs to be transferred or improved. The user can look over unfinished tasks and rethink if the tasks are still needed. Some can be dropped while others are moved to the next entry. The user can also look over finished tasks and plan if improvements are needed. He/she is subconsciously reviewing over his/her productivity.

CONS

- Time wasting at certain points: Unless the user bought a journal with printed page numbers, numbering pages will take up a good chunk of time. This goes the same for writing new points in the index and reviewing old monthly entries for the next monthly calendar. The Bullet Journal was meant to save time, and indexing everything (although convenient in the long run) creates the problem many users are trying to solve.

- It's NOT that personal: This is what hits me the most. After reviewing the concept, I realized that the Bullet Journal is more like a fancy planning technique. Almost everything in the journal is task oriented. There's nothing really personal about it other than the tasks, ideas, and events are related to the user. Everything feels almost mechanical. And assuming that the user has enough tasks to fill each page or entry, will there be time to decorate ("personalize") the journal itself?

OVERALL:
The Bullet Journal is definitely something to consider. Users with packed schedules can benefit from the concept. Also since the Bullet Journal is just a technique, users can save lots of money buying cheaper plain notebooks. They are not forced to buy a fancy planner. However, for users who don't plan too much or who love writing journal entries, this is definitely not the ultimate journal technique. They will have time to personalize the Bullet Journal, but writing long entries will definitely defeat it's original concept. Fortunately, I did some research and there are many awesome creative journal writers who adapted the Bullet Journal to their own style. They kept the basic technique and added in their own flair by either adding stickers or colors. Some just added the technique as its own section into their own original journals. Either way, the technique is wonderful. I just need to find a way to adapt it to my own liking since I am already comfortable with my own planning techniques.