Lists are great for planning what work needs to get done and calendars are great for planning future events, but sometimes having two separate items makes it hard to focus and stay organized. Ryder Carroll created the Bullet Journal (or BuJo for short) as a life hack for himself.
Ryder Carroll emigrated from Vienna, Austria to the United States in the late 1990s to attend college. He was carrying around several notebooks, trying to organize his thoughts. Carroll was big on scrapbooking, loving the simplicity of it, so he figured he could create something using the same principles. Towards the end of college, the design and layout of the first bullet journal became apparent. After college, he went back to school to learn to code. As a now app, game, and web designer, he applied that knowledge to further develop the design and layout of the bujo. Years later, he passed a coworker frantically planning her wedding. Carroll tried offering his bullet journal idea to her to help; however, he struggled to explain it well. He stated, “I was really shy about explaining how my mind works. Opening up and letting people peer into your mind is always a questionable exercise.” In 2013 after a lot of encouragement from friends, Ryder Carroll released the first bullet journal to the public.
Digging more in depth to Carroll’s process, he was intrinsically motivated to be more organized in college and find easier ways to study. He created different symbols to indicate what the professor meant, whether it be “this will be on the exam” or “this should be mentioned in a presentation later on in the semester.” He then created a monthly to-do section which allowed more time for the tasks that he never seemed to get done. Collaborating with users and listening to their advice, Carroll then created a future section to help with tasks that don’t need to be completed until a later time. He has seen users add colors and other symbols as everyone’s brain works differently, but he suggests for new users to start with a minimal to-do list and index, and work your way into adding more symbols, drawings, colors, or whatever you need to be organized and focused.
The goal of the bullet journal is to reduce complexity and provide clarity. The original bujo has four main components: the index, the future log, the monthly log, and the daily log. At the end of each month, you’re supposed to create the next month, then reflect on the prior month and migrate tasks that you didn’t get completed. There are several YouTube videos on how to create your own bujo, but once people get the basic concept down, they often deviate from the original design to make the bujo more their own. While I have tried and failed to create my own bujo, I admire the creativity people have while designing their own and the creativity of Ryder Carroll himself for creating sometimes initially only to benefit himself.
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I honestly have always wanted to start a bullet journal! I find it ironic that the very reason for a bullet journal (to reduce complexity and provide clarity) is the reason I stray away from it. I am so scared that my bujo won't look perfect. I feel like they have recently gotten this reputation that they have to be neat and perfectly designed. I would 100% make a lot of mistakes. I think it takes creativity that I have yet to acquire.
ReplyDeleteI recently become more interested in the concept and reasoning behind why people use bullet journals after falling into a youtube hole so this post was really timely and interesting. I had no idea it was a specific person's idea- its so cool that Ryder was able to combine a variety of his talents to make such an aesthetically pleasing but still useful product.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting - I've tried making my own bullet journal a few times, but I think because of how widespread they've become and the number of pictures of beautifully crafted pages, I tend to get worried that mine isn't good enough or up to snuff. However, I never realized there was backstory to the bullet journal and how coding and web design can play into planning your month!
ReplyDeleteI love my bullet journal! It definitely has improved my productivity and cut down the amount of things I stop doing or give up on; it also made me just generally more organized. I'm also obsessed with the bullet journal community on Instagram—the creativity of some people's spreads has always been so impressive to me and inspired me to do fun and beautiful things for myself.
ReplyDeleteI have recently been curious about starting a bullet journal. Right now I have a planner that includes the homework I need to complete daily and events/appointments I have planned. While this is useful, I love how the BuJo promotes reflection on one's life. I often feel that my life is passing me by too quickly and I'm not taking enough time to reflect on the events in my life, and I think it's really cool that Carroll was able to take this feeling and create something tangible to encourage reflection on how we can make our lives better. Love this idea: maybe I'll actually start one now!
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