Type Book
Date 2018-10-18
Pages 320
Tags nonfiction, productivity, 75 in 2019

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future

  • The Bullet Journal Method: Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Design Your Future

If you've never heard of bullet journals, you haven't dug too deep into note-taking and productivity. They're a popular paper-based productivity system, and this is the official book that teaches how to use them.

The information contained within is generally pretty good. The method seems perfectly usable, though fairly obvious–it's not so different from the various methods I've used over the years for making notes on paper.

That said, the book could have been cut by 50-75% and communicated all the most relevant information, but I guess a 100 page book wouldn't sell at $26. There were a lot of words devoted to repeating the benefits of the techniques and what amounts to inspirational anecdotes–useful, maybe, if you're unfamiliar with any of the productivity techniques or if you weren't very motivated to begin with (and if you're the sort of person who can be motivated by reading a maybe-true story of someone else succeeding–I'm not).

In short, if you're not familiar with this kind of productivity system and you want a whole book to teach you about it, then this book will do the job. It gives both practical advice and explanation of the principles of the system, enabling you to adapt it to your needs. On the other hand, if you're already familiar with systems like Getting Things Done and timeboxing, or the benefits of universal capture systems like Evernote, or if you just don't want to read a 300 page self-help book, then you can get a good-enough introduction to the system from the official website.

Name Role
HarperCollins Publisher
Ryder Carroll Author

Contents

Part I: The Preparation
    Introduction
    The Promise
    The Guide
    The Why
    Decluttering Your Mind
    Notebooks
    Handwriting
Part II: The System
    Rapid Logging
        Topics and Pagination
        Bullets
        Tasks
        Events
        Notes
        Signifiers and Custom Bullets
    Collections
        The Daily Log
        The Monthly Log
        The Future Log
        The Index
    Migration
    The Letter
    Set up
Part III: The Practice
    Beginning
    Reflection
    Meaning
    Goals
    Small Steps
    Time
    Gratitude
    Control
    Radiance
    Endurance
    Deconstruction
    Inertia
    Imperfection
Part IV: The Art
    Custom Collections
    Design
    Planning
    Lists
    Schedules
    Trackers
    Customization
    Community
Part V: The End
    The Correct Way to Bullet Journal
    Parting Words
    Frequently Asked Questions
    Thank You
    Notes
    Content
    About the Author