How to Bullet Journal: New method will revamp your to-do list

For many people, when it comes to planning their time, there is still no rival to the simple pen and paper. Digital planners often allow for more structured scheduling, but these take time to learn and are inherently restrictive in how they allow the user to make notes and organise their time.

But a new system claims it can combine the flexibility of a notepad with the defined structure of an online planner.

Bullet Journal relies on what it calls "rapid logging".

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"The more effort expended, the more of a chore it becomes, the more likely you’ll under-utilise or abandon your journal," the website says.Instead, rapid logging is made up of just four components - topics, page numbers, short sentences, and bullets – designed to let users speed through their scheduling.

At its heart are a pen, paper and a set of simple symbols employed to denote different categories, for example, a circle represents an event, a dash marks a note and a dot indicates a task, which once done, is noted by an X.

Loggers identify topics they might want to revisit via a numbered page index at the front of a notebook. The next pages are to be devoted to future and monthly logs and then they add their day-to-day planning. The video below shows how this looks in practice: [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"96158","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

The Bullet Journal method has already won over plenty of converts.For some, the no-screens factor is in itself a selling point. "Using analogue tools has had the extra benefit of encouraging me to spend quiet time every night away from screens, reflecting on my day and planning for tomorrow," says Quartz's Belle Beth Cooper."You can write basically whatever you want, wherever you want," says Bustle. "It all stays organised if you follow the 'bullet' system."