One Astronomer's Noise

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I am forever working to supplement my not-so-great executive functioning with tools that are outside my brain. Does this sound familiar?

There are loads of productivity tips, tricks, hacks, and systems out there. One of my favorite advice articles about this simply reminds us that we have the choice to pick and choose what works for us from what’s out there.

Recently, I decided to finally give bullet journaling a try. I was looking for a way to make a paper planner stick, but pre-formatted planners, even undated ones, never really fit what I needed. A digital list with ToDoist has served me well for years, but I missed the tactile sensation of crossing something off, the accountability to have to re-write a task on a new day when it doesn’t get done, forcing me to be more realistic in my planning, and having a little space to add some thoughts about the day.

Every time I looked into bullet journaling, however, everything was SO PRETTY. There were doodles and swirls and flowers and PERFECT handwriting. That is not me. More power to the many, many people who thrive with that! That will never be me.

So I’m putting this out here for someone like me. Give yourself the permission to make it ugly! Mine has come out pretty darn utilitarian.

I’ve adapted the symbols more or less from the “original system” where bullets are tasks, X’s mean they are done, < means they are scheduled, > means they are migrated, and strikethrough means it was cancelled or irrelevant. And that’s it! No doodles. No inspirational quotes. No colorful layouts. Just my crappy handwriting and a big DONE when I’m finished with a day or week or month.

There are some habit trackers, of course, looking like little checkerboards. And the whole thing is more or less guided by Getting Things Done principles. From that system, I particularly like the “write everything down BRAIN DUMP” so you don’t have a task just sitting there in your working memory. Just… looming and taking up precious thought cycles.

Sometimes I use tomato timers from the Pomodoro technique. That’s especially useful for things that I thoroughly dislike… like grading. Sometimes I literally schedule time to WORRY. I have a previous therapist to thank for that one.

My next adventure will be reading Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals with a group of coworkers. Rather than being about how to do more, this book promises to help prioritize what’s important in our oh so short lifespans. Since I’m just over two thousand weeks in, seems like a good idea.

In any case, I’m proud to join the ranks of those with “ugly” bullet journals, and I sure wish they’d come up higher in my search feed years ago.