Goodbye chaos and forgotten appointments: How a bullet journal works
21.12.2025
Translation: machine translated
Three planners, two notebooks and I still have my shopping list somewhere? Thanks to my bullet journal, this chaos is a thing of the past. It's really easy to get started.
As a tech editor in the digital world, some people look at me funny when I walk around with my paper agenda. But the little book is a huge help in everyday life - whether for appointments, sports tracking or little scribbles and thoughts.
Do you have chaos in your everyday life, never have time for anything and yet you keep missing appointments? Or would you just like to try something new? Then I'd like to introduce you to the bullet journal method and explain how it has helped me to master my chaotic everyday life.
What exactly is the bullet journal method?
The bullet journal is an invention by Ryder Carroll. The designer was born in Vienna and emigrated to the USA for his studies. He has constantly expanded his method of recording appointments, tasks and thoughts on a daily basis and adapted it to his needs. This also resulted in his book «The Bullet Journal Method».
At its core, his method focuses on two questions:
- What?
- Why?
The method uses tools and techniques to help you organise what you do. You should always log and reflect on why you do these things. The agenda will help you to ensure that your everyday life is not only organised, but also in line with your goals and ideas. And all you need is a notebook and a pen. Easy, right?
What's the best way to start?
In order to use the method correctly, you first need a notebook. Ideally one with a dot grid. Ryder Carroll works with the brand Leuchtturm1917. Their bullet journals already do some of the work for you. For example, with a pre-printed table of contents and page numbers:
But any other notebook with dots will also work for journaling. The most important thing is to start as simply as possible. I myself used a book and always wrote with the same black pen. I later realised that I prefer to use an agenda with thicker pages so that I can draw a Header image every month.
Place the heading Content on the first four pages. Here you can keep track of the pages on which you have noted what. This will help you to keep a good overview and find everything later on.
Future log: Plan your future
The table of contents is followed by the annual plan. In other words, the next 12 months, packed onto two double pages. Of course, you can decide for yourself whether you want to free up more or less space. So far, this has always been enough for me. It's also up to you how you want it to look. The following entries in this article are fictitious and serve as examples:
Here you can make a note of all your appointments that are not taking place in the current month. Upcoming concerts, holidays or the Christmas dinner in December.
Monthly log: What's coming up this month
After the large annual overview comes the more detailed monthly overview. This is where you write all the appointments and tasks that take place in the current month. The basic concept fits on a double page:
- Note all days on the left (number/day of the week)
- next to this, note the upcoming appointments in keywords
- start a current to-do list on the right
This is what it looks like for me:
Daily log: Appointments, thoughts and shopping lists
I think the daily log is the most important part of bullet journaling. It's a place for everything that needs to get out of your head. Every day that you need to write something down, you write it down as a single date after the Monthly Log - like a small heading. After that comes everything that's on your mind that day.
In summary, these are the following things:
- Tasks
- Thoughts and notes
- Events, appointments
To distinguish them quickly, place a different sign in front of each of the three categories. Put a centre dot (-) in front of tasks, a dash (-) in front of thoughts and a circle (o) in front of events. In my bullet journal, I have noted all the characters as keys on page 1. I can also add them there if I need more characters to differentiate them:
For example, a tag can look like this:
Create as good a routine as possible
This is how the principle works. But when should you write something down? To give you a better understanding of this, I'll describe a typical day with my bullet journal.
Prepare for the day in the morning
In the morning, the bullet journal is ready to hand on the bedside table. When I'm awake enough - i.e. over my morning coffee - I write down the current day. First, I take a look at the previous day and see if there are any open tasks.
Tasks that still need to be completed are transferred to today or added to the monthly to-dos. I then paint over the dot in front of it with a «>» to indicate that I have postponed the task. So if I keep postponing a task, I also have to keep writing it down again. This makes me aware that I either need to complete the task soon or that I should rethink my priorities.
I then check the monthly log to see whether I have any appointments today. I also write these (with the circle in front) in the Daily Log. Now I know what appointments and tasks I have to complete today
During the day, there's room for everything that needs to be done
During the day, I can always make additions to the daily log. There is always space for this because everything behind it is still empty. For example, I can also add meeting notes or use the space for doodles.
Reflect again in the evening
In the evening before going to bed, reflect and clear your mind. This helps to stop the carousel of thoughts before going to sleep. To do this, I take a look at everything I've written down today, what still needs to be done and maybe even what's coming up tomorrow.
I cross out things that are no longer relevant. If I have noted an appointment today that will take place in the future, I enter it in the right place: If it takes place this month, it goes in the current Monthly Log. If the appointment is for later, it goes into the Future Log.
Looking back at the end of the month
As the month draws to a close, it's time for the monthly review. I flick through all the daily logs again. Have all the tasks been ticked off? Have all upcoming appointments been correctly transferred to the future log? Are there any tasks that I have been struggling with that don't actually correspond to my goals and values?
The monthly reflection is not only intended to help clear up the chaos. It's also there to make sure I don't forget what I'm doing all my tasks and appointments for in the first place. Tasks that I have postponed several times are sometimes an indication that priorities have been set incorrectly. That's why I can ask myself at the end of the month: Is this task important or just a time waster?
After I have created an overview of the past month, I start preparing for the coming month. Everything that is still open in terms of tasks is transferred to the monthly to-do list. I transfer all appointments from the future log of the corresponding month to the monthly log.
What else can I do with it?
You can freely customise the bullet journal. There's room for all your interests, wishes and ideas. There's plenty of inspiration online. Here are a few ideas that I have integrated into my agenda and learnt to appreciate.
Monthly highlights: practising positive thinking
I already had this idea for my first bullet journal in 2020, which you may remember as the coronavirus year. Many people around me described it as a terrible and stressful year. I myself had 365 arguments against it. How did I manage that? With my monthly highlights.
I created a page for the month just like the monthly log. After each day, I recorded a highlight of the day in the evening. Sometimes it was just a good meal or an interesting dream. It doesn't matter at all. The main thing is that it's positive. At the end of the year, I lit a candle, made a cup of tea and read through all these sentences. In the end, I felt like it was the best year of my life.
Sports tracking
If you want to encourage yourself to do more sport or simply want to keep track of when and how much sport you have done, sports tracking is a cool thing. My method requires little effort. I put a column with «Sport» behind my highlights list. I write there which sport I did and for how long. At the end of the month, I then note the total number of hours.
Books and gaming lists
In 2020, I resolved to play more games next year - for reviews and the podcast. To help me remember everything I played, I started making a list in my bullet journal. I then did the same with books and manga.
Which agendas and pens are suitable for this?
If you want to make it as easy as possible to get started, I recommend a bullet journal from Leuchtturm1917. They have already labelled and numbered the various pages and provide a small booklet for a quick introduction to bullet journaling - albeit only in English. The pages are also slightly thicker if you like working with brands and the like. Otherwise, any notebook with dotted pages will do
Bullet Journals from Leuchtturm:
You can also work with the pens according to your own preferences. My favourite is the black Fudenosuke from Tombow. It is waterproof and thanks to the thin brush tip, I can write finely. But ballpoint pens, fineliners and the like also fulfil their purpose. Another thing I always stick in my diary is a pen loop so that I always have my pen with me.
If you like to work with colour accents for a better overview, you can also buy a few highlighters or brush brushes. Tombow also has some really chic colours. But Ohuhu and Faber Castell also offer a great selection.
Brush pens for colour accents:
Markers
Quantity discount
CHF12.90 per piece for 3 units
Ohuhu Honolulu art markers (6 pcs.) - basic colours
6 x
Luminous markers:
So now have fun and success with your journaling. Do you have any questions or your own tips and experiences? Drop them in the comments column!
Header image: Michelle Brändle
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
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