Important pages in a bullet journal

Index

The index is the organisational backbone of the bullet journal. Typically at the front of a bullet journal notebook the index is where you record the page numbers of your different logs.

For example:

This means the bullet journal can be used as a long term archive of your thoughts and activities, by ensuring you can always find what you wrote at a later date

Future Log

The future log is where all events and appointments that will occur after the current month will be stored.

Tasks which have no particular deadline or time limit can also be stored here.

At the beginning of each month, check the future log and migrate the appropriate items into the monthly Log.

In Ryder Carroll's original video, he suggests creating your future log by dividing a two page spread into six to cover six months. Label each section with the month and add any birthdays, anniversaries, events, appointments or tasks you know occur in or are due that month.

Monthly Log

The monthly log provides a an overview of tasks and appointments for the current month. It differs from a traditional calendar by assigning one line for each day of the month instead of using boxes. Appointments tend to go on the left hand page of a double spread, while tasks for the month go on the right hand page.

For example:

October

1 M
2 T 1430 Dentist
3 W 1900 Aqua trampoline-aerobics
4 T
5 F 1700 Underwater basket-weaving
6 S
7 S 1800 Dinner at Bag End with Gandalf

Tasks

• Plan trip to the Lonely Mountain
• Hire burglar
• Buy extra pipeweed

At the start of every month, any open tasks from the previous month are migrated to the monthly spread.

Daily Log

The daily log is the heart of the The bullet journal is a personal planner system designed to work with ADHD brains system. It's the part of the system that was the most revolutionary to me; the idea that instead of squeezing everything into a tiny, pre-printed space you could just turn to a blank page and let each day take up as much space as it needed to.

The daily log is where you write down all your appointments, tasks that need to be done that day, new tasks that arise during the day, and any notes you want to remember or unpack later. The daily log is where your do your rapid logging.

Collections

A collection is a list of things you want to do or remember that are all connected by subject or in some other way. For example, books you want to read, a packing list for your trip, or a list of facts abut volcanoes.

While everything goes into the daily log at first, it may be prudent to move your notes to their own collection when it becomes too unwieldy to switch between different daily logs to find what you need. Or it might be useful to start a collection for a specific event; notes from a meeting or planning for a holiday.

To create a collection, simply turn to the next blank page, give it a title, and start writing.

Examples from my own bujo: