Edit (afterthefact): Thank you everyone for taking the time to interact with me today :D
I did kinda run out of steam towards the end and didn't have the capacity to answer everyone, but please know that I've read and considered all your points and ideas.
And I'm leaving with a bunch of new ones to try. I hope this will also be a good resource for anyone stumbling onto this thread in the future. If that's you: hello 👋

Original post:
Hello peoples of the internets.

I've been bullet journaling for a couple of years with varying success, but there is something that has been bugging me recently:

I usually write things down in my daily log as they surface, but many of my tasks and actions are time or place specific. For example some studying tasks I'll only do when I get to the library in the afternoon, some tasks I'll do before I leave the house and some are specific to an event I'm attending in the evening.

But these tasks are right next to each other in my daily log with no order whatsoever and it feels really inefficient/clunky to use.

I often end up rewriting like half of my tasks under a specific "at home" header or something as sub-tasks or I migrate them outside bujo into a tasks app like Google Keep where I can drag them around. However ideally I'd like to stay inside my BuJo AND be able to tell my currently relevant tasks from non-relevant ones at a glance.

Does anybody have experience with similar problems? Are there any people for whom this is only a problem of the past? What methodology do you use to get around this? Any advice or discussion is welcome.

Thank you for reading:)

Hello lovely BuJo community, I have a question and am hoping to find some inspiration and tips here :)

I am a college student and recently begun using the BuJo method. I already have an up and running journal that works rly well, but as the new semester is about to start I've been having an issue:

In the book Ryder Caroll talks about Dedicated Indexes and Master collections, but I am a bit confused about how to approach the organization of things.

Let's say I want to create a dedicated index for my modules chemistry, maths and parasitology. What do I do if I don't have any space left over at the front of the notebook where the index is? Do I add the dedicated index in the middle of the notebook? Or should I start a whole new notebook just for my class notes?

Also, how do you indent subcollections under a master collections if you continuously add collections? Digitally you can just add space in between the collections, but how would that work physically? Example:

Dedicated Index: Parasitology

Mastercollcetions:

Lecture notes:

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Lab report:

Experiment

Protocol

How would I go about adding another lecture if I have started writing down different collections already? I'd really appreciate any help and thank you so much to anyone who read this far <3

I discovered bullet journaling a couple years ago and it seemed perfect for me. Traditional planners never worked for my AuDHD brain, but I felt so all over the place without some kind of planning system. 

I did initially fall into the trap of aesthetic spreads that just ended up causing stress and overwhelm. Eventually I learned about the true bujo method and started trying that. It definitely felt more productive and functional, but here's the problem: for some reason, I can never finish a bujo.

I always start off excited with the mindset that I can change things up and create a system that works for me. I set up my logs (future, monthly, weekly) and start doing dailies. It feels good to have a place to put everything. But it's like as soon as I miss a couple daily logs, or something with the system is causing friction, I just abandon it. Then my brain starts to feel messy, so I get a new notebook and start the cycle all over again. 

Has anyone else experienced this? What helped you stick with your bujo to build it into something that truly works for you? I know bujo helps me because when I do keep up with it, I feel a lot better mentally. I just need to figure out how to stick with it for the long term. If anyone has any advice on this I'd really appreciate it! I got a new notebook today and I'm determined to finish this one. 

A running issue I've had with using the daily log is that I have a very long list of tasks that are strictly work-related, i.e., email follow-ups, collecting documents, and personal tasks, like my own bills, family tasks, personal writing projects, etc. My daily log ends up being a full spread or even longer sometimes, and all the different work tasks are lumped together with personal tasks, and it gets very disordered.

Maybe I need to restructure my life to not be so hectic, but for now, any thoughts on organizing large daily logs?

I love having a bullet journal. I love creating new spreads and themes. It makes keeping track of things so so easy. But it’s always around this time of year I loose motivation. And I end up with my journal’s stopping around September. Then I make myself sad and beat myself up. And I just never pick it up until the next year.

How do I keep myself motivated? What are some tips?

I thought I try to post my spreads on instagram, but got no traction and it made me lose even more motivation. I try to start journaling with others but stop once i feel self conscious of my skills to create.

I want to keep my life organized and together? How do I keep goin?

If you BUJO in your planner, do you have any special bullets for travel? Like a departure/arrival bullet or to mark days you are still away from home?

I use a continuous dashed line on a monthly layout but not sure how to illustrate this on a horizontal weekly layout. Thanks!!! 📖🖊️

Namely, monthly and quarter reviews. I've heard of Ryder Carroll's T.A.M.E. approach, but don't know how to actually do it. I understand he calls them rituals.

I'm about to plan for the last 3 months of the year and would like to do it in a structured fashion.

Is anyone here using a passport size TN for BuJo method? I like the size for portability, but worry that I will be blowing through many inserts. I was thinking it might be a good idea to separate the more “long term” items (index, monthly and future trackers, collections, habit trackers) from my daily log so that I don’t have to recreate those every time I use up an insert. Thoughts? Is anyone doing something similar? I’m only about a month into BuJo, but it’s working for me!

Hi everyone! I started using the bujo method earlier this year and love it! Recently I’ve been wanting to do pacing for some chronic health stuff, and I have thought of creating a collection in my bujo for it, but I’m struggling with ideas on how to start. Does anyone have any ideas and/or has anyone used their bujo for pacing?

Hi there. I’ve been bullet journaling for a few years now. Last year, due to a lack of space, I had to throw away all my old bullet journals. However, I’ve struggled to keep one going since then because I keep tearing out used pages and starting the journal over from scratch. I already have two 400-page notebooks that have lost half their pages because of this.

I’ve noticed that the urge to tear out pages strikes when I’m unhappy with the direction my life is taking. I suffer from anxiety and have a terrible habit of trying to do too many things at once. When I set up a goals collection, I end up picking five personal goals and five professional ones to tackle simultaneously. When I realize I’m not making progress on one of them, I get an uncontrollable urge to rip out the pages.

Does anyone have any tips?

I'm coming back after using a planner this year (what was I thinking?) and need some emotional fluffing before I set it up. Get me excited. Tell me your stuffs. Show me your pics.

Thanks!

Hi,

I've started therapy again and I find myself in the situation that information like knowledge, my history of illness, progress, and daily condition is all over the place.

• I have a collection "Gesundheit" for my general health (physical and also a bit mental health)
• I have collections for my therapy, one for each session. As you can see in my Index, they are distributed when space ran out
• One collection for my psychiatrist
• I've started creating mood trackers mid-year
• Sometimes I write about my daily well-being (or unwell-being) in the Dailies

Challenges:

• If I want to look something up (e.g. session details) I have to go through many collections as the Index does not tell me anything. Sessions often have a mixed content and not a single "topic" that I could assign.
• In the Dailies my notes regarding well-being status blend in with everything else. I've just started to try using sticky markers to highlight when my day was bad (see top of the image).

This is probably gonna get worse when I have to search across journals as time goes on. How do other people deal with this? Should I use colors to make my daily status more distinguishable? Should I adopt a different structure overall?

I've been using bullet journal-esque methods for a couple of years now but I keep running into this issue. where I collect information but then have nowhere to put it and no real way of tracking where it is. I guess it would be anything that's a note rather than a task.

Tasks make sense, they get migrated or scheduled into the appropriate log until they are completed. And events go into your monthly log (and I use a digital calendar anyway for tracking appointments or meetings). But what do you do with notes if you want to be able to find them again?

For example:

• I attend a work meeting and get some information about a client that isn't directly actionable but I want to remember in future when I pick up that client's next project.
• I get a call from my child's pediatrician and I take some notes. I want to be able to find those notes again when I'm preparing for their next appointment in 6 months' time.

The only thing I can think of is using the index and having "Client X" or "Kid Health" as a line in the index and adding page references every time I take a relevant note. But then I would have to go through every page reference to find the right one. Or I can have 'Kid Health' as a custom collection and take the notes there. But that requires me to (a) remember it's a custom collection, and (b) find it while I'm on the phone (and most of my brain processing tends to shut down when I am talking on the phone which is why I like the simplicity of just having a daily log open in front of me that I can vomit my notes onto).

Hopefully this makes sense and I'm just missing something really obvious.

Hi there, I am reading the book right now and just hit the part where we go into setting up sprints. I am struggling to understand on how to set up tasks for the sprints. Here's what I have so far -

Long term goal - Release my bands debut album with 10 songs on by 15th of October.

Sprint 1 - Select 10 demo's for the album

Sprint 2 - Finish one song in terms of songwriting and recording

Sprint 3 - Mix the first song to define the sonic theme for album

Sprint 4 to 11 - Write, record and mix rest of the songs, one song per sprint

Sprint 12 - Master the album

When Ryder talks about creating tasks "through the lens of curiosity rather than by giving yourself commands or ultimatums. It’s the difference between “Lose weight!” and “What one unhealthy thing could I remove from my diet?”" I get lost....I need an example to make sure I understand the logic right here.

For example, if sprint 2 is "Finish one sing..." then my mind says the tasks should be

1. Set the song structure

2. Record the instruments

3. think of a melody

4. Record vocals

etc etc.

But that to me sounds like Im giving commands, so what am i doing wrong here and what would you do here? Thank you!

I’m struggling to fit recurring tasks that aren't quite "habits" into my Bullet Journal. Tasks like doing laundry are particularly tricky when you consider the whole process: wash, dry, and put away.

I have ADHD, and I know this is a common challenge for us. The "just do it" approach hasn't worked for me, so I’d love for my Bujo to help me remember these tasks (and their sub-tasks) and, most importantly, actually get them done.

How do you handle this? I’m looking for ideas that are simple to implement and easy to remember to check on a daily basis!

Hey everyone! Is anyone using the travel size for their daily bullet journaling? How is it? I am currently using the original one. I want to know from people that actually are using it and not just decorating it. Thank you in advance.

Has anyone else tried something like this? I normally do a traditional monthly spread and a weekly, which is basically like a mini future log so 8 can schedule events and tasks for the future (my anxious ADHD brain otherwise files everything under 'now'). In the last month of this journal i',m trying something, expanding my monthly and organising by week so there is enough space that it can do both. This means it stretches over 3 pages, with space for task and goal notes on the third one

I don’t like my planning pages and my collections and meeting notes to be mixed together. I put my future log in the front. Then a few monthly logs because I like them all together. And then I start my daily logs and an occasional weekly log. So the front of the book goes in chronological order. I also start a new task list after the old page is full. So it can sometimes be in a random place, but I mark it with washi tape so it’s easy to flip to.

However, I flip to the last page and work my way backwards for my collections and meeting notes or anything that’s not a future/monthly/weekly/daily log. When I meet in the middle I start a new bujo.

I also write these entries from the end of the last index page and work my way up. While the planning pages start at the top of the first page of the index.

The other day someone was watching me in our meeting and commented that working from both ends of the book like that was breaking their brain. 🫪

Am I the only one out here doing this?

I am an administrative assistant at a university and I find it best to use a notebook for notes and things. I'm looking at ways to organize it and I'm thinking of using some BuJo ways but would like some suggestions. I have a separate planner that has a calendar with my daily to-dos and a monthly to do list, running "things to buy" list and priorities for the month. This stays on my desk. Really the notebook is for notes from trainings or webinars, department meetings and 1:1 meetings, and notes from committees i'm on. I brain dump seperately so it doesn't clog things up. These notes are just mine, or things I might share from a meeting or training with others.

The notebook is an A5 notebook from Archer & Olive. Any suggestions on ways I can organize this so I can easily find notes if I need to go back. It needs to be not complicated and little maintenence

Lately I've been realizing that even when life is objectively good, my days can still kind of blur together. Work, dinner, chores, scrolling, bed... then somehow it's Friday again.

I've tried bullet journaling on and off, but I'm less interested in tracking habits and more interested in feeling like I actually lived my day.

Has bullet journaling helped anyone with that? If so, what pages, prompts, or routines made the biggest difference? I'm genuinely curious what has worked for other people.

I've used this layout for since 2023 to organize my day and I love it. Gratitude, to-do, and journaling. If the day has appointments, I just replace the journaling in the timeline area with the appointments, and journal around it.

(I'm also super tickled with the secret diary-flap on image 3).

Hi all! I'm new to this kind of journal. I am a visual learner. Could people share image examples of how they have organized their bujo for a graduate program? It could be for any graduate program, but a bonus if it's counseling-related. I have looked through the different threads in r/bujo for examples, but would like to see others. Thanks in advance!

Im working on getting sober currently im in treatment in wanna journal that I can track my mental health my na meetings my sobriety milestones etc not sure how or what to add to my bujo or how to lay it all out

used both seriously for a year. paper's better for heavy stuff slower, more deliberate, you can't delete, no notifications, no blue light. apps are better for actually doing it lower barrier, you journal more, can search old entries and spot patterns.