Re: Five Months of Journalling
I have a post in my drafts that I started last week but it's not ready, so instead I'll crib heavily from Robb and respond to his latest post, Five Months of Journalling.
I enjoy reading about other people's productivity methods and especially their bullet journal or journalling1 methods, so this was a fun read. Doubly so, because it's the experience of someone new to the method, and finding out what he has incorporated or eliminated through the last 5 months. And of course I compare against my own methods and see what I can incorporate (or eliminate) for myself.
I've gone through his post and identified some things I wanted to respond to.
On how he carries around his notebook:
My Lihit case is always with it as well. I throw it in my bag when I go to the office.
Currently I have mine in a folio that I bought a few years back from Staples, and I usually just stuff a highlighter in the pen holder. I have pens everywhere between home and work, so I don't need to bring one (AND I have several in my bag). My folio is falling apart and I'd like to get a new one, but Robb's method - a "naked" notebook and a pen case - sounds appealing. I found the aforementioned Lihit case for $16 on Amazon, and that price seems worth it to me instead of paying almost $50 for a folio that I might not even like and return anyway.
On work vs. personal or both: Robb does both, in minimal fashion. I keep work and personal separate. Sometimes I think about combining them but I'd find it confusing as well.
On reflecting...
The Bullet Journal method suggests a lot of reflection, looking over your notes, thinking about your life, your goals, your feelings, reviewing everything you've done all the time. I'm not into all that.
I did try a lot of the ideas when I started but I didn't get any value from a lot of it. I don't feel the need to write down my goals or aims for the week. I don't need to reflect on what I've achieved the previous week.
Honestly, same. I don't look back on things week-to-week2, but sometimes what I jot down during a day can help me when I want to turn to my long-form journal and write about something. And, I will sometimes refer back to my journals (I keep them, I don't know if Robb will) months or years down the road if something comes up and my mind clicks, "Hey let me see if I wrote something down about that."
On the future log...
There's some other things that haven't really clicked with me starting with the future log. This is supposed to keep "all of your future events in one place".
I like the future log. I actively use my Google Calendar but I use the Future Log for things like writing down birthdays, appointments as they come up, etc. I set up a monthly page to capture events and general to-do items I want to complete during the month, and having the future log to flip back to is handy. I don't use it for everything, but it works for me.
On collections...
Collections, which is bullet journals way of saying "lists", have been handy to collect ideas or similar notes about a single topic.
I don't use collections - I've tried but they're not my thing. He goes on:
What I wish I'd done is put these all in one place at the back of my journal. Having them wherever I started them in the journal is not helpful and makes it a pain to jump quickly to them. And I'm definitely not using the index.
If I were to use collections I would probably do the same, start them in the back of the notebook. And while I do use the Index, it really depends on how I use each individual notebook whether or not I get any use out of it. I'm mixed on that one.
There are other things he writes about and I recommend you read his post if you're interested. One thing I will note is that since I started using Obsidian I noticed that I've replaced my daily notes in my journal to my daily notes file in Obsidian. I want the jotted notes in my journal, because I would like to refer back to these things some day. What I've tried to do recently is make sure to record notes in my journal first (if I have it with me), and add it to my Obsidian notes later. If I don't have my journal then it can just stay in Obsidian.
And, as I type all of this out; I realize that maybe writing daily notes in Obsidian is not entirely necessary. I started it because it made it easier to write my Weeknotes, but it's become borderline obsessive. I need to do some re-thinking of my daily methods and figure out what it is I'm trying to accomplish.
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