The Bullet Journal Method

I've been bullet journaling for 4 years, but I figured I should at least speed read this book. I ended up skimming most of it.

I didn't expect all the self-help motivational stuff. I read a lot of that, but it was irritating here because I've already heard every anecdote, study and scientist's name like 6 times. It felt like productivity 101. That being said, I don't think I'm the target market for this book. I neither want nor need hand-holding. I stumbled onto bullet journaling, just started doing it and made it up as I went along (which is kind of the point). I'm very utilitarian about it and I already have my own systems for goal setting and such.

The type of person I see inclined to pick this book up: (30+ woman with kids, busy and overwhelmed, not great at scheduling, spends time on Pinterest, likes the idea of journaling, does not read business or pop science books for fun). So the short, here's-a-helpful-productivity-fact chapters are probably great. But if you're more my type, just read Part 2 - The System and Part 4 - The Art. The rest is just fluff.

Overall I don't think I learned anything particularly groundbreaking about the method, but my goal was just to get a better grasp of the official system. Ironically, I've never much used the bullet system of bullet journaling (rapid logging), so I wanted to see more of that in practice.

I highly recommend bullet journaling in general, but if you're a self starter you can pick up the method from bulletjournal.com. If you prefer more elaborate explanation and like the idea of motivational goal setting exercises, check out the book, which does a good job of showing how the system works together as a whole.