Bullet journaling is not new to the planner/planning scene. It is a wildly popular way with which to both plan and document your life at the same time. Its popularity comes from it’s flexibility:
He [Ryder Carroll] sees this as an evolving, adaptable practice meant to be self curated as you determine what works best for you.
~http://bulletjournal.com/about/
And not only did Ryder Carroll develop this hugely configurable system and offer it to us (for free no less!), he also encourages you to hack it! Ryder wants you to take his bullet journal system and use it as a foundation for your own personalized bullet journal system.
I will not take the time here nor use the real estate necessary to explain step-by-step the process of bullet journaling. The developer has a lovely blog which details everything for you there. It is there he also encourages you to hack his system and make it your own. A humble man, his only request of bullet journalers around the world is that you give him his due credit for developing the system. Your hacks are yours to tout, but the system belongs to Ryder Carroll. Thank you, Ryder, for not only developing this fantastic documenting and planning system, but for also freely sharing it with the world!
Now, onto my hacks…
| Original Bullet Journal | Hobo Girl Hacks |
| ● Bullets | □ My Bullets |
| X Completed Item | X Completed Item |
| o Events | o Events |
| > Migrated Task | → Migrated Task |
| < Scheduled Task | ↗ Scheduled Task |
| – Notes | ● Notes |
| * Priority | ! Priority |
| ! Inspiration | * Inspiration |
| [eye] Explore | [eye] Explore |
- The bullet journal system is a checklist of sorts in my opinion. One of the tasks in this system is to X off all of your completed items. As such, I prefer a checkbox so I can, well, check the item off.
- An X or a checkmark — doesn’t matter. This is the universal symbol for showing a completed task on any list.
- I use an arrow for Migrated Tasks simply because it is aesthetically pleasing to me. It’s more of a doodle for my artsy fartsy self LOL.
- The less than sign (<) was not working for me as an indicator that a task was taken off the page and scheduled. I prefer to use an arrow that points “up and away” to indicate that something was lifted from the page and moved to a different section.
- All of my note taking life I have used a bullet for each note. At 50 years old, it’s not the time to change the meaning of a bullet point… Therefore, I continue to use the bullet as an indicator for Notes. I may reserve the dash (-) for subnotes…
- An asterisk can signify an important item, but an exclamation point says it better!
- Better suited to express ideas in my opinion, the asterisk makes the list to show where on my pages I have penned an inspired idea.
- Both the open circle and the eye symbol worked for me for what they symbolize so I’ll go with Ryder’s way on these items.
Bullet journaling wasn’t developed to make your life more difficult by forcing you to learn a group of symbols needed for planning and listing that is unfamiliar to you. Ryder Carroll has provided us with a foundation. It is up to us to build upon that foundation and make the system our own. By using symbols that mean something to you inherently and not because you used rote memorization to learn what they signify, bujo’ing becomes an easy and seamless part of your life.
What bujo hacks are you using? Share them with us here!
Hobo Girl 