28 Apr The problem with Bullet Journal influencers

One of the best decisions I’ve made over the last couple of years was to finally start Bullet Journaling. Like so many others you’ll find on the internet, the modular planning and note-taking method solved a lot of problems for me once I finally started using it regularly. I am better able to complete tasks, plan projects, and keep track of useful (and important) notes just by keeping it all in a single notebook. The modular, hand-built format means I’m not buying super expensive planners that just don’t fit with the way my brain works. I’m even occasionally keeping a written journal. 

But I almost failed at this entire endeavor before I ever got started. It took me a solid year to finally start keeping my journal and the problem really comes down to the ubiquity of the BuJo influencer culture (and my ADHD).

If you’ve thought about diving into Bullet Journaling for your own productivity, you know what I’m talking about. There are dozens of people on Instagram and Youtube whose brand is all about the way they design their Bullet Journals. They do Plan With Me videos laying out complex and gorgeous spreads. They post endless ways to track everything from habits to budgets to tasks and projects and everything you can think of. They review notebooks and pens and markers, offering you tons of opinions on the exact right tools you need to get started and put together the best-looking journal you possibly could.

And it completely destroys the purpose of the system.

Who is this for?

I have nothing against what they do. These people are artists and organizational masters. I wish I had the time, patience, and skill to do what they do in my own journal. But what is missed in all these incredible designs is the actual point of the Bullet Journal method … to use it.

Many (though not all) of these influencers aren’t actually using the method as designed. This was designed to be a system for getting all your tasks, events, and notes down on paper as quickly as possible and giving you a tool to organize and track the utter chaos that is your brain. It is a system that, as designed, is built for people with ADHD. It’s a straightforward means of forcing you to write it all down so you’re not relying on your garbage short-term memory to keep track of it all.

But the exact type of person the system is designed for is also the exact type of person most likely to be knocked entirely off course by these influencers. If like me, you’ve come across the original system online and want to get started, you’ve probably immediately fallen down the rabbit hole of BuJo influencers and gotten overwhelmed. Or, more likely, you did what I actually did which was to immediately start trying to build out these insane pages in your brand new journal, lost interest halfway through, and never actually immersed yourself in the simplicity of what it was supposed to be.

Giving up and moving on

It took me a year to start Bullet Journaling because it took me a year to force my brain to give up on trying to do things perfectly and beautifully right at the start. It took me a year to realize that the only way I was ever going to get started was to turn off Youtube, put down Instagram, crack open my notebook, and just start making lists.

It was difficult to give up on the hope of making my journal as beautiful as the ones I had gotten used to online. It was also difficult to stop watching those damn videos because they are addicting, but I had to quit cold turkey in order to develop new habits. Those habits, though, have helped to alleviate some of the stress that comes with carrying a huge list of tasks in my brain. I feel more organized, I’m a little less distracted, and when I inevitably forget what I was trying to do at any given moment, I have that list in front of me to help.

It’s been two years now since I finally managed to start using this system and I’ve only made it simpler in that time. I still build out pages more intricately than in the original system but I have let go of the idea that I need a perfect theme or creative spreads. Two years in and I don’t wish I had made my journals prettier. I only wish I had started sooner.