Personal Organization

Last updated: Apr 19, 2023

There are 2 core parts to my personal organization: a Bullet Journal and a calendar.

Bullet Journal

I make heavy use of “BuJo”. For a brief overview of what it is, see the How to Bullet Journal video.

Mine has a few modifications though:

• I use a digital version, not a physical/analog one. I really enjoyed having a physical object and using a pen (Sakura Pigma Micron 01s are the best!), but there are a few areas where it really fell short:
  • Writing down URLs. You really need copy paste for these.
  • Using it in the dark. It’s often a big hassle to find light during the night.
  • Searching. My “Monthly Log” + “Daily Log” collections tend to grow a lot, so quickly finding things became a real hassle.
  • Expanding previous bullets. I managed to embrace the lack of bullet rearranging, but I often found myself needing to expand existing tasks or notes with sub-bullets to provide additional context.
  • Cloud back-up. It’s comforting to know that my BuJo won’t get stolen, damaged, or lost.
  • Having to carry around one more thing.
• I don’t use the “Index” collection.
• I don’t use the “Calendar Page” in the “Monthly Log” collection.
  • I use a proper calendar for this instead (see “Calendar” section below).
• I don’t use “event” bullets (o).
  • I never quite understood how they’re supposed to be used, so instead I treat past unscheduled events as “notes” (-) and use a proper calendar for future scheduled events.
• I don’t use “signifiers”.
• For “task” bullets, I use the original 5, plus 2 of my own:
  • “Task incomplete” (*).
  • “Task complete” (x).
  • “Task migrated forward to the next month” (>).
  • “Task migrated back to the Future Log” (<).
  • “Task canceled” (~).
  • “Task migrated down to a newer Daily log” (v).
  • “Task migrated up to the Monthly Log” (^).

I try to capture any task in my BuJo, no matter how small it is, and as soon as possible. If a task is broad and generic, I later take the time to break it down into multiple sub-tasks (indented bullets). And for certain tasks, I add additional context as nested notes. Example:

* Replace sofa.
  x Order new sofa online.
    - https://some-website.com/sofa777
  ~ Dump old sofa.
  * Give old sofa to Alice and Bob.
    - Tel: (123) 456-7890
        

I also try to capture as a note any meaninful thought (funny, emotional, contextual, etc.), event, article (with sub-notes with my thoughts), information, etc.

When it comes to emotional thoughts, it’s pretty useful to capture them so I can “get it off my chest” without having to vent with someone and avoid doing something stupid or reckless. In a few cases I can also come back later and decide whether I want to add a task or a note with my final/cooler thought(s).

Digital Set-Up

I use my computer, a text editor (vim) and .txt files, a cloud file storage service to synchronize across computers, and a notes app (Keep) to quickly capture things with my smartphone while I’m on the go and transfer them to my computer later.

The directory and file structure I follow the following example:

BuJo/
├── 2020
│   ├── 00-FutureLog.txt
│   ├── 01-January.txt
│   ├── ...
│   └── 12-December.txt
├── 2021
│   ├── 00-FutureLog.txt
│   ├── 01-January.txt
│   ├── ...
│   └── 12-December.txt
└── Collections
    ├── Books.txt
    ├── Golf.txt
    └── Wine.txt
        

Calendar

I use a proper calendar (Google Calendar) since—for me—BuJo fell short on calendaring and reminders, specifically:

• Harder to access compared to my smartphone.
• Harder to open up the event’s address in the map app (Google Maps). This is specially needed when driving to avoid typing in the address.
• Harder to visualize time slots.
• Lack of notifications minutes prior to the event.
• Harder to share the event with someone.

I try to capture all significant events in my calendar (appointments, social events and outings, haircuts, flights, birthdays, meetings, etc.).