So many people get excited about the idea of bullet journaling, dive in, but then make one of these 3 beginner mistakes that undermine the entire practice. The saddest part is that Bullet Journaling COULD’VE BEEN great for them if they just avoided those pitfalls.
Here are those pitfalls and practical techniques on how to avoid them, so when you give Bullet Journaling a try, you’ll actually love the process.
1. Combining too many benefits at once -- This results in an unsustainable amount of overhead (supplies, time, complexity) at the beginning. Avoid this by getting clear on your biggest pain-point and picking the best bullet journal tool. Then just stick with that for a month or two until you know what you're getting into. Add more tools after that (but only one at a time!)
2. Perfectionism -- This makes setting up the spreads and writing stressful. Actively seek imperfection by setting up spreads quickly, adding a blemish or misspelled word. Also write simple emotions in your rapid log, which encourages you to just accept what is in the moment, rather than questioning whether it's right or not.
3. Spread lock-in -- Pre-configuring too many spreads makes it hard to change. As your life and your initial spreads diverge, you'll feel more unmotivated to keep going. Instead, rapidly iterate your spreads by running 1-week experiments, reflecting, and tweaking for the next week.
Check out my calendar, which is heavily inspired by the bullet journal principles: https://compasscalendar.com
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Doing Too Much
01:26 - Perfectionism
04:31 - Lock-In
07:18 - Timeline
08:20 - Compass Calendar