Ryder Carroll is a digital product designer and inventor of the Bullet Journal method. He was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, but now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
He's had the privilege of working with companies like Adidas, American Express, Cisco, IBM, Macy's and HP. He's been featured by the New York Times, LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Vogue, New York Magazine, Lifehacker, Mashable and others.
I first heard of this book from an insanely talented Youtuber, called Boho Berry. If you have an interest in bullet journaling then you are probably already familiar with her beautiful daily spreads, extensive collections, and the gorgeous artwork and lettering that she creates with seeming ease. Each of her videos exudes productivity and I watched her videos longing to emulate her success.
I started my own bullet journal and promptly neglected it, finding dissatisfaction in how it didn't measure up to this BuJo' master's. I started again, with a simpler design and found it to work for me, but I still felt like there was something missing from it. I enjoyed setting up my monthly spreads but dreaded returning back to it, on a day-to-day basis, viewing it as another chore that was added into my already packed lifestyle.
When I saw Boho Berry's rave review for this book then I knew that reading this was the step I needed to take in making my bullet journal work better for me. And I was correct, but not quite in the way I first thought.
I assumed this book would teach its reader the 'hows' of bullet journal, instead it focused on the 'whys'. On times it seems to neglect bullet journals all together, as it forced the reader to assess their reason behind all of their daily actions, and to why aspects of their lives weren't currently working for them. It is only later that he introduced just exactly how bullet journals could be an aid in curing that. Areas such as imperfection and control were covered and it really opened my eyes to how I had been bullet journalling wrong, all these many months.
It made me realise that part of the bullet journal appeal for me was purely aesthetic. I loved to view artistic daily spreads, complete with calligraphy headers and washi tape dividers. For me, this didn't work because there was no 'why' behind my wanting it. Aesthetics wasn't enough and the reason I felt such dissatisfaction was that this particular bullet journal set-up had no purpose in my life and so I was ultimately failing to connect with it. It became just another chore I had added, without making my daily processes any easier.
Bullet journalling is an extremely helpful tool but also an extremely personal one, which is why no two will look the same. This life guide/bullet journalling how-to instructed me on organising my day, better managing my time, and transferring my dreams into goals, which is what makes this perfect for amateur and expert Bu-Jo'ers alike.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Ryder Carroll, and the publisher, Portfolio, for this opportunity.
I really liked this, and I am not a Boho Berry or Llamas Love Lettering fan. Ryder states outright not to keep Collections or Trackers unless you are learning and growing from the information. FYI there's a good subreddit - /r/basicbulletjournals - if you are into the practicality of planning & journaling and not the brush pen lettering and folk art floral motifs.
I particularly liked his description of planning project sprints, which was the whole of Sprint usefully condensed down into 3 pages. I'd read it again for that alone.
Ryder also stresses the importance of reflection on a daily and monthly basis: of asking yourself what is really useful, and actually working, and culling the extraneous.
I find myself coming back to this book every time I feel my journal needs an update in order to better fit my current 鈥榣ife鈥� demands and circumstances. These are usually big changes when I ruthlessly decide what works and what doesn鈥檛. I鈥檝e been keeping a Bujo now for nearly 7 years and I still find it ever so useful, from organising my life to taking care of my mental health. Looking through my notebooks, you can see what I鈥檝e liked and therefore used, and what I鈥檝e not. Although I don鈥檛 draw, I still fall for the lure of 鈥榩erfection鈥�, hating when I make a mistake (still learning not to care about this, or rather appreciate it, like Kintsukuroi that sees beauty in breaks and imperfections). It is a bit nerve-wracking to finally take the step to get rid of certain pages or transform them quite drastically, but also positive, like a fresh new start.
鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌�
鈥淚t鈥檚 not about how your journal looks; it鈥檚 about how it makes you feel and how effective it is.
I鈥檝e always kept notebooks, especially for work, which I would use in conjunction with digital tools, logging every day all I did, writing to-do lists, and planning projects. This proved to be a life saver on many occasions - and also surprisingly a source of enjoyment (the one of writing with a fountain pen on quality paper). When the Bujo trend wave hit me, about one year and a half ago, I was curious to see what it entailed and if it would be something for me. If you鈥檝e seen all the examples floating out there, there are beautifully artistic and also very intimidating, and wouldn鈥檛 work for me, particularly in a professional environment. However, I could see how the basics of the system had value, especially the Index - how can something so simple have such a huge effect! - and added them to my arsenal.
Queue Now. Ryder Carroll鈥檚 book surprised me a lot! I was expecting information on how it all started and how the method 鈥榳orks鈥�. And this is all here, in very clear writing. It is after all a simple idea, easy to put into practice, and for ever adaptable! What I wasn鈥檛 expecting was the Why! With the aim of being the most efficient and meaningful one can be, Carroll strips everything away, borrowing concepts from Stoicism, Mindfulness, and Japanese schools of thought, to name a few. It all actually makes a lot of sense, in a very down to earth kind of way. These, of course, you can take or leave. I personally was intrigued, perhaps because I have recently been looking into those philosophies to help me deal with the stresses of every day life.
I was in two minds about this book from the outset, and I wasn't sure what to expect from it. So is it really fair to say that it disappointed me? Probably not, but in any case, I came away 'nonplussed'!
The book is split into five sections: Preparation, System, Practice, Art and End.
It started well with an overview of the method and I learnt a lot. I should say that I've been keeping a BuJo for over two years now. Or at least I thought I had. My method was a long way removed from the official one - probably because I jumped straight in with all those fancy layouts and trackers peppering the internet. (Mr Carroll does not like fancy it seems - as others have pointed out. He doesn't quite go as far as to dismiss them but there are numerous phrases that leave you in no doubt about his opinion - if it works, great, but don't just make it pretty, and what's the use of tracking what TV shows I've watched, etc.)
The 'system' section gave me a number of valuable insights and I have a few sticky-tabs flagging things to go back to and implement or try.
But then it all seemed to fall apart for me as Mr Carroll spend a very long time labouring over self-improvement in the third part: Practice. Now, don't get me wrong, we can all do with bettering ourselves. But this section just goes on and on. For a system where Mr Carroll stresses simplicity and brevity, he seems to fall off the rails here. Others may relish this section - but not me. I am jaded of all the self-improvement systems and encouragement that wight down bookshelves. Sometimes we are the way we are and have to live with it. Also, the focus of 'me' at the cost of others is too much. In a world of self-idolisation, it would be nice to see a system that encourages selflessness. Sure, the BuJo is 'flexible' enough for you to track acts of kindness or word of encouragement given to others, but Mr Carroll seems to advocate self-f0cus, analysis, and praise. Not for me - not at this length anyway. I lost interest in this section and had to slog through to get to the bit I really wanted to read - case studies, examples, creativity, etc. Art.
Unfortunately, the section on Art was far too short. And it was oddly pretty having been prefaced with warnings about function over form, style without substance. I think this is where I finally became disappointed.
I really wanted to like this book. Really I did. But what I learnt I could just have easily acquired from searching the web. I didn't need so much self-improvement. I wanted more case studies from both those who were minimalist and those who were fancy-pants-creatives.
So, in the end, a reluctant 2 stars from me. Sorry, Mr Carroll.
I've been "BuJo-ing" for 8 months, based on a 1 hour workshop I went to where I learned Ryder Carroll's basic system. I can safely advise readers to stick to the YouTube videos as this book is completely unnecessary. Unless you are in crisis and have never heard of mindfulness or UX. . . and could use some inspirational quotes from a few hundred sources. . .
Remember writing essays as a college freshman (or maybe even high school freshman) and writing in an extremely sagacious way- quoting Socrates and making grand statements about life while knowing nothing? Just a peek at Ryder Carroll's index should have you LOLing:
art, Buddhism, Chinese proverbs, Dalai Lama, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, emotions, energy, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Ghandi, Greeks (ancient), impermanence, insight, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Marcus Aurelius, meaning, memento mori, Bruce Lee, memories, minimalists, Mother Teresa, Friedrich Nietzche, Barack Obama, passion, perseverance, pleasure, The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost), The Thinker (Rodin), David Foster Wallace, zen rabbits, Mark Zuckerberg.
Sheesh! I thought I was learning about how to set up charts and calendars. Not what I was in for.
Me sabe mal ponerle tan mala nota pero se帽or bendito qu茅 desprop贸sito. Es decir, no me malinterpret茅is por favor, el m茅todo Bullet journal es estupendo, ha ayudado a mucha gente y sin duda ha sentado unas bases dif铆ciles de imitar. Quiero decir, t煤 pones "bullet journal" en Youtube, Google, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. y 驴cu谩ntos resultados te salen? Pues eso. Est谩 claro que es 煤til y encima ha tenido 茅xito. Hasta ah铆 todo correcto. Un m茅todo eficiente de organizaci贸n y un creador que se lleva su cr茅dito, bien.
Entonces un d铆a, yo qu茅 s茅 para qu茅, escribe este libro. La primera parte es la 煤nica con algo de sustancia, ejemplos (aunque faltan) y la que m谩s se aparta de esta tendencia de recargar el bullet (que ojo, no lo critico para nada. Cada persona que use su tiempo y su energ铆a como le d茅 la gana, todo es v谩lido). Lo cierto es que este m茅todo puede ser muy minimalista (si quieres), aunque Pinterest te diga lo contrario. Sin embargo, me estoy desviando del tema. Volviendo al libro despu茅s de pasar esa primera parte (que ya conocer谩s si sabes de qu茅 va este tema) llega un batiburrillo de experiencias personales, citas de personas c茅lebres, frases hechas y paja. Un mont贸n de paja. Pudiera ser el ganador de la paja este libro.
En fin es tan ir贸nico que una persona que ha creado un sistema tan pr谩ctico haya escrito esto... En resumen: - M茅todo bullet journal: estupendo, chap贸. - Este libro: Por qu茅.
Encontrar茅is m谩s informaci贸n (y menos paja) en su p谩gina oficial, aunque eso s铆, en ingl茅s. Ah铆 es claro, sencillo y conciso. 隆Como su m茅todo! Nada m谩s que a帽adir.
At the beginning of this book there's a scene, allegedly something that actually happened, in which a bullet journal dramatically saves a child's life.
Still, she had the presence of mind to pull out a well-worn, thread-bound book that is quite familiar to me: it was an orchid-colored, soft-covered Leuchtturm 1917. It was a Bullet Journal. Grasping the last few pages, she threaded them away from the threaded spine and held them out to the EMT... she shook her head and sobbed, "I can't... I can't..."
And that's just representative of the kind of mawkishness you can expect, as Ryder Carroll breathes down your neck about intentionality and radiance and being the best person you want to be etc. etc. He's clearly giddy on the success that his journaling method has created and spawned this cynical cash-in guidebook that tells you in 300 pages what the website does in about 10 minutes.
He should quit writing and go work for Gwyneth Paltrow at Goop. His advice is occasionally as meaningless as:
Curiosity points the needle of our inner compass toward the hopeful magnetism of possibility and meaning.
The book also has examples of ways in which one might use the Bullet Journal, and I don't know what kind of buried rage the author is manifesting as he writes:
I've noticed that lately Linda has become a lot harder on herself than usual, even though things are looking up on her end. The promotion, the new partner, etc. She seems more driven than she ever has. Is it because she is trying to earn her luck? Is this some kind of manifestation of impostor syndrome? Whatever it is, I worry that she will burn herself out - "
And this goes on at some length. Jesus, what did Linda ever do to you, Ryder Carroll?
Over the past year I've actually found bullet journaling pretty helpful in organising my life, and while reading this did pick up a few ideas about how to improve. But I did not expect these bullshit, woo-woo theories about the meaning of life, or the author's weird, masturbatory fascination for his own life's work, which as he proudly and exclaims without a trace of self-awareness or irony:
...spans nearly every race, creed, continent, and industry like he just solved the conflict in the Middle East, world hunger, and income inequality all at the same time. For that matter, what have you actually done besides create this system? Is flogging this one product the sum of your life's work? Does Ryder Carroll sit at his desk feverishly ticking off task boxes, sinking deeper into his own existential despair at his lack of intentionality?
I guess we'll never know. I leave you with this quote, with no context whatsoever:
she found herself in the kitchen, tears welling up in her eyes. She looked down at her hands, finally squeezing a lemon
Last year, I moved away from bullet journaling, and started using pre-filled planners because to be honest, I felt that bullet journaling had become an art competition 鈥� too exhausting and time consuming to manage. I am also not an artist and struggled to make my journal 鈥減retty鈥�, then felt crappy when it looked nothing like what I had seen on Pinterest or Instagram. It wasn鈥檛 saving me any time, it was chewing it up with fancy layouts and poor hand writing attempts. All of which, as Carroll states, is fine if it helps motivate you, and helped you progress towards your goal, but it didn鈥檛 help me so I dropped bullet journalling. I tried journals with time blocking (which absolutely doesn鈥檛 work for me or the way my mind works), and other pre-filled planners but they also felt off for me. I wondered about getting back into bullet journaling but with a stripped down approach. That is when I decided to pick up this book. It re-engaged me with the process again because he is about getting back to basics. If you get the impression he doesn鈥檛 like fancy layouts from reading this book, you鈥檙e right, he doesn鈥檛. The point of the system is to make life easier, not discourage people, or make it more time consuming, so of course he isn鈥檛 going to be a wild proponent of journals that are completely over the top. He tells you to make it your own, but hammers the message home: it鈥檚 to help you be productive. If it鈥檚 not doing that, it鈥檚 defeating the entire point of the journal.
I read a lot of the reviews before buying this book and I decided to try it and make up my own mind. A lot of people dislike the middle part of this book because it gets into the 鈥榳hy鈥� and self-help talk. I actually enjoyed that aspect of this book. The 鈥榟ow鈥� was useful, of course, because you need to know what to do, but so was the self-examination for me. Carroll has ADHD 鈥� as do I 鈥� so I felt like this book was written for me by someone who understands how our minds work. I think it was actually the perfect mix of introspection and 鈥渉ow-to鈥� for a book of this kind. It also doesn鈥檛 say you can鈥檛 be creative, it just makes you mindful of doing so at the cost of efficiency. This book has actually brought me back to my Bujo with a new outlook and fresh perspective on how to make it work for me. I think it鈥檚 a great resource for anyone starting out in the system or those who, like me, became disenchanted with it and are looking at getting back into it and making it work this time around.
Here, try this simple system to organize your life. No special planners to buy, just use any notebook. Now, learn this simple journaling system and prioritize your life. Great! Now, remember to index your daily journal and make duplicate entries for things you still need to do, and then learn shorthand symbol codes, and then build a library of notebooks, and then the rest of your life is notebooks. Your days are organized and simplified because all you do is write in notebooks. You are married to a notebook. You鈥檝e traded your kids for notebooks. You speak in dots and checks. You are now a notebook.
Well I got a few good ideas from the book, however, I am already quite an organised person. I liked the idea of using it for special projects though. I went out and got a bullet journal dot book. They are deeply unsettling. Apparently I can't write without lines. So I started ruling some and when I got half way down the page I saw the stupidity of my actions and I slid the book into my blank notebook shelf and switched to one with lines. I think I will probably stick to the normal yearly planner but use some of the BuJo symbols/strategies.
鈥� Good introduction to Bullet Journal method * Analogue approach for digital age - Slower speed of handwriting + migration idea encourages reflection > Adopt in 2019
Ryder Carroll is the man behind the original bullet journal idea and in his book, he describes the tenets of his bullet journal system. At its core, "bu jo" is a very simple method, consisting in making lists of to-do tasks, planning in a format that makes sense to you, and supplementing it all with "collections" -- which, in Carroll's description, are mostly more detailed projects requiring more involvement from you. Add a few buzzwords such as "intentionality" or "mindfulness" and you are good to go.听
There were points in this book where I was nodding along - sure, breaking projects into smaller components makes sense! Sure, it's better to make your tasks tangible (e.g. "don't eat sweets" instead of "lose weight"), this sounds very sensible! But there were moments concerning intentionality and paring down your bullet journal (and, along with it, your life) that just felt like too much.听While reading, I had the distinct feeling that Ryder Carroll really, really, really doeesn't like those prettified bullet journals with stickers and pictures and calligraphy because they take away from the main point of simplicity and mindful reflection, but he can't say that because the people who prettify their bujos are the ones who will buy the official merchandise.
If you want to find out what bullet journaling is about, watching a youtube video seems a much better investment of your time.
very very very slow progression with a lot of useless quotations. It's a magnificent method, and the book has awesome contents, but it lasts much longer than it should.
Beautiful book. One of those you don't dare to mark up, but I am sure I eventually will. Although I don't agree with Carroll on every aspect of "The Practice", I enjoyed reading his thoughts behind the simple act of keeping a notebook to organize yourself. I believe The Bullet Journal is an amazing tool and I'm excited to practice the things I've learned.
I learned so much from my second read of this book. This is why I love rereading my favourite self-development/non-fiction books.
I managed to get a whole new toolkit for my bullet journal and I completely revamped my journaling style. This is definitely one of my staple books that I will reread for many years to come.
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1st read:
I am so glad I decided to read this book (and purchase the hard cover) as it has given me a completely nee perspective on Bullet Journaling.
I鈥檝e been bullet journaling since the beginning of 2017 and I thought I was doing a good job, until I got a bit lost along the way.
I focused way too much on how my journal looked, rather than what it should do for me.
I went from having countless scattered notebooks and journals, to one bullet journal, and all the way back to countless notebooks once more. I forgot why I started bullet journaling in the first place.
This book was a great reminder of why I wanted to use this system and I plan on restarting with a whole new perspective in 2019.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is already bullet journaling or thinking of starting one. You won鈥檛 regret it.
My housemate introduced her bullet journal to me just one month ago. At the time, I was struggling to arrange my time, finish more tasks, be more productive, and above all, accomplish important things that I had been procrastinating.
After a few weeks practicing bullet journal myself, I found it very engaging. One noticeable thing is that I stop making appointment mistakes. Previously I found myself remember meeting schedules wrongly from time to time. Now that no longer happens as I have a whole month schedule with available time slots in my journal. I also love designing and drawing in my bullet journal. That's amazing! I never enjoyed drawing before! Now it is a way for me to relax.
And so I started to pick up the book to see what else I could do with my journal. And this little book surprised me. I thought that Bullet Journal was just a tool, a method to arrange my schedules and manage my time. But the author dived much deeper and introduced the philosophy behind it. It is about the right attention to the things that are important to each of us, about an intentional life, about a life of meaning and about how to respond the uncertainty and chaos of life the way you want. The author's writing is surprisingly eloquent, (perhaps partly credited to his creative writing degree), and insightful and deep and reflective.
Through the book I learned and reminded myself some simple but important things to apply in my daily life. For example I now remember to take time to savor my achievements as achievements alone feel empty. Or I learned how to break my goals into small sprints to work on and make the tasks less intimidating. Or a very useful tip about writing a letter to some rubber ducks, telling them about your problem, what's not working, why it isn't working, what you've tried, what you have not tried, and what you want to have happen. Or other things I've learned from Japanese culture, Ikigai, PDCA process (plan, do, check, action). And I highly resonate with the author's technique of asking Why five times (something I noted to myself before to really look at the root of a problem).
But one thing I haven't managed to do during the course of reading the book, that is resuming the writing of my new book. Something that I've been stuck at. Guess I have to start working on that seriously, to make visible something meaningful.
This book was at times a little cheesy and felt like it was putting too much stock into the meaning and philosophy behind the almighty BuJo, but some of the exercises really did make me think on a deeper level and most importantly, this book got me over the hump of perfectionism that has kept me from successfully utilizing a bullet journal for the first time since I began attempting to keep one in 2016. I finally recognize that I need the functionality of the bullet journal to manage my ADHD, and that worrying too much about what brand of brush marker I鈥檓 using and how perfect my hand-lettering looks holds me back. To start with, I鈥檓 keeping a fairly straightforward and simple journal, and this book gave me the tools to do so!
Basically, this book is about handling your life as a complex IT-project. For people working in the industry, a lot of methods will be familiar like lean and scrum. The book introduces methods such as "the five why's" and "sprints" for the breaking down big and complex goals into small and manageable tasks. However, what made me annoyed is the way Ryder Carroll constantly refers to how his bullet journaling method has changed and even saved(!) people's lives. The book feels feels like a long success story about Ryder himself. The text is also sprinkled with several references to the official website, the official bullet journal companion app and the official hashtags from the bullet journal community. Or "bujo", as Ryder insists it can be called.
It's like Carroll is trying to create a new lifestyle, but what the concept really is about is writing notes in a notebook in a mindful way. Sure, some thoughts are quite interesting and the system for writing down small daily tasks I find quite useful. But reading this book has been a slow and painful thing. What motivated me was to write this review.
Save yourself some time and check some inspiring Youtube videos on how to write better notes instead.
I kinda did this backwards. I started journaling last year and found that whatever I put in my journal was what I focused on. These were the areas where I gained the most insight and was the most productive.
But then I had people asking me was I an artistic journalist or a minimalist. I had no idea what those terms meant but had the sense that I fell somewhere in between. Then I started following bujo pages on Facebook and Instagram. There I saw people arguing over what true bujo is and who was following the form that Ryder Carroll set out. There was a bit of putting people down for designing their journals as if creative expression hampered productivity. I was less inclined at this point to share my journal pages but knew that part of the reason why I returned to my journal was because it not only served to organize my life, but was an outlet for my stress and anxiety.
So now that I have read Carroll's own words I can attest that he finds no fault in being creative with your journal. He recognizes it as a personal space where the journalist can choose to let their creative juices flow.
Now if you find that your journal is becoming a burden because you are comparing yourself to others and trying to compete that's an entirely different issue. Take a step back. Regroup. Assess your why and simplify.
Bujo is not one size fits all. Nor do we have to confine ourselves to one "camp" or the other.
I will continue to bujo because it helps me live a fuller life and be more balanced. Bujo is a continual learning process for me and my journal reflects that.