How to Bullet Journal
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- It didn't suit my note-taking instincts: most things that I think are worthy of writing down are either much longer than one sentence (notes from a meeting, say) or much more numerous such that they would drown out the todos and events.
- It was difficult to generate a view of "okay, what needs to be done today?"
- It felt frustratingly analog: things like running monthly migrations and building up a table of contents was one of those moments where I was just like Ugh, can't I have an app do this?
These are largely quibbles with my own personal habits and tendencies, rather than flaws with the system itself. I'm happy with my replacement approach -- Todoist with daily Bullet Journal-esque notes that get migrated at the end of the day -- but it's still lacking with regards to retrospective.
That being said, Bullet Journals were the first step in getting me to seriously consider how I retain information and organize my tasks, so I'm forever grateful of them for that!
1. Anything that's an event gets thrown in Fantastical (or your calendar app of choice.)
2. Anything that's a todo-item gets thrown in Todoist (or your todo-list app of choice). I like Todoist because it's lightweight but I can still categorize stuff based on loose priority.
3. Anything that's a random note also gets thrown where it belongs: if it's a note about a software project, I'll put it in a wiki/GitHub issue/etc for that project; if it's a note about a person I know, I'll throw it in Contacts, etc. etc. (If I'm too lazy to do this -- which is often -- I throw it in a "Notes" Todoist list which I periodically clean up.)
Then, at the start of each day I open my calendar, Todoist, and GitHub, pick up stuff, and write a todo list. Throughout the day, if more stuff comes up I'll write in on the todo list; at the end of the day, if there's still stuff left on the list I'll put it back wherever it belongs.
There's still a definite manual component here -- I'm pretty sure OmniFocus has support for a "today view" that handles all of that for me -- but the tactile nature of writing out specifically what I plan on doing helps me get ready for the day a little, and takes all of like thirty seconds.
(TBH, I think the core trick with all of these systems is being diligent and disciplined about not letting stuff stay in your head because humans [or at least me] are dumb and forget stuff. Once you commit to capturing data quickly and structuring it in some matter, the rest is an implementation detail.)
Maybe I will write something that finally makes the todos more managable in Google calendar. Events are rather nicely handled, but todos are horrible, but I don't want them in one of the millions external todo apps.
I wrote a work-shift UI for Google calendar, that helped my girlfriend to store her shifts with a few simple clicks.
In particular, I have found backlogs to be a common source of neglected shit.
First, it's a piece of paper that's always there. No waiting for apps to load, no Internet lag time; it's always there.
Secondly, I can organize as I choose. I like note taking apps for desktop/mobile, but the hardest thing for me is being able to organize and write notes as I chose, not as the program dictates. If I decide I don' like a certain way of organization, nothing's stopping me from changing it.
Thirdly, I've seen a huge increase in completion of tasks, since they actually get written down somewhere! I used to use reminders on my phone, but unless I set a notification (a reminder for the reminder?), it got neglected and never finished. Also, I could never get myself into the habit of checking my reminders list every day. I'm sure that reminders or other to-do list apps work very well for other people, but for me personally, I never found the to-do list apps to work very well.
As for migration, I think it's actually been really useful for my workflow. I'm the type of person who doesn't like to see outstanding tasks, so my goal for every day is to not migrate tasks. Also, migration keeps all those tasks fresh in your mind, which I've found to be very helpful.
All that said, I'll have to see what I think about it in a few months and whether my perspective on it has changed.
PS: I supported their kickstarter campain
One thing I do love is I keep lists on books I want to read in the future. I also keep lists of things like software, tools, and libs that look possibly important in the future that I may use, but not right now.
Edit: I've used bullet journaling for over 3, or 4 years now.
I tend to write better when it doesn't constantly feel like a chore, but I understand the need for a system to get started. What I come to realize is that I don't need a system, but rather just disciple. Discipline is tough when you are trying to create a system that isn't so burdensome.
Chaos still seems to work the best.
It's the fastest way of daily journaling - you make a 60 second phone call every night to answer the question "What do you want to remember about today?". From there, it gets transcribed, archived, and it's all searchable as well.
Disclaimer: I came up with the service after having a need for it myself
Have you had a chance to have your first call yet?
Currently I'm using Google's Speech API. Based on my tests, they have the best transcription results by far.
I experimented with a few others (IBM, for one) and found that while the coding was easier (because they allow a wider variety of audio file formats), the results weren't as accurate. Google, on the other hand, is fairly picky about what types of files can be processed - this is also probably what makes them more accurate. So in the background, there's a fair bit of audio transcoding that goes on before transcription.
What do you mean by error rate?
By error rate I mean Word Error Rate (WER): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_error_rate
Based on my own personal experience however, I would say I've gotten around 85% accuracy.