Swapped my weekly spreads for a daily log and found my flow again

After 3 years of bullet journaling, I was feeling stuck with my big weekly layouts. They looked pretty with all the colors and boxes, but I was spending 45 minutes every Sunday setting them up. Last month I switched to just a simple daily log with rapid logging, no decorations at all. The unexpected result was that I actually started using my journal every day instead of skipping it on busy weeks. I recorded 22 entries in January compared to only 8 in December with my old system. Has anyone else tried ditching the decorative spreads for a plain text approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayden70912d ago

This is a classic case of "pretty kills productivity". I see the same thing with friends who get those fancy planners and then never write in them because they're too scared to mess up the perfect pages. Your 22 vs 8 entries stat is brutal but REAL. When you strip away all the visual pressure, the journal actually becomes a tool instead of a decoration project.

dianas5012d ago

Totally agree, pretty stuff just gets in the way of actually using it.

victorb7412d ago

Honestly I used to be all about having the flashy stuff but that "pretty kills productivity" line really hit me. Never thought about it that way before but yeah a tool should be used not just looked at.