9 Ways To Increase Productivity With a Bullet Journal

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Harness the power of a Bullet Journal for productivity and watch as the mundane transforms into something fun, creative, and most importantly, effective.

Today, we’re going to explore 9 intriguing ways your Bullet Journal can become your secret weapon in the battle against procrastination and disorganization. Believe me, they’re not rocket science, just simple strategies that with time, promise impressive outcomes.

So, no need for intimidation, my friends! Let’s dive into this exciting journey of turning our to-dos into ta-das, all with the help of our faithful Bullet Journals. Are you ready to make productivity a piece of cake? Let’s roll!

Bullet Journal is like that multi-tool gadget you can’t imagine life without. It’s so versatile and all-encompassing that it’s easy to lose sight of its original purpose – productivity.

You might find yourself doodling away, creating one beautiful spread after another, forgetting that this delightful little book is more than just a canvas for your creativity. Of course, if your aim is to simply express your artistry, that’s perfectly okay. After all, the beauty of Bullet Journaling lies in its flexibility – your BuJo, your rules.

However, for those of you who want to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of your Bullet Journal, I’ve got your back! Yes, my friends, nestled among your sketches and scribbles, your Bullet Journal can be a powerful ally in your quest for efficiency.

So, let’s put on our productivity hats (or glasses, or whatever suits your fancy) and dive into some simple yet effective strategies that can help turn your Bullet Journal into a lean, mean, productivity machine.

These tips are not only easy to implement but also have the potential to transform your daily routine.

Oh, and be sure to check the end of the post for some FREE printables that are sure to boost your productivity, as well as some more resourced to learn about some of these paged even deeper.

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Using Bullet Journal For Productivity

The Bullet Journal – my savior in the realm of productivity. It swooped into my life like a superhero and transformed my chaotic world into one brimming with order and efficiency.

However, I must confess, there are times when I get so engrossed in the creative aspect of it all that I forget the Bullet Journal is not just a canvas for my doodles and designs, but also a mighty weapon for increased productivity.

I’ve definitely been guilty of neglecting the productivity potential of my beloved BuJo. It’s easy to get carried away with the beautiful layouts and forget that beneath those gorgeous spreads lies a powerful tool for time management and organization.

That’s where this list comes in. Consider it a friendly nudge, a gentle reminder from me to you (and to myself) that our creative journals can be more than just eye candy. They can be the wizards of our time, turning hours into productive accomplishments.

If you ever find yourself wandering off the productivity path, these tips are here to guide you back towards efficiency, whether you’re juggling college assignments or wrestling with work-from-home challenges.

They can help elevate your productivity levels to heights you wouldn’t believe, transforming your Bullet Journal into a powerhouse of productivity.

So, let’s roll up our sleeves, grab our Bullet Journals, and embark on this exciting journey towards productivity nirvana. Remember, every page turned, every task listed, every goal set brings us one step closer to our ultimate aim – getting things done! Ready to unleash the full productivity potential of your Bullet Journal? Let’s dive in!

Brain Dump

You might have noticed I’ve been talking a lot about this tool! This is literally the best way to stop your feelings of overwhelm, which is often the biggest reason why you’re not productive.

Or maybe it’s just me? Let me know in the comments.

What I’m saying is, sometimes I just feel like I have so much to do, I start rushing and feeling stressed, and I make mistakes, and it all ends with lots of crying and binging on junk food (On an unrelated note, GUYS you wouldn’t BELIEVE how amazing donuts are here in La Paz!).

ANYWAYS!

Hopefully, you get the picture when I say it’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m not productive.

To fight that, I use a brain dump (and donuts, but that’s the coward’s way!).  Start from an empty page and write down ALL the things you have to do, no matter how small.

Once you’re done, you’ll feel the stress going down. I promise!  Suddenly, most of your tasks won’t be an unbeatable overwhelming dragon anymore, they are just a to-do list!

The next step is to deal with it – Start by asking yourself if you have 15 minutes to spare RIGHT AWAY and get the easy ones out of the way immediately. The rest? Make sure to schedule them and write them down in your BuJo accordingly. 

Done! Now you can breathe easily since you know you already have assigned time to do all these things. Time to get productive!

Cut Down On Habit Trackers

When it comes to habit trackers, the less is actually more! I know how exciting it is at the beginning when you get a million ideas on what to track, and you just can’t wait to try them all and change your life.

Truth is, when you track so many things, your habit tracker can easily become a chore, or maybe something you don’t even look back at.

Been there, done that! This really isn’t a good thing for your productivity, and most likely you’ll just go back to your old ways, even forgetting you ever wanted to track something (khe khe daily yoga I’m talking to you!).

Nowadays, I only track 5 things (more or less). This allows me to actually make a difference because it’s much easier to monitor it.

Another great option is the small weekly trackers. The easier you make it for yourself to use a tracker, the more likely you’re to follow through, so having it in your weekly is super beneficial. Every day when you open your weekly, the tracker is there, reminding you to build a better life.

Some of you might be asking now “But Masha! why don’t you use a weekly tracker then?” First, thanks for noticing! You’re such an observant Masher!

Second, because I’m OBSESSED with seeing the progress over time month by month, so I’m not tracking things on a weekly basis at the moment. That doesn’t mean it won’t work for you though!

Hopefully, soon I’ll be back to those, and I’m fully intent on switching to weekly trackers then!

Make Journaling A Habit

Speaking of a habit tracker – one of the most powerful habits you can develop is to use your Bullet Journal daily. Just like with every habit, when you do it regularly, the effect accumulates.

Using the productivity pages in your Bullet Journal, planning out your time daily will definitely lead to you becoming more organized and getting more things done. 

But I know building new habits can be pretty hard, especially if journaling is not something you did before.

Don’t worry though, I have a blog post with my best tips and you’ll find it below in the “More Resources” section.

Plan The Night Before

One of the best things you can do for your productivity is to have a day planned the night before. 

Don’t worry, I’m not taking away your morning time with coffee and bujo, you can still look through your tasks and refresh your memory with the heavenly smell of your hot beverage.

However, there is nothing more powerful than already waking up with a plan.

You’ll find that already having a plan at the beginning of the day and knowing what to do in the morning, will not only help you to be more productive and finish your tasks faster, it will also help you to wake up faster.

With a daily plan already in mind, you create a very powerful reason to get off your bed instead of hitting the snooze button.

But back to speaking about starting the day ….

Eat The Frog

Wait… what?!

Let me explain…

Eating the frog means completing your most important (or difficult, or boring) task, however scary on unpleasant it is. Getting it out of the way as your first thing in the morning will allow you to feel accomplished and get a boost for the rest of your day.

Imagine the morning just started, and you’re already done with that super annoying yet clearly important thing you had planned for the day. How awesome is this?

So eat your frog task as early as possible, before life gets to you. Things will start happening and piling up, and it’s veeeeeeery easy to get derailed (reminds me of that time I planned to shoot a video and instead had to unfreeze and clean the fridge that, for some reason, started leaking). But as long as you already did what you had to do, it won’t matter.

One last thing: when you plan your day, make sure to highlight what’s that one most important task. You can add a star to it or maybe use a highlighter. Personally, I have a specially assigned priority box in my dailies.

Try Time Blocking and Batching

Time blocking and batching are two techniques that I found extremely useful, especially if used together.

Time blocking means you assign chunks of time in your schedule to certain tasks. This can be difficult because, honestly, people are so bad at estimating the time it takes to complete tasks! 

This helps to keep you concentrated and focused on that one thing vs your braining running from one thing to another.

Then we have Batching, which is the technique of putting together similar tasks. Let’s say, for example, I need to shoot a video, and I take some pictures for my Instagram. I could do the video in the morning and leave the Instagram pictures for later during the day.

However, it’s counterproductive because I will need to arrange my table and lights setup all over again. Batching means that I put these tasks together and complete them one after another. 

There you go – time and energy saved!

By combining these, you can really get the most out of your day. A great tool here would be color-coding. Use the same color for similar tasks, and then just color the time in your schedule you blocked out for all these.

Or, you can do what I did and just assign each day certain tasks. For example, Sunday is my filming day, Monday is for editing, Thursday is for writing, and so on.

Don’t Overload Your To-Do List

I bet I’m not the only one guilty of this – trying to cram as many tasks as possible into a single day. After all, being productive is all about getting things done, right?

So, naturally, we might think, “The more tasks I have, the more productive I am!” And there I go, cheering myself on, “You got this, Masha! Just one more task…and another…and another…!”

Hold on a second, though. It doesn’t quite work that way, does it?

An endless to-do list is like an open invitation for that nasty feeling of overwhelm to come knocking at your door. And let’s be honest, nobody likes that uninvited guest.

Your truly important tasks might get lost in the sea of minor chores, making you feel like a hamster running tirelessly on a wheel, going nowhere fast.

So, what’s the solution, you ask? Simple. Quality over quantity. Instead of trying to conquer a mountain of tasks each day, pick just a handful (three is my magic number) of significant tasks to tackle. And no, I’m not talking about routine chores like doing the dishes or laundry. I’m referring to big, meaningful tasks like setting up your BuJo for the upcoming month (yes, that’s a mammoth task for me!) or shooting a new video for your vlog.

Trim down that task list of yours, clear out the clutter, and focus on what truly matters. You’ll be surprised to see how this small shift can make a huge difference in your productivity levels. It’s like cleaning your glasses – suddenly everything becomes crisp and clear, and you can focus on what’s truly important.

Create Routines

Decision fatigue is a thing, and the more decisions you have to make the less energy you’ll have to be productive.

The solution to this is establishing routines. If you do the same thing every day, you don’t really spend any of your mental energy on it, it becomes automatic.

This is precisely why you’ll see so many Bullet Journal spreads featuring morning routines, evening routines, or even ‘ideal day’ pages. It’s not just because they look pretty (although they certainly do!), but because they serve a very practical purpose. They help you visualize your day, identify potential routines, and plan how to weave them into your daily life to make things a bit easier on yourself.

Imagine waking up and knowing exactly what you’re going to do next, without having to expend any mental energy deciding. Or wrapping up your day with a calming evening routine that requires no decision-making, just pure relaxation.

So let’s embrace the power of routine! Let’s create spreads that map out our ideal days and routines, and watch as they transform our lives, one automatic task at a time. And remember, every routine we establish is another rock we remove from our backpack, making our productivity marathon a bit easier to run.

Try New Things

Your Bullet Journal is a fully customizable, powerful tool. This means that as you grow and your life changes, so can your Bullet Journal.

Some pages that worked for you before and made you more productive worked before but might need some tweaking as your life changes.

At the same time, you might find yourself needing help with some completely new things. This is why it’s so important to keep experimenting and customizing your journal.

Ok, so there you go. These are the little tricks I use in my Bullet Journal to ensure I get the most out of my day. Even though I don’t use all of them all the time myself, I try to incorporate at least some. 

You can do the same! Try out some of these, play around, and see what works best for you.

Free Printables

Want to try some of these techniques right away and put these pages to good use without spending time setting them up? The solution is to use printables.

Already in the Resources Vault, you can find many useful pages for productivity, including the ones we mentioned here, like habit trackers.

If you don’t have access yet, you can always sign up in the form below.

Once you confirm your subscription, you’ll get the password to get 50+ free Bullet Journal printables, stickers, and worksheets to use right away.

If you’ve never used printables before, be sure to check my post How To Use Printables In Your Bullet Journal.

It’s pretty basic, and you can find all the supplies you need in my post Supplies For Using Bullet Journal Printables.

More Resources

Are you looking for some more ideas on how to use your Bullet Journal for productivity? I’ve got you covered.

Check out these posts next:

• The Ultimate Guide To Bullet Journal Habit Trackers
• 17 Techniques To Stick To Bullet Journaling
• 5 Simple Bullet Journal Weekly Spread Tricks To Increase Productivity

>>> What tricks do you use in your Bullet Journal to be more productive? Let us know in the comments below.

Hope this post was interesting; if you find it so, please share! If you enjoy my content and want to show your appreciation, please consider supporting me with a cup of coffee.

And remember: Keep Bullet Journaling, and Don’t Be a Blob!

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