Adventures with the Bullet Journal -- Weeks 7 and 8 and Wrap Up

The Bullet Journal is just like any other tool – it only works when you use it.  Two weeks ago, my husband asked a friend of ours to help him move some furniture.  That was wonderful – except that they didn’t give me any notice, so I couldn’t arrange the things that were being moved from the shelves. So everything got piled into another room, helter skelter, and I have no idea where anything is. My Bullet Journal was misplaced for a day.  Then I went on vacation and chose not to bring it.  (It was a camping trip and I wasn’t planning on using the Bullet Journal.)

When I came home, I spent three days recovering from the trip (pain flare and fatigue) and didn’t use the Bullet Journal. While I could carry it on for another few weeks, I believe it needs to be wrapped up so I can move on to another system.

I enjoyed using the Bullet Journal. If I return to using it, I may well change to a smaller notebook.  While I love the 8 ½ by 11 notebook, it is harder to manage.  One of the joys of the Bullet Journal is the ability to make changes to the layouts to suit the way I work.  My changes were the addition of a traditional monthly grid calendar and a Weekly Layout instead of a Daily Layout.  Those two changes served me well.

Since I promised to try several systems when I began this blog, I will keep my promise.  I will be using an electronic system next – Google Calendar and the Task function within it.

You can find me on Facebook on my personal page: 

https://www.facebook.com/cedarwolfsinger?fref=ts

And my company page:

https://www.facebook.com/CedarsProofreadingAndEditing/

 I am also on Twitter:

@michelle owings-chri

LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-owings-christian-bbb7278

branded.me:

https://branded.me/michelleowings-christian

My Adventures with the Bullet Journal -- Week Six

I totally missed discussing the sixth week of this adventure for two weeks.  I’m sorry – I came down with a bad case of life.  It seems to getting better slowly. I will discuss that week here. Since it is the beginning of a new month, I will also discuss my Accomplishments in May and my Goals for June.

First – Week 6 of the Bullet Journal

What worked?

• I use the traditional Monthly calendar on a daily basis.  It works well for me.  I can see any given task or event in the context of the entire month and with ALL the things I have scheduled.  It also helps with such tasks as when to send birthday cards out: the day is here – send them out three days before, OK mark that on the calendar.

• I still like the Weekly Calendar I have added and changed it to meet my needs.  It is the view I have open most of the day.

What didn’t work?

My problems were with life and then a long weekend.  Since I travelled to a campground, I was literally “off the grid”. Then I took two full days to recover from the weekend.  I must remember to build that time into my schedule. The problems were not related to the Bullet Journal as a tool or system.

What was annoying?

Nothing was annoying.

May

In looking through my pages and my time budgets/logs for May, I realized that I spend huge blocks of time doing things for other people.  Helping others is a huge part of who I am and I don’t plan to stop.  So I need to plan better around those events and migrate some tasks to another day, if it is a “spur of the moment” request, or not scheduling anything around it if it is something scheduled in advance.

The tasks I could do by myself got done within two days of when they first appeared, while tasks I needed help to accomplish took longer if they got done at all.  There were a couple of tasks that I could do alone which I did have to migrate to June, however, most of the tasks I had to migrate to June were those I need help to accomplish.

Accomplishments

• Made my own word count spread sheet
• Continued Calendar/Organization blog
• Started the Wordcrafter blog
• Completed Writer resume and sent out five resumes
• Exceeded my word count, though much of it was editing time, which includes the time to prepare and write the blog posts.  I would like to have more new words.  I will work on that.

Goals for June

• Word count goal: 30K overall and 10K on novel WIP
• Revise resume and apply to lead given me by a friend
• Find a neurologist
• Continue the blogs
• Figure out what system I will explore after the 8^th week of the Bullet Journal.

I am counting the coming week as week 7. 

Have a great week and I will do the same.  

If you have any ideas, requests, suggestions, about what system I should explore after I am done with the Bullet Journal, please advise.  It must be free or have a basic free version available online, since I am dead broke.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Bright Blessings!

Apologies -- I need to take this week and next off from the report on the Bullet Journal

This week began with my birthday.  It was a lovely day and I was going to take my sister to the dentist and do the work for this blog post.  It would be later than I like to post, but not horrible.  Well, I did take my sister to the dentist.  When I came home -- my life had exploded.  I tried to focus on this all day today (Tuesday) and just couldn't do it.  I am going out of town for the long weekend, and won't have access.  So I will ask you to excuse me for letting you down and hope that next week Tuesday, my post will be so scintillating that it will have been worth the wait.

My Adventures with the Bullet Journal -- Week Five

Greetings! 

Welcome to Week 5!  Can you believe it?  Here’s my report.

What worked?

I am still delighted with my weekly spread and the traditional monthly calendar I have added.  I accomplished most of my tasks – and the tasks not completed were the ones that were dependent on another person’s help.

The time budget is working very well.  I’ve realized that it takes me longer than I think to do certain things.  For example,  taking someone grocery shopping (they have no car) takes two hours – sometimes longer. That’s a serious chunk of time out of your day!

I am also listening to my body – when it says “rest”, I rest. (I have chronic fatigue, chronic pain, and neurological issues stemming from a bad reaction to a heavy-duty drug I was given for a condition I don’t even have.  That’s a story for another day.) 

It is taking me time to adjust to the fact that I need to find new ways of structuring my days because I can’t do what I used to do.  That is very frustrating.  However, railing against something does no good.  So – I am getting a handle on how much I can do with the medical challenges I have now.  You have to learn how to accept what is and find a way to work with it.  (That wisdom did not spring full blown from my head – it has taken many years to understand this.)

My “AHA” moment this week was the realization that when I schedule my week, I *MUST* allocate time for rest, for unexpected phone calls, and for helping my husband when he asks me for help.  For example, I am ordained clergy.  Part of my ministry is counseling people.  This week, I had an unexpected series of ministerial calls that took up two hours. Those are not calls I can ignore or refuse or the Divine would be *very cross* with me.

What was annoying?

I found nothing annoying this week.  Honestly, I am quite taken with the Bullet Journal, I may not want to look at other systems.  I will because I promised and because I may find something better and I won’t know until I try.  I’m not sure how many I will examine if none of them work better than the Bullet Journal.

What changes will you make this week?

None.  I am loving this and I feel like it is working.  I am less stressed that I am going to miss something.  I am accomplishing things, and when I don’t, I know what took its place. I like this system.  I expect to tweak it a bit – but not this week.

Anticipating an amazing Week 5!! I hope your week is outstanding and all goes well for you.

Bright Blessings!

You can find me on Facebook on my personal page: 
https://www.facebook.com/cedarwolfsinger?fref=ts

And my company page:
https://www.facebook.com/CedarsProofreadingAndEditing/

I am also on Twitter:

@michelle owings-chri

LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-owings-christian-bbb7278

branded.me:
https://branded.me/michelleowings-christian

My Adventures with the Bullet Journal -- Week Four

This was the first week that using the Bullet Journal felt totally natural and comfortable.  I am enjoying the changes I’ve made to the system.  The traditional Monthly Calendar is a big help. While I don’t look at it daily, it’s great to have when I need it, which is usually every second or third day. 

The weekly spread continues to work well for me.  Moving to a spread that uses two days per page gives me space for my appointments and tasks as well as notes.  I often need to make a quick note about something I’ve done or a follow-up I need to remember.  I also like having the space to mention unexpected happy things that come up during the day.

I implemented using a Time Budget this week.  I was shocked at the amount of time needed to complete a task compared to the number of tasks I expected to accomplish in a day.  No wonder I had tasks that I could not complete!  I also realized that taking another person to an appointment takes twice as long as I expected.  That information is very valuable, and will help me schedule my days in a more realistic fashion going forward. 

I started several new projects this week and they ate up more hours than I liked.  However, setting up projects frequently takes more time than maintaining them.  I am hoping that will prove to be the case.  I still managed to complete many of my tasks and some days I managed to complete most of them. 

Since I am pleased with how things are progressing, I will continue tracking my time and using the Bullet Journal as I have this week.  I am amazed that it has been four weeks already. Onward to Week five!!

Bright Blessings!

You can find me on Facebook on my personal page: 
https://www.facebook.com/cedarwolfsinger?fref=ts

And my company page:
https://www.facebook.com/CedarsProofreadingAndEditing/

I am also on Twitter:

@michelle owings-chri

LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-owings-christian-bbb7278

branded.me:
https://branded.me/michelleowings-christian

My Adventures with the Bullet Journal -- Week Three

Welcome to Week Three of the Bullet Journal – and the first week of May! I hope it is more like May where you are than where I live.  It was colder yesterday than it was on Christmas Day.  Brrr.

The monthly page suggested by the Bullet Journal was just NOT working for me.  I realized that last week.  I decided to wait until this week to change it, since it was the first week of a new month.  I haven’t put up a “year at a glance” calendar yet, I’m not sure that I will need one.  I made a two page monthly calendar grid to try for May.  I think I will like it.  I’ll let you know next week.

I had intended to keep a list of what tasks I did and how much time each one required, to get a handle on how to schedule my time more realistically.  Between all my medical conditions being in flare; meeting my 80K word count goal for Camp NaNoWriMo; and preparing for a choir concert on Saturday night that did not happen.  It is still a good idea and I will do it this week. 

Though it was a very busy week and I overscheduled myself a bit, I still felt good about what I accomplished.  I added a list of “Accomplishments” for April at the end of the weekly spread. When assessing the month which is ending, remember to focus on what you accomplished first.  Then examine what you did not do, and brainstorm WHY.  One of the best lessons I am learning from this neurological shift is that there is almost always a WHY. Once you know why (or some part of why), you can do two things. First, be gentle with yourself and claim your progress. Second, think of ways to set out what you can reasonably accomplish. Making a list that is impossible to finish leads to feelings of incompetence, which is certainly not the goal.

  This was the first time I migrated information from an entire month.  It took about ten minutes longer than a regular weekly migration, which seemed reasonable to me.

I am pleased with the Bullet Journal and the changes I have made to the system.  My additions for Week Four will be the Month Grid calendar instead of the list and using the Time Log to note my tasks and the time required to complete them.  I want to get a sense of what I can realistically accomplish in a day, since I really dislike task boxes that are not filled in as completed. If I only book what there are enough minutes in the day to do, I will feel much better about myself.

I’m looking forward to Week 4.  Have a wonderful week!

Bright Blessings!!!

You can find me on Facebook on my personal page: 
https://www.facebook.com/cedarwolfsinger?fref=ts

And my company page:
https://www.facebook.com/CedarsProofreadingAndEditing/

I am also on Twitter:
@michelle owings-chri

My Adventures with the Bullet Journal -- Week Two

Greetings!

Welcome to my reflection on the second week of using the Bullet Journal.

In general, I am enjoying the ability to pick and choose what I need for making the Bullet Journal concept work for me. The versatility is wonderful and liberating. One of the challenges with the neurological shift is that I tend to forget that I am in charge and I can use whatever I want in my Bullet Journal. I thank my friends, particularly Patrick DeWind, for reminding me of my power to make this tool what I need to be productive.

As I mentioned last week, I decided I needed a weekly spread. I made one on facing pages, four blocks per page, giving me the whole week in one place.  I thought I would use it frequently.  I used it to the exclusion of the Daily Pages! Therefore, the Daily Pages are going away – at least for now. I found that the blocks were too small on the Weekly Spread – this week I have two days on a page instead of four.  I can’t see the entire week in one glance.  I believe having to turn only one page to see the entire week is a reasonable trade-off for having enough room to write what I need to each day.

I felt more on-track this week, though I am still putting more tasks on a day than I can accomplish. I believe I was mindful of that when I migrated my tasks. To combat that tendency, I am going to use a Time Budget this week and fill in the things I do and the time required to complete them.  While I don’t think I will have a definitive plan after one week of doing that, I may have an idea of what I can actually fit into a day.  Once I have that sense, I may actually be able to only schedule the tasks that there are enough minutes to complete in a day! I poked at some time budget pages and links. I picked the first one below to use this week.  However, I have a feeling that I will be making my own at some point. When I do, I will share it. (Time budget links below.)

I found the Monthly Calendar to be very annoying this week. Since it is the last week of the current month, I will not implement anything new until next week.  I believe I need to have a Full Year calendar page and a Monthly Calendar set up as a grid.  I will poke at that this week and pick a layout to use next week.

Here’s to my adventures in Week Three! Have a great week! Whatever you planned to accomplish this month, I hope you close out strong!

Bright Blessings!

Links for Time Budget/Schedule

http://studywell.library.qut.edu.au/pdf_files/STUDYMANAGEMENT_WeeklyTimeBudget.pdf

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/weekly-schedule.html

You can find me on Facebook on my personal page: 
https://www.facebook.com/cedarwolfsinger?fref=ts

And my company page:
https://www.facebook.com/CedarsProofreadingAndEditing/

I am also on Twitter:
@michelle owings-chri