[Free Full Feature Article] What I have learned so far from Ryder Carroll's Bullet Journal (and how I start my very own hand write journal)

Hi EvolGarlic, here from EvolGarlic's Article Pelican Substack; this is the EvolGarlic Barely Read, an article series all about books and the way that they improve you and me.

The reason why I am opening this series of articles belongs to this name. because it is 2024 and I need to improve myself, so I decided to do something that I hadn't done for over 6 years ago: reading books!

Although my brain might be able to produce something good and unique to type in for you to read, I needed more power, creative power, to be exact.

While last year I was lost in the self-discovery area in life, in 2024 I decided to get serious about it, by starting to do what I think would be self-care for me, but I didn't think about reading the book until April, when the weather is scorching, and I have to be there in my brother university to move him out of here, because he is graduating from the University after four or five years in there.

So after a long hour of moving things out of the dorm, putting them in the pick-up truck, driving for 6 hours and then loading the things off the truck again, all of this while exhausted from both the lack of sleep and the weather which was too hot to handle, I was discover what I need: a bunch of books that seem like a good choice to read it, but my mind was hesitant to do it, so I have to cowardly agree with my mind on this time.

But one day in July, suddenly my mind was stuck with a flash of curiosity that sounded like a whip that struck the floor loudly, a curiosity of reading a book that was sitting there on the sofa, my mind immediately told me to pick one up and preview it, so I did, and one book stand out in the pile of books and paper that was pile on the sofa, the cover was a sleek black which so cool and feel mysterious, the name on it was "The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll" which I was expecting to be a stern language book at first, that's what my mind think at first, but I say to myself "go for it!" which might be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

The first time I was in the position of reading this book was a nervous one, I do know that if I need to indulge in the world of books I need to put away my smartphone to turn off the distractions, but I do make mistakes at first because although I know the fact about the reading and do use the timekeeping app (study focus timer app) I accidentally turn on my phone screen to see the time remaining, which quite distract me from reading because my eye will look on the screen to see how much time remains, but after that, I do turn off my screen and read it far away from myself.

That's one of the problems I have while doing this quest for self-improvement, the other problem is that my brain won't cooperate with me on the task of trying to understand what the book says, probably because I didn't do this type of activity since 2018 when I was in the last few years of high school life, at that time I read it because I want to escape the Turmoil of getting bullying mentally by bullies, so I use the one hour time in the midday in the library read book that I interested, include the book of a Japan's travel place, old manga, even a book on how to turn a eel into cash by grilling them and turn it into food, and in 2019, I stopped reading and prepare to graduate, so I have to read a lot of time and day to finally awaken my brain.

After a lot of days of reading this book, 30 minutes a day, and highlighting a few of the sections that I found to be a hit in my heart, I was able to capture what I have learned so far in this book.

But before I go to each section, I need to say this rule of reading books that I discovered: When you read the book in the category of self-improvement, you need to adapt what you read into your life, not do what is said in the book.

[write your journal by your hand]

My brother also does the bullet Journal, although he says that he learned how to do it in the YouTube video and not this book, and he recommended I do it in the Notion app, because if I do it in the paper diaries, I have to spare the time to write in it, but since I am freelance who have a flexible work time (when I say flexible I mean that I type article in the night time, someday I do someday I don't) I decide to go with the old fashioned notebook Journal.

The reason I went in this way is that the book says that great ideas still happen on paper, and when you sit down and write what happened today, it will help you rethink and think of the notebook that you write as a friend who will always listen to you no matter what story you are telling.

I do love the time when I sit down with my hand writer journal and write down what happened during the day and rethink what to do, it is better than doing nothing but watching something or playing something in the evening time, having this activity in the time of the day does make my feel little bit better.

[Write your journal in a fast but understandable language]

After acknowledging that handwriting my journal has benefits, I wonder how it logs what happens in the day. do I have to sit down and write the long line of the time I woke up that morning with a weird dream? the answer is no! The book has given me a secret technique on how to record it without wasting space on paper: by writing it fast but in an understandable way, leaving nothing but content and info which can be used for a long time.

It's kinda like shortening the name, which is long into the short one, but you still know what it is.

[Bullet Journal is customisable for your usage]

At first, I thought I had to do what the book said on my very own notebook Journal, I also thought I had to buy a premium one with a fancy leather cover and a lot of pages, but in the book, there is a section that someone says that he is starting with a pen and 25 cent book, so  I took that message to the heart and start the journal with a book I buy from 7-11 in the price of 25 baht, which is a student notebook type book.

The bullet Journal system is built to cope with your life, each collection like daily log, monthly log, future log and yearly log are available for you to utilize as you wish, for me, I use only the daily log only, because I don't know what the future might have, so I use only the daily log.

Think of these collections as a Lego; you can pick anything to suit your life and work, so I recommend that if you start your very own journal and have this book to read, take time to read each section and decide for yourself what to use in the journal.

[When we think, we use the unknown resource]

Just like you and me, we are all thinking about a lot of things in our mind, but what we don't know about it is the cost: our focus and time, the section of the book that is delicate to this thing was hit my mind hard because before I do the hand write a journal, my mind was clutter with a bunch of the lingering past that do the job of reminding me that moment, the unforeseen future that seems to be uncontrollable and the other nonsense that my mind creates to distract me, but after reading this section and think about it for a while, those things were eventually lower down their intensity and allow my mind to focus on work and life.

[Break the goal into sprints, and analyse if the goal is worth the power to go for it]

The last thing I have learned so far from this book was one of the best pieces of advice I have had so far: Break the goal into little sprints, analyse the goal and see if it is worth the time and focus.

I do have a lot of projects to experience in the content-creating field, including podcasts, unboxing videos, review videos and a bunch more, this idea was the right one to do, of course, the podcast and the video might be hard, but if you break it into small size, you can feel the momentum if you really into it(but don't expect podcast and video from me soon, my tool aren't ready yet)

That's all I have learned so far in "The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll" Those highlighted lessons I manage to read and pull out from the book are just the appetizer, there's a lot more to be learned in that book, so in the meantime, if I had time to read till I know everything in that book from the first page till the last one, I will be back to tell you about it in the review version of the article on this book.

Until then, from EvolGarlic, goodbye to the article series called "EvolGarlic Barely Read' for now, until the time when EvolGarlic will adventure in the book!