WEBVTT - Make A Bullet Journal 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:04.840 I'm Rebecca Greenfield, and this is how good I would 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:11.680 be at my job if I had my life in order. Becca, 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:16.960 this article you wrote is the best ever. Wow. Thank you. 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:24.560 It was all thanks to my to do list. Hey Becca, 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.200 congrats on your promotion ahead of the writers. It's easy 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:36.840 to be productive when you're this organized. And the Pulitzer 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:41.720 goes to Rebecca Greenfield for her groundbreaking series on a 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:49.320 very important topic. I'd like to thank being organized. It 0:00:49.360 --> 0:01:07.000 has changed everything Twitter. Of course, this is a ridiculous idea, 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.920 but that kind of wish fulfillment drives a ten billion 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.120 dollar self help industry. We're told that one productivity hack 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.679 will not just clean up your inbox but change your life. 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.320 But what tools actually work and what hacks are worth it? 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:37.839 That's what we're here to find out. Welcome to Works 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.240 for Me, the show where we try to fix our 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.440 workplace problems to find out what strategies will work for you. 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.200 I am Franchise Believing and I'm Rebecca Greenfield. We all 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.920 wish we could be the best versions of ourselves, and 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.680 lucky for us, there are countless articles, apps, videos, and 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.480 books that promised to make us better coworkers or spouses 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.520 or human beings. Here's the key to do this. Anyone 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.840 that has a goal and they're moving towards it, they're 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.080 successful in this phase. I wish someone would have grabbed 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.120 me a twenty five and said, I showed you already 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:09.920 how you do it. Number one, you gotta believe in me, 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.000 and number two, you gotta believe in the possibility. And 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.079 so I'm here to say I've actually made a lot 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.840 using these techniques. I know how they really were, but 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:23.080 does any of this stuff actually work? On this show, 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.480 we're going to try out tools and methods that promise results. Yeah, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.680 we're going to be human guinea pigs. This is how 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.520 we're going to do it. Each week, one of us, 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.320 either Becca or Me, will present a real work life 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.360 issue that she's having. Then we'll try out a self 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.600 help method to solve it and report back. This week, 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.919 it's Becca's turn. Becca, what is the problem you were 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:52.280 trying to solve? So? I have trouble keeping track of 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.640 all of the things that I have to do. For 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.160 a long time, I didn't have a calendar album my phone, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:02.160 I didn't have a dedicated notebook for taking notes, and 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.400 I like sporadically made to do lists, and I have 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.959 this idea that if I were better about writing things down, 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.400 then I would be more on top of my stuff 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.280 and my work would be better. Okay, so you want 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.519 to write things down more. There are a million ways 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.880 to do that, right, People have apps, people have books, 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.360 They've written about it. What what is your chosen method 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:31.000 of getting there? Bullet journaling? Bullet journaling sounds violent? What 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.360 is it? It's not violent. A bullet journal is a journal, 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.320 a calendar, and a to do list all in one. 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.720 It kind of reminds me of one of those planners 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.800 that you get at the beginning of the school year 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.560 in high school, but you get to decide what goes 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.960 in it for your own purposes, so it's customized. Weble 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.560 the pages have these dots on them instead of lines, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.200 are a blank page. That's why it's called a bullet journal. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.920 And the doctord makes it easy to create different types 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.920 of calendars or spreads. So it's like a planner that 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.360 you could buy in a store, only you kind of 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.440 have to draw it yourself. Correct. So what made you 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.760 want to be a bullet journal er? I first saw 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:18.159 bullet journals all over Instagram. There are tons of people 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.640 who post pictures of these hand drawn journal pages with 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:26.840 the hashtag bou joe, which is short for bullet journal Joe. 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.480 I get it. And the drawings are super high quality 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.000 or nate. They look incredible and like a lot of 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:39.360 things on Instagram, it feels totally inaccessible for normal people 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.760 like me who have zero artistic ability. But that is 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.080 also the allure. If thousands of people can do this, 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.760 why can't I. It's aspirational, so it's easier to understand 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.520 if I show you. So, I'm going to pull up 0:04:54.520 --> 0:05:01.279 a video from a popular bullet journaler named Amanda rachel Lee. Everyone, 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.400 it's Amanda, Welcome back to my channel. October is coming. 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.080 Every month, Amanda puts up a YouTube video of her 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.359 setting up her bullet journal with that month's calendars to 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.160 do lists, trackers and all the spreads. And so here's 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:18.479 one from October. Now, okay, so for this month's theme, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.600 we are doing something that you guys have been asking 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.560 me to do basically since I started bullet journaling. We 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:28.800 are doing magic and wizardry. I actually also so she 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:34.599 has very skillfully drawing witch and wizardry themed things on 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.400 her journal. There's a scroll there's a cauldron, there's a hat. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.200 It looks like something I could never ever do. This 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:46.280 does not This doesn't seem like something I would spend 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.240 time on, and it looks like it takes a lot 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.760 of skill. And I'm also struggling to see how this 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.479 makes anyone more efficient, since she seems to be spending 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.280 a lot of time making drawings. Yeah, this is just 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:01.239 the aesthetic part of the bullet Journal. On the other page, 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.359 I decided to do a quote, and of course I 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.320 had to do a quote that was said by the 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.560 legend herself, JK Rowling. It says we all have magic 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.960 inside us, which I thought was obviously very fitting for this. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:17.160 The inspirational quotes from Harry Potter are also a part 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.279 of this organizational system. It's not a requirement, but that 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.280 is definitely part of the vibe. It's like you have 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.240 to have beautiful handwriting, be really good at drying, and 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.440 also be into inspirational quotes like you want your life 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.000 to be better. It's part of the culture like geist 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.360 of the bullet Journal. Yeah, it definitely. It seems like 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.719 a lot. Yeah, so the decorating part which we're watching 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.960 is just the beginning of setting up the journal and 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.599 she goes on to hand draw calendars. She makes something 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.320 called a mood tracker to keep track of her mood 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.480 throughout the month, and it's all hand drawn and decorated 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.880 on theme to Harry Potter. And this happens every month, right, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.520 every single month. So it's a lot. I can't imagine 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.719 trying to get organized by committing to this level of 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.240 like artistry and perfection. I could never do that. That's 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.880 my worst nightmare. You see that, and you think I 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.360 want to say anything, Oh my, I'm I'm not good 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.080 at this kind of thing at all. But I think 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.800 that these people are probably so on top of their okay, right, Like, 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.679 don't you just want to be the type of person 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:31.880 that keeps a beautiful hand drawn weekly calendar and does 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.520 it every week and fills it out every week, and 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:47.360 then you've achieved all of your goals? Okay? So what 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.920 we do on this show is experiment on ourselves to 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.560 see if these methods really work. So you want to 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.440 be better at writing things down. You've decided to try 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.160 bullet journaling, So what is your experiment? What are you 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.120 gonna do for my experiment? I have decided to use 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.720 a bullet journal for two full months. I'm going to 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.400 see if using this journal makes me any better at 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.200 writing stories are doing my job. And at the end 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.000 of your experiment, how will you know if bullet journaling 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.360 has in fact made you more organized? I think if 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.080 I can stick to it and use it every day, 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:36.640 then it's proven to be worthwhile. I immediately discovered that 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.720 there is a high barrier to entry for bullet journaling. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.920 The setup is a lot. There are YouTube videos explaining 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.400 how to do it, but the possibilities for what a 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.960 bullet journal can be or look like our endless. A 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.800 given journal can have multiple to do lists, calendars, and trackers, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.080 so it's hard to know where to start or what 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.360 to put in it. Also, there is a lot of 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:05.000 jargon and bullet journal specific rules. This is what's called 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.319 like the future log. Is what we're getting into a 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.200 future log, you just kind of like at a glance, 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:12.160 you know you've got your dates down the left side 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:13.840 of it. You could also add a second column that's 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.000 kind of just like, okay, if you do a less 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.120 than symbol that is for things that you schedule. Um 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.400 an open circle is kind of like the core idea. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.319 But I do a squear to do. When you finish 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.360 the thing, you put an X through the dot. It's 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.080 complicated to explain, it's not that complicated to do. And 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.360 I think that's after I did it and I was 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.240 trying to explain it to other people, they just their 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:35.880 eyes sort of glaze over, and but as soon as 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:37.040 you've got it, you're just like, oh, this is not 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:42.120 complicated at all. That's Rachel will Kerson Miller. She's one 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.160 of the celebrities of the bullet journal world. She wrote 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.800 a book called dot Journaling, a Practical Guide. I asked 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.600 her to help me set mine up, which I know 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:56.520 is kind of cheating, but it was super helpful. All Right, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.880 we've got a term November. Wait, I miss, I think 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:05.040 I forgot about that. Yeah. She decoded the language and 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.240 helped me decide what spreads I might find useful. And 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.640 after an hour and a half with her, I had 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.520 a basic layout. I had a monthly calendar, an activity 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.679 tracker for documenting how often I do certain habits like 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.240 cleaning my apartment and making dinner. And then she showed 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:23.400 me how to make daily to do lists and daily 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.640 journal entries. The journal it's the brand called Loister m 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.800 cost me twenty dollars, and then I spent another fifteen 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.760 dollars on pens. I bought the Pilot Precise V five 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.960 retractable pens in black, and then another pack of Pilot 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.320 pens in an assortment of colors. Okay, so he spent 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.600 a lot of time on the set up. How did 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.480 it go from there? At first, I was very into it. 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.000 About a weekend I got into the studio to talk 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.960 about it. That's how excited I was. I have used 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.319 up eighteen pages in one week, which I don't know 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.040 what the measurement is, but that seems like a lot. 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.200 And I just kind of like look forward to opening 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.240 it in the morning and making my to do list, um, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.040 and then I really look forward to at night we 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.560 needed to write your little night notes or I call 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:17.440 them nine notes. It's like your journal. You look forward 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.480 to writing and you wake up thinking about writing in 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.640 your journal. That's yeah, that sounds into it. Yeah, I was. 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:26.000 I think, you know, when you started a new project, 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.400 you get really into it, like predictably, I do. I 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.319 don't know about you, you know. I was like, I'm 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.520 going to commit, and I did. And one weekend I 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.600 was all about it high end life, but pretty soon 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.000 I developed a love hate relationship with it. A few 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.040 weeks in, I still liked it, but it quickly started 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.719 to feel more like a rewarding chore, like going to 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.720 the gym. I know it'll feel good once I do it, 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:49.960 but most of the time I'd rather just sit on 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.200 the couch. And then it only devolved from there. In 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.760 a matter of weeks, I started having trouble fitting it 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.600 into my life. Here's me, less than a month into it. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.560 I have a confession to make. I haven't done the 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:09.760 journal part of the bullet journal. And let's see. It's 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:14.920 opening it up. Let's see. Okay, I did it one 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:21.160 week ago. I wrote some notes so kind of a failure, 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.720 also called behind on my activity tracker, and was unable 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:29.200 to remember all the things I did. But it's really 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.280 hard because I come home at night and it's so late, 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.760 I just don't do it. But tonight I'm home in 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.640 like a reasonable hour, it's eight, so I'm gonna do 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:47.120 the journal part. So I started developing these two conflicting feelings. 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.239 On the one hand, I get really mad at myself 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.360 for not using it, But then I started getting mad 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.600 at the journal for when I did end up using 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.199 it because I felt like was getting in the way 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.640 of my life. Okay, so there's been a major bullet 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:10.240 journal development. Um, I'm at dinner at an Italian restaurant. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.120 It's my birthday, and I thought of something I had 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:16.880 to write now my bullet journal to put it on 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.439 my to do list, but just talk to the lawyers 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.160 at work about something important, and I put it in 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.520 my bullet journal and then I got olive oil all over. 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:35.040 But like tassels, it's just a mess anyway, just like 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:39.720 a just a bad thing that happened. It's like I 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:44.400 don't use my bullet journal when it's convenient, like I 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.080 should be doing this like every night, and like checking in, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:48.800 but like I'm not going to check in tonight it's 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:57.200 Friday night. So instead I got breaking olive oil all over. Anyway, 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:03.839 Happy birthday to me. Wow, that was a low point. 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.959 That's a little it was a little self pitying. But okay, 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:12.280 you went from being excited to get up in the 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.800 morning so that you could write in your bullet journal 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.800 to like it sounds like being angry at your bullet 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.560 journal for existing and demanding that you write in it. 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.120 At dinner when you're it's your birthday and you'd rather 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:28.720 just be having fun. Yeah, I really went downhill so quickly. Yeah, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.400 at this point, I'm a little demoralized, and I'm wondering 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.680 why am I doing all of this? Doesn't take any time. 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.880 To have a good idea, or to be creative or 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.480 innovative or strategic does don't take time? What those do 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:46.400 requires space. That is David Allen. He's arguably the creator 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.840 of the entire life hack industry. He wrote a book 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.000 called Getting Things Done in two thousand one, and it 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.440 sold over a million copies since. I called him up 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:58.840 at his home in Amsterdam to ask about the benefits 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.960 of writing things down in my bullet journal. If your 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.000 head is still wrapped around food you should have bought 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.120 this morning or the last meeting you were in, and 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.680 you didn't write down all the stuff that you promised 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.560 somebody that you would do, or if you've got stuff 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.840 that you've committed to do, then you haven't tracked that 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:15.960 and you're still trying to use your head as your office. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.400 Your head is an absolutely crappy office, and most people 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:21.360 are trying to use their head as their office. And 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.200 it didn't evolve, or is not designed to remember, remind, prioritize, 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.800 or any of that. So in David Allen's theory, the 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.360 bullet journal would be the thing that is supposed to 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:32.360 hold all of the things that are cluttering up your 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.280 head right now and keeping you from doing your best 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.000 work exactly. And in some ways my bullet journal was 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.400 doing that. Like I was really good at the daily 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.080 to do lists. We were working on this big project 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.160 at the time, the Paycheck and Any series podcast about 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:47.920 the gender pay gap that I hosted, and you also 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.880 worked on Plug Go Listen, and keeping the lists help 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:53.760 me stay on top of what could have been a 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:58.640 very stressful and overwhelming project. In other ways, it wasn't 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.040 working for me because I wasn't using it. And the 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.040 thing that was particularly difficult for me to get into 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.280 was the tracker. Like I said, the bullet journal can 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.040 do a million things, but I'm going to talk about 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.280 the tracker for a little while because I really struggled 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:44.480 with it. More on my struggles after the break. I 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.120 had made a very basic habit tracker where every day 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.440 I was supposed to track if I made dinner, or 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.080 clean my apartment, or did a series of other good 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:56.040 habits and I wasn't using it. I was really beating 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.760 myself up about not using this tracker. But as Rachel, 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:04.000 my personal bullet journal sherpa told me, the whole point 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.520 of the bullet journal is that it's customizable and that 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.639 you can and should create something that works for you. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.199 So it's kind of like you need to customize it 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.320 for yourself and just sort of be realistic about your 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.359 own limitations and figuring out if something's not working for you, 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.080 like really narrowing in on like what the problem is, 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.800 you can fix it without scrapping the whole thing. I 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.000 think to like, the whole point is that like you 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.520 kind of set it up one page at a time, 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.479 and like you can embrace that flexibility where it's like 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.640 if a weekly spread isn't working for you, you just 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.480 start something new the next page and you move on. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.879 So Rachel said, I really had to figure out what 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.240 my specific problem was and then I could change it. 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.200 So I decided that my tracker was the problem because 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.959 I was putting in all this work to collect this 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.240 data of how many times I did X, Y and 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.320 Z things, and then I wasn't really doing anything with it. 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.720 So I decided that I needed a new tracker that 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:05.359 collected more interesting data. Here's me explaining the tracker I 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.639 chose to my boyfriend Danny. So basically, I'm going to 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.760 track how much I drink every day and ounces but 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.200 ounces are cups? How many cups I drink every day? 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.920 And then how much I spend on it? Why did 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:27.600 you choose to track your alcohol intake? Um? I just 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.160 felt like the tracker as it was was not specific enough, 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:36.680 Like I tracked my activities back in April, way back when, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:39.200 and I was just like, well, I don't really care 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.400 how often I drink. I'm moren't care about how much 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.840 I drink and how much I spend on it. Are 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.440 you trying to reduce the amount of alcohol you consume? 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.000 Why are you asking me so skeptically? This just seems 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.920 like a tracker for people who want to reduce or 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.400 want to drink less. No, I just want to know. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:05.639 I feel like you really just did this so you 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.680 could draw that picture of a cocktail. I didn't even 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.639 know I was going to do that until the end. Rude, 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:21.080 Well what would you track? I would track my sleep? Yeah, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.439 I don't care about that. You should track the amount 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:30.760 of times you nag me. Oh man, I got a 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.120 lot of pushback on the drink tracker from Danny. Yeah 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.680 you did. He I mean, I can sort of get 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.399 what he's saying, which is like, why even pay attention 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.600 to a habit if you're not if there's nothing about 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.320 the habit that you want to change. But I could 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:44.520 also see you said you were going to track how 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.879 much money you were spending, right, So like, if you 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:51.680 can see how much money you're spending, you might shock 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.040 yourself into spending less, right, Like the expectation is that 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.120 the number is going to be like, oh, I didn't realize. 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.399 I thought the original tracker was dumb and I was 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:01.680 gonna do a yeah yeah. So I wanted better data, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.800 better data, And despite the guff I got, I ended 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:07.720 up liking that a lot better than my other tracker. 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.400 I did it every day, and I actually was into 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.560 the data I was collecting, which turned out to be 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.040 incredibly revealing. At the end of the month, I tallied 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.080 up how much I drank and how much I had spent, 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.159 and it added up to a d five dollars. Here's 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.919 me talking to our producer tofor about it. Do you 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:28.280 think you're going to do anything with that information? What 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.120 am I going to do with that information? I think 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:32.840 it kind of makes me feel okay about how much 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:37.920 I'm spending on this recreational habit and how much I'm 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:41.480 doing it to say to myself, like I wasn't really 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.040 checking myself. I wasn't like you can only spend ten 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:47.080 dollars a day, or like you can only drink this 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.120 much a week. But left to my own devices that 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.680 I'm like spending a reasonable amount of money on drinking. 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.280 You began this thing as a way to like clear 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.560 space in your mind so that you can focus on 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:06.199 other things. And I'm wondering, you know, does having that tracker, 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.399 having this information help accomplish that goal of freeing your 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:11.359 mind up for other things. Or maybe it's giving you 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:13.159 a piece of mind so you're not spending as much 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:15.399 time thinking about it. Yeah, I think so, because I 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.080 have anxiety around money, Like I have anxiety around spending money, 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:21.920 and when even when I buy a round of drinks 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.800 and I do it willingly and happily because it's nice 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.119 to buy people things, and um, in the back of 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.199 my mind, I'm like, like a fifty dollar bill for 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.840 drinks stresses me out. But now, seeing like how it 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.440 balances out in a month, I think I can feel 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:49.760 a little better. So that I think that is the 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.800 beauty of the bullet Journal. The things cluttering up my 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.000 mind aren't just tasks, but anxieties and guilt about my work, 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:02.240 and the trackers and calendars and journals and to do 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:08.000 lists help me manage those feelings. Oh wow, that's pretty 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:29.280 deep all that. I'm a drink checker. Okay, So it 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:30.960 sounds like you had a lot of ups and downs, 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:32.840 but at the end you kind of came around to 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.119 feeling like maybe this was even more useful than you 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:37.399 thought it was going to be. But at the beginning 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:39.040 you did say that you would think it was a 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.240 success if you wrote in your bullet journal every day 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.960 for two months. So did you do that? Yes, if 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:48.600 that is the measurement of success, then yes I did that. 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.720 I used the to do list every day. But did 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:57.960 I become the aspirational bullet journal user? No, Let me 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:01.240 show you my journal. This is a real reveal. Yeah, 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:06.119 so wow, this is how it started. This was the 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.440 first bread I made with Rachel. That's the calendar, that's 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:15.879 the habit tracker. You know, m hmm, some other things 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:18.920 to do lists that looks okay, Yeah, we're looking at 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:23.439 something that's very well used. It definitely shows that you 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.280 used it a lot. I'm gonna say your handwriting is 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:31.040 not like that great. So yeah, here's a March recap. 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:36.080 I tried to channel my inner creative person. This is 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:40.320 the artistic part. You've drawn three stars, like not even 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:44.000 fancy stars, they're just they're just a little five pointed 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:46.760 stars that you colored in, and you've kind of squiggly 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:49.479 underlined some of the cursive writing that you did. But like, 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.920 this doesn't look like the professional calligraphy that you see 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:56.119 in the Instagram pictures. Let me show you that the 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:01.320 infamous drink tracker. Yeah, that looks cool kind of this 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:03.680 looks neat and tidy. Look like, this looks like a 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:05.520 journal that you used a lot, that you've got a 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.040 lot of use out of. It's I mean, I don't 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:11.919 want to insult you, but it's not that pretty. To 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:17.040 be fair, I was really bad at making it montage. 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:22.000 The thing is, it really doesn't matter if it's not perfect, 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:23.439 because you're the one who wants to look at it 0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:27.040 every day. I'm just like, so nervous to mess up 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:31.080 that it comes out looking kind of dumb. Oh my god, 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:36.600 this is ugly. I'm really messing up basically, like I'm 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.919 getting black pen in places it shouldn't be. The hell 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:41.760 did that happen? This pen? I don't love this pen. 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:59.639