A Simple, Minimalist Bullet Journal Setup for 2024
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this video I show you how to set up a new bullet journal in 15 minutes. It's a simple, effective, minimalist system for consistent success that leads to productive days and weeks. No washi tape, fancy pens, or stencils needed (not that there's anything wrong with that).
The biggest challenge for new bullet journalers is the sheer amount of setup it appears to take just to get started. I'm here to tell you there's an easier way to start and be successful without all the art and doodling.
00:00 - New Year, New Bujo!
00:49 - 3 Rules to Bullet Journal
01:01 - Start with a Daily Log
02:13 - Weekly Layout & Tasks
03:32 - Bullet Journal Details
04:36 - Bullet Journal Key
05:36 - Simple Monthly Layout
06:19 - Weekly Goal Planning
09:28 - Why Productivity is Hard
11:20 - Excerpt from Bullet Journal Method Book
NOTE: this video is an overview of the bullet journal method and setup. If you want to go deeper on any of the methods or strategies mentioned, check out the videos and playlists below!
Bullet Journal Basics Playlist: • Bullet Journal Basics
QMWD and Goal Setting: • 3 Systems to Achieve A...
Productivity Systems: • 4 Simple Productivity ...
@bulletjournal Edition 2 Review: • Bullet Journal Edition...
Save 50% on the "Most Productive Week Ever" and other courses with the code TH-cam50 - mattragland.podia.com/?coupon...
Every week I publish a new video about these topics, so if you want to get more of the right work done in a fun, easy-to-follow format - please subscribe on TH-cam and to my email list. Thanks!
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Disclosure: This is a professional TH-cam channel which gets compensated for the products reviewed by the companies who produce them. All of the products are tested thoroughly and high grades are received only by the best ones. I am an independent creator and the reviews are done based on my own opinions.
Thank you Matt! As much as I appreciate Ryder, something about the way you explain things makes the Bujo even more concrete and actionable. 🙏💜
Thanks Connie, nice to hear that from you :)
I agree with this 110%! I haven’t mastered BuJo yet, but as a newly diagnosed adult with AuDHD, following Matt’s approach has been my most successful attempt. Now, after a 6-month hiatus, I’m back in complete overwhelm 😩 - I’ve been doing this on and off for years! But I feel confident that by rewatching some of your content, Matt, I’ll be back on track. Just need to work out how to form a habit!
Thank you, Matt., Just came across you as a start my new adventure with Bullet Journal. There is a story behind how I ended up here but just getting started I was becoming a bit overloaded BUT when I entered this journey but this morning on day 4 I knew I wanted to stay as my mind was already starting to become uncluttered as was my desk from all the journals, post it notes and yes, my paper planner which I have had for years but the past 2+ yrs have spent a fortune on trying to make them work ... Keep it Simple... thank you for those words..
I’ll tell you a dumb thing I did (thought). I dislike the use of the “x” for completed task. I had hard core issues with some symbols in the original key. I have finally realized it’s okay to use symbols that work for me. I use simple dash for task and a check mark for completed. Because I disliked the original key I stopped doing journal which is really dumb.
I can relate to this! I also use a check mark instead the X because it made me feel uneasy since I associate the X with "wrong" 😅
We always fall into a trap - Do what people say is good and do it 100% the way as told. The symbol thing that you mentioned is one example. Another example is that we were told to write on lined paper, and we wrote horizontally, neatly in between lines. But one day, if we tried to write diagonally on the same lined paper, we may find unexplainable pleasure/freedom or increase in productivity!! While things that people highly recommend are good, we could modify them a bit to suit our own style.😅
@@MilaT1508 thank you! My head read it as wrong as well or cancelled, deleted etc. I appreciate your response as it is confirmation it’s not just me!😊
I also use my own key, where some of the symbols I have used before I started bullet journaling. I thought it was pointless to change the symbols and the most important part when starting was building that routine.
I like to strike through the tasks, so the deleted tasks are crossed 🥸
Really great video man. Really appreciated that you advised people to just start off with a daily journal before setting everything else up to make sure that you get into the habit of it more than anything else. I have started with a small A6 notebook doing this and found it really helped me build the habit of doing the task list everyday.
Thanks for the timely reminder Matt. My YT feed is already overwhelmed with tonnes of fancy, overly complex planning strategies for 2024. I know all I need is the baseline Bullet Journal system to keep my life on track but it's easy to get sucked into the shiny planner candy!
First of all, I've missed the simple, accessible bullet journaling that you offered and am stoked that you are back and looking forward to future videos. A question I have is that I've been asked by work to focus on Deliverables and Milestones instead of constant "to do's." Needless to say this has been a shift of thinking to look at the bigger picture and the scope of what needs to be done. I would love to see/hear your thoughts here and what that may look like from your perspective.
I've adopted a separate journal for my monthly & weekly log as they kept getting lost in my daily logs and I never looked at them after I created them. My weekly journal now consists of columns for household/business/personal/deliverables. I need to see them seperate otherwise they seem to get jumbled up in my mind. This is something I just started and am looking forward to see how it goes.
The monthly is laid out like you have done.
Also in my daily log I do an overview of deliverables & milestones I need to create and then I do rapid logging to help me keep track of time and what I was doing because most days, I would get to the end of the day, was so busy, and couldn't tell you what I did at all that day. So this is a nice way, for me, to stay present and reflect back on what was delivered.
Thanks again for being here Matt!
It's great to have you back Matt I wish you and your family a happy and peaceful New Year
Same to you!
I always look forward to your yearly setup vid, Matt. Been following you for a long time and you never disappoint. Great to have you back, man.
I appreciate that! Happy new year, Nick!
I love your positive intention behind this video, Matt and i love that you questioned the why. You always move forward with ambition, never with fear. I'm hopeful for this brand new Chapter. . Happy New Year!
Thank you Danielle!
I'm so glad you are back to making videos. My word for 2024 is "FOCUS" so I chuckled when you wrote Focus in your BuJo. There are some good tips in this video that I must remember to try in 2024. I want to keep it simple, but my idea of keeping it simple is to break my mind down into components. So I have 5 books this year. The daily brain dump book, though is the book where I'm going to apply some of your tips! Thanks and HAPPY 2024!
Thanks for this video, it was just what I needed right now: keep it simple. I've seen so many 2024 bujos with lots of layouts that I was getting overwhelmed. Your message of keeping it simple and the "why" is right on point. Happy New Year!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Matt. I'm 55 and today, Jan 4th here in NZ have received and setup my first ever BuJo based on your advice in the this video. Already the master taks and monthly spread have it simpler to look ahead and plan. Thanks again and I look forward to watching more of your videos 👍🏼
Happy bullet journaling! Glad you found the video helpful. Just keep it simple to start!
The timing couldn't be better, you popped up and I needed to hear! The simplicity and intentionality of the non-embellished bujo is what I need to try (again)
Happy it came at a good time, Sarah!
Just bought a journal notebook and felt overwhelmed with many decoration and fancy design of other bujo, and this video minimal bujo really solved it. Thanks a lot!
Glad it was helpful!
Glad to have you back at it. But also thank you for showing us that sometimes putting a video out there is not the most important thing in our lives.
I appreciate that!
Great video and set up! This is going to help me out so much. I avoided looking into bullet journaling for so long because it looked like a lot of "work". Luckily I found a video of Ryder talking about rapid logging and it was a game changer! I can't wait to see your goal video. Cheers and happy new year Matt!
Thanks so much Matt and so glad you’re back! I started with the bullet journal after watching your videos about 4-5 years ago and have made such a difference to my life. Still find these so helpful to keep me motivated and carry on with bullet journaling! I’m not as good at reviewing and collecting past thoughts that I’ve written down, any tips on this would be great! Thanks 🙏
Thank you, you gave me a spark to give bujo a go, again.
Oh, Thank God. I got out of the bullet journal habit when I suffered a debilitating injury. I've been trying to pick up the pieces of my life and, without my bullet journal, failing miserably. I thought as I try to re-establish this habit, it would be good to review some videos. I am creative--I sew, crochet, knit, scrapbook, do photo-editing, and so on. However, I can't draw anything. All I've been finding are those Art Project Bullet Journaling videos. Ugh! Thank you for the straight-forward approach. Simple is better for me!
Glad it helps and I hope you get to feeling 100% soon!
Thank you for your videos. Your words helps one to think about self, habits, and goals.
You are so welcome!
Great video, Matt. Perfect timing, too, just got my new BuJo today. Appreciate your videos and glad to have you back! Happy New Year!
Happy new year! Glad this came at the right time!
I’m new to your channel and thank you for the simplicity of this! I’m a woman who is NOT artsy at all and has ADHD so I was looking for a SIMPLE set up for a journal. I don’t need all the bells and whistles 😅
I like to watch your new year video each year. It reminds me why i use bullet journal. It has made my life way much more simpler and has helped me to achieve goals. The why and the what are really helpful to chose my own path. Thank you.
That's great to hear, thanks for watching all these years!
I’ve been using the Bujo system since 2016 and I’ve tweaked it to fit my needs. Since I’ve been super busy with traveling this month, I wanted simplicity and portability so I switched to a pocket notebook and back to the original way of Bullet Journaling this past week. I enjoyed your video and
the tips you provided, especially setting up two days on a page for the week to help write out future tasks. TFS! 🤗
Thanks for watching!
Great video, Brother. I genuinely like your vibe. I'm almost done with the book from Ryder, and you are capturing its essence in your message. Thanks for the valuable tips!
Thank you for a good video! You made me realize that I actually have a goal for this month. I have a hard time finding goals for myself, at least long term. But thanks to you I made a 2024 goal page in my new bullet journal. And I intend to use it!
Happy to hear!
I know that productivity has a great return in term of money and your layout is simply fantastic but I can't remove from my head the price of the Bujo 2nd edition versus the time it will be filled. Considering a monthly log of two pages, a weekly log of 4 pages, if you have to also write daily logs, you will consume all your notebook in less than 2 months. The notebook has 202 pages. At 40$ CAD for less than two months, it goes up to near 300$ CAD by year. But this is considering you do daily logs which is my case is a precious thing because all day long I write all my toughts and feelings. I was using the Bujo as Ryder explains it where you simple have a monthly log and daily logs and where when you have an event ahead of a couple of days, you write it in today daily log and add the date. And each morning, you do a daily review of all dailies of that month and look for open event and tasks. But I prefer way more your approach which is similar to a traditional planner where you reserve in advance days. The big inconvenient is that if you have more tasks for that day for an half of a page, you are stuck. This is the main original advantage of the bullet journal where you never reserve space in advance. But you have to be a ninja style like Ryder and revise each day of the current month every day. In the second edition, they add a small indicator at the bottom of the center of each page where you can put an x to indicate everything is completed so if you are lucky and be as example the 28th and a lot of days are completed from that month, you will not have to revise every page. Anyways, again Matt, a great video both aesthetically pleasing and productivity oriented.
Thanks for reminding us that it can be simple and fun!
Thanks for watching!
Yeah, great to have you back😊
Thanks! 😃
I like the encouragement to start simple and to ask oneself "why?" I think I've seen planners and BuJos as a way recording/tracking life. I feel the need to lean into a bujo as a tool for change.
Glad it was helpful for you!
Thank you for sharing. I really appreciate this video. What do you suggest for a priority list system for work?
Section: Why Productivity is Hard was well orated.
The first 6 months of 2022 I did BuJo and I was really on top of things because of that. But some personal things happened and for 2 months everything was in disarray so when I came back to my normal life I just couldn't continue doing BuJo because it felt like I am not progressing in the way I was planning and it felt like I am failing at everything which I was doing so well with. So that section of your video really made me wonder how I can view it differently and start doing BuJo again. Maybe 2024 is the year I start fresh again, much smaller to ease myself in.
Glad it resonated, thanks for sharing - happy new year 🙌
Ty for the video!
Question: how do you manage/keep notes within the weekly layout? It seems that the fixed layout would limit the ability of taking notes.
I managed to BuJo for the last 3 months using only a weekly layout, it worked well for me, except for too much time spent at the beginning/end of the week with the weekly planning and review.
Therefore I’m now changing to the monthly layout, and then moving on with daily logs and task management
I have adhd. I tried pretty bujo before but couldn’t keep going. I need a place for me to get all the stuff out of my head instead of trying to remember everything all the time.
My bujo turns into a non-stop list machine until I'm able to get back in the rhythm enough to follow the "method" a bit more.
Hi Matt, when making notes from meetings or planning a task do you keep those in your BuJo or have a separate book for those? Really useful video, thanks!
You popped up and for a half a second I wondered "how did they get Ryan Reynolds to do this video?"
Well that’s the best doppleganger ever 😆
Hi Matt, Again, a great video to start the year fully motivated 😃 Everything was clear but I’m wondering if you write in advance days of the week what do you do when you miss space? I mean, do you have sometime more than 10 tasks in a day? Or do you write notes in your weekly section or do you have also a daily log which like Ryder allow you to write an infinite number of things everyday? Thanks again 😊
It's a good question Samuel. I do like to outline the week in advance because then I can "schedule" tasks for different days to make the GAP plan work. Plus I know if I'm writing too many tasks down - usually at the start of a week - I don't get them all done in the day. The half page is a good space to know I'm trying to fit "too much" into the day.
soilid country gold right here
lol favorite comment
Hi Matt. As always great video, thank you for this. I have a question about sprints. At work, my team works on a two-week sprint starting on Wednesday ( because many American holidays result in a Monday off). Any advice on how to match up a Monthly/weekly/daily in my bujo with the sprint cadence at work?
Would it be confusing to make a weekly spread start with Wednesday? Maybe on your monthly highlight each sprint so you can see the days that go into each sprint?
Haha, that’s not “normal” and so you’ll have to think outside the box and experiment n tweek until you find your groove. I would say a bullet Journal is the best system to accommodate your job
Hi Matt. Love your videos. I see the goal setting video is out as of today but the card is not displaying on your end screen like you say in this video. Just wanted to mention it in case you needed to come back and add it.
Thanks for the reminder! Uploaded that video today and now it's added to the end screen.
Do you use the same notebook as a traditional long form journal or do you separate them?
Separate journals for long form writing.
Using the same lighting bolt from Ryder’s BJ to sell merch?
Interesting.
Consider putting a task in your journal to look up the term “like-in-kind”
No daily logs for me, it would just be,
Daily Log: Go to work, remember to eat. 5 out of the seven days of the week.
Which is depressing. At least witb a weekly log its still mostly working, but i can write down the one thing i do in the week that isnt work, eat, sleep, get groceries.
I know it sounds stupid, but how do you plan a week that “splits up” between two months? Do you put the monthly log after the week is finished or inside the week? 😅
It’s really personal preference. Experiment each way and see what you like. It’s a bit of work to figure out, but then the system just becomes even better because it works for you and how you like your planner to flow.
What is the pen you’re using? .07?
Pentel Energel .07 - you got it!
wtf jim carrey?
so it seems like bujo is mostly a waste of time? planner apps do most of this, and the rest can't really be called journaling. I created a way to track habits with a pen and index card before I discovered about bullet journaling and my method is still superior. for actual journaling, I still just keep a normal notebook to decompress and process thoughts and a commonplace book to store them.
"people are doing this wrong and they aren't understanding it"
that means the system is too complicated.
that book excerpt was really the nail in the coffin, though.
"it's supposed to be a simple productivity system but breaking out the colored markers and glitter and stickers and never getting anything done is also the correct way to do it!"
the words of an obvious scammer. Ryder himself has stated he basically never even uses his own method, as calendar/planner apps are superior, but he still pushes his product because he's "at an advanced level where he can do that".
bujo is a waste of time, and a scam. thanks for the video.
Glad you have a system that works for you, that’s kinda the point? I can agree that some people make the bujo complicated, but that’s because it is made into an art project and not a planner/task manager. But if people want to color in doodles and use stickers to relax and create, more power to them! I think that’s more what Ryder is getting at. There are many paths to the same outcome, which is intention for what you’re doing. If you found a good way to do it with an index card and apps, good for you!
I was watching with great interest but had to stop 8 minutes in because the muzak was driving me nuts. I wonder what you think the muzak adds to your presentation. You''re trying to teach us something, right? If we were in a classroom with you, would you be playing a repetitive, unimaginative stream of sounds in the background? I think you wouldn't be, so why are you doing it here? Do you believe the music will affect our brains in such a way that we'll stay to the end? It absolutely doesn't work that way for me. I guess I feel like this mindless music is as insulting as if you had AI write your content for you and accepted it whether you thought it was good or not.
The shirt is gay
Gay is great!