Using NotePlan as a digital bullet journal (2023)

index

• The Basics of Bullet Journaling
• The benefits of bullet journaling
• The Cons of Using a Traditional Bullet Journal
• Why NotePlan is the perfect digital journal
• resume

Bullet Journal: freedom and flexibility

Bullet Journal (or BuJo) is a great way to organize your notes, tasks, and events in one system. Bullet journaling is an analog process: you write everything in a physical notebook, just pen and paper. Both the flexibility of the system and the freedom of pen and paper are one of the main reasons why so many people love the method.

Switching from a physical journal to a digital journal has a number of benefits that will help you work more efficiently and speed up your workflow. In fact, NotePlan will feel right at home if you've used a bullet journal before. You accepteverything you love about BuJo and makes it even better. From tasks to notes and calendar integration. And all this without deviating from the philosophy of the bullet journal.

Curious? Sign up and check out the NotePlan atMac-App-StoreIt's inapp store!

The Basics of Bullet Journaling

Structure

The Bullet Journal method wasDeveloped by Ryder Carroll"to build a system that's flexible enough to handle whatever you throw at it and fast enough not to get in the way." The goal was to use a single physical system to organize the past, present, and future. A bullet journal uses pen and paper - everything lives in a notebook. To get started, manually structure your notebook into different sections:

• OnIndex: an index
• Afuture protocol: a range showing the next 6 to 12 months
• Amonthly record– A breakdown of each day in a month on the left, and space for tasks you need to get done in that month on the right
• ADaily report: a continuous list of days with specific entries: tasks, events and notes
• collections: a list of notes and ideas on a specific topic (p.Books to read, shopping lists, class notes, etc.)

process

Every day just list your tasks, notes and events. You complete things as you go. At the end of each month, create a new monthly record and review the daily entries for the previous month. The goal is to mark completed tasks and decide what to do with open tasks. Tasks that have not yet been completed can be transferred to the monthly log for the next month (an operation called "Migration“).

abbreviated form

What makes the Bullet Journal fast and efficient is “quick registration', a specific abbreviation, or a series of symbols to visually highlight tasks, events, and notes on the page. The default set of symbols is:

• A "·" label for a to-do or to-do item
• A hyphen "-" for a note, thought, or idea
• A circle "⚬" for an event, such as a meeting or a phone call

Open tasks have a bookmark, completed tasks have a "X' on the marker to indicate that they have finished. Tasks that are moved to a collection have a ">' and tasks moved to a 'future record' will have a '<in front of them. The abandoned tasks arejust scratched.

You cannested entriesplacing a new line below an item, indenting it, and placing a task, note, event, or combination of items below it.

BuJo's quick registration method is also usedImportant:Symbols that you add to the shortcut described above to give entries a special status. an asterisk"*" indicates a priority item, while an exclamation point "!' highlights an important idea.

The benefits of bullet journaling

That's what using a bullet journal method is all about.speed and flexibility. It's quick and easy to open a page, grab a pen, and jot down a few items. Shorthand also makes it easy to distinguish between types: meetings, tasks, thoughts are all different. By marking them as such, you can quickly see what to do.

A great advantage of bullet journaling is that there are no limits to your creativity, from ink colors to pens, special page layouts, and much more. Do you have theLibertyto draw, design and arrange a sheet of paper as you like.

Many BuJo fans also note that the allure of taking notes in a hardcover notebook is just plain fun. The feel of paper, using a traditional ink pen and writing by hand. It cannot be denied that aphysical notes experienceit can be a breath of fresh air in a digital world.

finally when it arrivesprivacy, a laptop can hardly be beat. Aside from the prying eyes of friends, family, or roommates, no one else has access to your notes except you. There is no encryption, passwords, hacks or spyware. A physical notebook keeps your notes safe for your eyes only.

The Cons of Using a Traditional Bullet Journal

However, the analog nature of the bullet journal can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. The physical act of writing can be fun, but paper has its drawbacks. start isless durable than a digital system. If your notebook is lost, stolen, or disaster strikes, all your notes and ideas are gone. For everything always.

Furthermore, it is also possible to set up and maintain a bullet journal.a long and manual process. While you can buy an official BuJo notebook with a placeholder for the table of contents, you still have to create a lot of structure yourself. For example, Future Registration and Monthly Registrations. Some people will also find it tedious to write a list for each day of the month over and over again. Finally, migrating tasks is simply moving things around. A time-consuming process when you have a lot of tasks to put off.

Taking physical notes is too muchless versatile. Imagine scheduling a meeting and then rescheduling it. Then move again. Soon it's clogging up your notebook. (Unless you have a pencil and eraser!) It's also more work to copy notes. While some people like to move notes around to make sure they're really grounded, others will find it boring to type the same thing over and over again. That task you've been wanting to do for several weeks/days/months and kept putting it off? You may have done a lot of manual copying before you're really done.

Another disadvantage of taking physical notes is that you don'teasy to lose track of a note. While it's true that a bullet journal offers some structural training wheels, it's still easy to miss a task or note. Where did that November assignment go because of the meeting you cancelled? Or where did you hide that quick note about a book you were supposed to read but haven't added to a collection yet? Also, a bullet journal is only good for one year. As you go from year to year, you may need to keep your past journals handy. This makes it harder to search for things and get a better perspective.

Why NotePlan is the perfect digital journal

NotePlan takes the ideas behind the bullet journal and seamlessly translates them from the physical page to your digital devices. Offers the same BuJofreedom and flexibility, but makes your workflow much more efficient and convenient. If you've used the physical system, you'll feel right at home with NotePlan.

Structure

Like BuJo, NotePlan doesn't lock you in: there's no fixed structure or rigid way of working. Instead, you also start with a blank slate. The only thing available by default isdaily notes. Clicking or tapping on any day on the mini-calendar creates a note for that day. The blank note corresponds to a blank page.

From the NotePlan sidebar, you can create a table of contents, future record, and any collection in the notes panel. You can organize everything with folders, notes or tags and create as many layers as you want.

Unlike a laptop, a digital system cangrows with your needs. Also, NotePlan stores everything in plain text files and folders on its own file system. There are no limits when it comes to construction. Go down as many levels as you want. Or just keep it flat - it's up to you.

Grades

Bullet journal quick-tracking abbreviation is also available in NotePlan and will look very familiar to you if you've used a physical journal.NotePlan usedtee, a simple syntax that automatically converts symbols to specific "inputs":

• Type an asterisk "*" to create a task
• Type a hyphen "-" to create a standard bullet as a note in BuJo
• Events from your calendar automatically appear in NotePlan. If you want, you can use a plugin to list them in your daily note.

You can even customize the syntax if you want. In addition, Markdown supports many other elements, such as headers, code blocks, quotes, images, and much more.

task management

In addition to the familiar standard quick check-in options, NotePlan offers a variety of task management benefits.

for starters,Tasks can be moved quickly: from today, about tomorrow or any other date. All with a few clicks or taps. You can even set up recurring tasks in NotePlan, saving you the time and hassle of retyping tasks in a physical journal over and over again. You can also add a #tag or @mention to a task so you can easily see all tasks with the selected tag or mention. In a paper system, tasks can be distributed on different pages.

Plus, NotePlan makes it easy to organize your tasks in a note with just a few clicks. All completed, canceled and deferred tasks are automatically grouped under one heading. It's a great way to clear out the clutter of to-dos and focus on what you still need to get done.

Notes, Collections and Shortcuts

The future, monthly and daily record bullet journal idea is a great tool for structuring information. But flipping the pages back and forth might solve the problem.hard things to connect. How do you combine a note about a book you've read with an action you might want to take in a few weeks? Or how do you follow up on a meeting with a direct report to the next meeting? Paper makes it harder to keep track of things, while a digital system can instantly link tasks, notes, and ideas.

NotePlan doesConnects very easily, in any direction. No matter where you are, in a daily note or a regular note, just start typing [[ and select a note name to link to it. Also, NotePlan uses bidirectional shortcuts. So the note you just linked to has a section at the top with a link to the original note (calledbidirectional backlinks). The same goes for dates. Just take any item, note, paragraph, or task and add a date. Both the item and the day in your calendar are now automatically linked.

Links and backlinks are incredibly powerful in NotePlan. If you want, you can create an entire wiki for yourself, aPKM(Personal Knowledge Management)-System, unnote box structure, of unosecond brain.

search and filter

A great advantage of a digital system, especially one based on plain text like NotePlan, is that it isEasily search and filter notes. NotePlan has an extremely fast search that searches everything on your system: notes, tasks, etc. Just start typing and you'll get results instantly.

In fact, with Review, you cancreate and save custom searches. Suppose you want to see all tasks marked as #urgent. Or anything you've completed in the past week. You can even save a keyword search to just your notes. Maybe you have a key concept like "postmodernism" and want an overview of where it's used in your notes. You can easily create a sort filter in NotePlan.

Reviews, backups and synchronization

NotePlan was designed to give you thePeace of mind that all your bills are safe. So it has robust reviews and a backup system. Any change to any note is available and you can go back to any previous version with just a few clicks or taps. NotePlan saves changes intelligently so your revisions are quick and don't take up too much space.

NotePlan also makes it easy to maintain any device you have.synchronize. You can choose between CloudKit and iCloud Drive and keep all your notes up to date wherever you are. That means you can work on your iPad and pick up where you left off on your iPhone anywhere, with all changes synced instantly.

Share

A journal is usually private (after all, these are your personal notes), but there may be times when you want it to beshare something quicklywith your colleague, friend, partner or even the world. A small code snippet, a shopping list, or some notes from a meeting. With NotePlan, you can post a note online with a single click or tap. just choosepost noticeand copy the public link and send it to anyone. The note updates as you make changes.

resume

A bullet journal offers freedom and flexibility in an analog system. if you want to take itTake the best of bullet journaling and make it even better with a digital system, then NotePlan fits the bill. Why? Because NotePlan gives you the same freedom to structure your tasks, events, and ideas with a Markdown note-taking approach that feels instantly familiar. Combined with even faster and more comprehensive task management, easy links between notes, and powerful search and filter features, you'll have a supercharged bullet journal wherever you go.

Try NotePlan

Try NotePlan today and download the apps:

• Mac-App-Store
• app store

Discover NotePlan in 14 days

Discover the features of NotePlan for 14 days and learn how to create your perfect productivity center. Discover the benefits of connecting your tasks, notes and calendar! Packed with tips, tricks and shortcuts!

Links and resources

• Bullet Journal Official Site
• Markdown-Spickzettel

Support and Community

• NotePlan-Hilfedokumente
• NotePlan Discord
• Twitter plan note