Bullet Journals (or other paper planners): Anyone using one in connection to your Beeminder goals?

Akrasia
#1

I like to be undistracted for large chunks of the time that I’m working, and I’ve been moving more and more towards going back to paper where my daily planning (but not other planning) is concerned.

In any case, I was wondering if anyone else uses a combination of paper planning alongside Beeminder and your other tracking and planning systems. I’m making a few tweaks to mine and doing a bit of experimenting, and I thought I’d see what others are doing in the process.

Also, it gave me an excuse to post this, which I now have to do a sure-to-be-less-artistic version of…

Bullet Journal Habit Tracker
Link

What I’m doing:

  • All capture is done on my planner page, in my main to-do app’s inbox (OmniFocus), or via Siri or Alexa (which just drop it straight into OmniFocus)

  • That’s then processed and moved to my master list, where I add deadlines, rough estimates of the time they’ll take, prerequisite info, priority info, etc. (I use OmniPlan for this, which I’ve customized to within an inch of its life.)

  • In my weekly planning, I grab items from my master task list (OmniPlan tells me which I have to do, so that’s a pretty easy step) and I put them in a “This Week” project in my to-do app (OmniFocus).

  • I also have a “Recurring” project in my to-do app where I put… I’ll let you guess. I keep them there to keep the master task list decluttered (and because project managers aren’t a great place for recurring tasks!)

  • In my daily planning, I look only at my “This Week” and “Recurring” folders and plan my tomorrow with only a few important tasks, which I put in my paper planner.
    (I’ve been bad about adding too many tasks to my to-do list lately, and I’m reining that in again. Having a laundry list of things to do on a given day is really counterproductive for me. Focus is everything.)

  • Periodically, I take pictures of the pages of my planner and cram them into Evernote, which OCRs them so that I can search my handwriting if I need to, rather than furiously flip through pages trying to find where I wrote “that stuff about the thing”. (That also lets me throw out my planners when I’m done with them. Major planner fans are now throwing raw vegetables at me.)

I’ve been tempted to add a habit tracker again, but have wondered whether that’ll feel like overkill alongside tracking in Beeminder. Trying it this month, for science.

Anyway, who else uses paper alongside the digital, and how does it interact with your digital planning and tracking?

6 Likes
#2

Such beautiful journals like these intimidate me. I have a very ugly bullet journal but I do not manage to be regular with it. Used it for 2 full months in June-July, the it has been rotting somewhere since.

2 Likes
#3

I don’t do paper anything. :slight_smile: But I keep bullet-journal-style plans on weekly/monthly/quarterly basis. These act as guidance for setting rates on the Beeminder goals.

3 Likes
#4

I just want to say that this looks amazing. Kudos

#5

Oh no no! This wasn’t mine! That’s just an image I found on the internet that looked nice (and Beeminder-y). My planners are all very minimal in their execution so far. I never end up doing much more than a basic tracker page (for my mini-habits) and then daily lists and notes as I go. The hexagons in this one kind of make me want to use the basic idea for something, though.

2 Likes
#6

Those are some awesome drawings at that link!

I think the elaborately drawn bookshelves and flowers are like the non-technical equivalent of us writing thousands of unnecessary lines of code to keep track of our stuff :laughing:

I’ve been using paper journals for about a year now. I try to log meditation, sexual sensation, any medications I’m taking, and whatever else I’m working on.

I’m in a bee-pause right now and having the paper journal as something real helps a lot.

2 Likes
#7

I find paper works better with my brain (maybe it’s just not having to check the computer all the time that helps!), so I’ve tried various non-digital methods over the years. I’ve never managed anything particularly aesthetic, except when I use cute stickers.

Right now I’m using a weekly planner whiteboard right next to my desk (technically two of them, so I can plan a week in advance). Each day has any notable appointments written at top, and then my daily to-do/must-do list at the bottom. I then have a beeminder goal that requires me to do (or at least touch) every task on my daily to-do list, keeping me honest. I don’t try to save my daily lists at all; I’ve never found it useful to archive any of my paper notes, which is why I eventually switched from paper to an eternally-reusable whiteboard. (Although I do time-track everything, so if I actually needed to find out when I mowed the lawn, I can do so pretty easily).

1 Like