A conversation about the Bullet Journal with Ali Abdaal and Ryder Carroll

This conversation between Ali Abdaal (productivity YouTuber) and Ryder Carroll (creator of the Bullet Journal method) was certainly insightful. I’ve heard most of Ryder’s answers to questions in various interviews and podcasts before, but this was more of a deep dive (as the Podcast name implies) into the methodology as well as Ryder’s own processes, and expands on BuJo as a mindfulness practice and as a tool to live more intentionally.

I imagine talking about the intentionality side doesn’t ‘sell’ the Bullet Journal method nearly as well as talking about the productivity side. But it’s far more interesting if you ask me. The Bullet Journal method has ties to the Stoic tradition of philosophy, or essentialism and minimalism in modern terms, and it helps us understand our values-then use them as a guide for how we spend our time-in order to live a more meaningful life.

It was also interesting to hear how Ryder uses the Bullet Journal with a PKM system (in his case Roam Research, in my case Obsidian). For Ryder, everything goes into the daily log first through rapid logging, and then for things he wants to expand on later (and add to his PKM) he’ll use a plus symbol as a way to signify these entries. This is a very useful tip, and I think to combat the amount of crap my digital task list accumulates throughout the day, I’ll be reaching for the bullet journal first, even if it takes a few extra seconds to capture a thought or a task. Like Ryder says in the podcast, the extra time it takes to write something down is a feature not a bug.

I think this area of analogue vs digital for the Bullet Journal has a lot of potential to be solved still. Where does the analogue system end and the digital system begin? How can we bring the two together and use the strengths of each? Is there a way to make the Bullet Journal system more context aware? As someone who is also very systems-focused, this is something I think about often. The tools I use are more than just tools; they are extensions of my brain and quite literally change the way I think. This is an important thing for everyone to acknowledge (at least everyone who uses tools to achieve goals), but for neurodivergent people it can be absolutely vital. Being able to bridge this gap between analogue and digital tools is a worthwhile problem to try to solve for, I think.

Originally published at https://rianfloyd.com on February 11, 2023.