Thursday, September 22, 2016

How to Schedule Tasks in a Bullet Journal


Something that many people gripe about when it comes to bullet journals is the limited capability for future planning. However, there are ways to note down future events, and in the same way you can easily schedule tasks for the future in your bullet journal. I'll be covering several different methods to do this in this post, so make sure to keep on reading!

In Daily Planning

This is the "technique" that I typically use since it requires the least effort. Usually, if I want to make sure that I do something sometime over the next few days, I'll make a note in the current day's daily spread. In my bullet journal, general notes such as these are signified with a bullet point. Thus, when I'm just skimming through my bujo or planning for the next day, I'll be reminded of whatever it is I want to do. I'll then later include the task into a daily. If it's something super important, you could highlight or asterisk it.

You can also use a specific symbol for scheduled tasks. In the key of the original system, scheduled tasks are signified with a backwards arrow/is-less-than thing (<). If you want to remind yourself to wash the dishes tomorrow, then just write "< do the dishes" in today's spread, and then make sure to put it in tomorrow's daily log. If you just truly don't want to add another symbol to your key, you could also write it in as a migrated task if it's something for tomorrow.

"Do Tomorrow" Spread

Something I saw a while ago somewhere on the internet - I can't remember exactly where for the life of me - is a "do tomorrow" spread. Basically, it's just a separate collection that's a list of things that you want to do tomorrow. There's a column for the date (today's date would probably be the best), the task itself, and if it's been scheduled into tomorrow's daily yet.

This spread can be really helpful if you have a lot of "do tomorrow" type of tasks, but if you want to, you could adapt it to a "do sometime soon" spread.

Sticky Note


This is kind of similar to a "do tomorrow" layout, but it's better for us lazy people that don't want to draw out a whole 'nother chart. If you want to remember to do something tomorrow or some other time in the near future, you can write it on a sticky note and just stick it onto your current page or the next one. Since it's not a permanent fixture of your bullet journal, there's no pressure at all to make it look nice or anything like that. This is especially great when you're trying to jot a task down quickly right before it escapes your mind.

Weekly Spread


How you schedule tasks in a weekly spread depends on what sections you have in your own weekly spread. If it's just something you want to do sometime during the week, you could have a separate area specifically for tasks (or for the type of task). However, if it's day-specific, then you only simply need to write it under that day.

If you're not the type of person that actually needs to use a full-out weekly, then you could make little weekly overviews, fitting several weeks onto one page.

Monthly Spread


Sometimes there are things that you want to get done during a specific month. For example, I wanted to finish reading Pride and Prejudice sometime during the month of August. So, in the "miscellaneous" column of my bullet journal's monthly spread, I put it in as a task. Some people make sections in their monthly spreads that are dedicated to certain categories of their life - e.g. work, personal, home, etc.


If it's something that I want to do on a certain day of the month, then I'll write it in on that day in my log. For example, my days for washing the dishes are Mondays and Tuesdays. To schedule this task, I just wrote "dishwashing" on every Monday and Tuesday of my monthly spread. Then when it actually is one of those days of the week, it goes in my daily.

Future Log


Sometimes there's a task that you want to schedule way ahead in advance. Back in the spring for example, I wanted to write a blog post about bullet journaling for school sometime in August. To help me remember this, I wrote it in as a task in my future log. You could also write tasks for specific dates. You can plan pretty much go as far ahead as you want to with a future log depending on your own customization.

Printables

Using printables for task scheduling from Bullet Journal Joy // OurJourneyinJournals.blogspot.com
Zoot from Bullet Journal Joy uses printables to plan ahead. She keeps blank monthly calendars in the back pocket of her bujo, and then she transfers everything on that printable onto a fresh, new one when the month rolls around. Using this same method, you could schedule tasks in advance using printables. This is especially useful if you don't like drawing spreads out by hand.

Project Planner Spread


If you're working on a big project, then you probably have a lot of different small steps that you have to get done. Making a whole spread dedicated to said project can be helpful in this case. In there, you can plan ahead and make "due dates" for each step. To make sure that you don't forget about each of these mini deadlines, you could then transfer each of them over onto your monthly or weekly spreads when the time comes.

Scheduling tasks in an analogue system can be a bit of a hassle sometimes, but the methods listed above should help out at least a little. I hope you enjoyed this post and found it informative!
mae-mae han

What sort of tasks do you have to schedule in your bullet journal? Comment down below!

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