Showerthought: One comment about my messy spreads changed my whole setup

I was posting my bullet journal in a Facebook group and someone said my weekly layout looked like a ransom note with all the different colors and stickers. At first I was annoyed but they had a point. I cut back to just one pen color and a simple ruler. Now I spend 10 minutes on a spread instead of 45 and I actually stick with it. Has anyone else had a random critique that ended up helping you?

3 comments

3 Comments

williams.sage28d ago

Yeah I totally get that about the "single black pen" thing but I sort of wonder if the real lesson is more about being okay with bad spreads. Maybe it's just me but when I stopped trying to make every page look perfect I actually got more done because I wasn't scared to mess up. I mean some of my messiest layouts are the ones I actually used the most.

william_harris28d ago

My coworker Susan told me my desk looked like a bomb went off and I was defensive at first but honestly she was right. I used to have three different notebooks going and sticky notes everywhere and I couldn't find anything. She said just pick one notebook and a single black pen and it changed everything for me. Now I spend maybe 15 minutes in the morning writing down my tasks instead of half an hour hunting for stuff. It's weird how someone pointing out your chaos can actually make you more organized in the long run. I still color code sometimes but only when I feel like it not because I think I have to.

spencer98127d ago

The "single black pen" thing really does cut to something bigger I've noticed. It's like how people who buy fancy gym equipment never use it but the ones who just have a pair of shoes actually go running. Or how I see folks with a hundred productivity apps on their phone but they're still overwhelmed. The secret (if there is one) seems to be that having less stuff to choose from frees up your brain to actually do the work instead of getting stuck deciding which tool to use. It's funny how stripping things down to the basics usually works better than adding more layers of organization.