Do the Opposite - The Bullet Journal Method, The Horse Fable, Resistance and Self-Loathing

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The Bullet Journal Method
I've been a fan of the Bullet Journal system for a while now, but I've fallen off the wagon at some point in the previous years. Bullet Journal is a method of organizing your life - the daily todos, planning, logging and more. Check out the BuJo (common abbreviation of Bullet Journal) website to learn more about the system: here.

In the last couple of years I've been frustrated with my failed attempts to organize my life, todos, tasks, projects and thoughts, partly because of the sheer number of resources I used to do it: Todoist, Simplenote, Evernote, Apple Notes, the physical bullet journal I have, and more apps. That means whenever I made a note of something I need to remember I couldn't later find it - because I couldn't remember which resource/system I used to log it. I also had some unresolved questions about how to utilize the BuJo system - some edge cases I didn't know how to address.

Recently, after thinking about this some more, I've decided to read the new "The Bullet Journal Method" book in which its creator, Ryder Carroll. So far I am about 30-40 % into it and it's already answered a lot of the questions I had.

While reading it, I am reorganizing my old (unfinished notebook Bullet Journal, filling the gaps and kind of starting over, and I've been following the system for about a month now. I still make some quick notes in other resources (like Todoist) when my notebook is not with me, but I make a point of transferring the important things into the notebook later on, so I have, as we call it in the field of software engineering: "a single source of truth". I now also make a point of bringing my bullet journal (the physical notebook) with me in my backpack everywhere I go.

I highly recommend you to try out the Bullet Journal system. You can do it in any notebook you have, and then after you try it out, you could buy the official Bullet Journal that they have (but that's optional) which has dots instead of lines or squares + has index and page numbers built in.|

For learning the system, start with the website; optionally check out "The Bullet Journal Method" book, or, even better, search for "Bullet Journal" on YouTube and you fill find hundreds of cool videos of people explaining the system and how they use it (like this or this). I must also say: if you think, "Yeah, sounds great, but my use case is very specific so no system can fit it" - I suggest you try the Bullet Journal anyway, because it's a very adaptable system that will fit your use case, I promise. It's like a Lego set of personal organization system, you build your own :)

The "Horse" Fable
This is a beautiful short fable, shared by Derek Sivers, about the mistakes we often make when judging things and situations prematurely. It speaks for itself. Next time you are about to judge a situation that seems negative, stop and think about this fable. That's what I try to do.

P.S. I might have already recommended this in one of the very early editions of the DTO newsletter, but it's so good it's worth a potential repeat :) + we have more people in our community now, who I think will benefit from it.

Articles:

1) "Resistance and Self-Loathing" by Steven Pressfield
So I often talk here about the Resistance, the force that pulls us away from our dreams and plans, first described and named by Steven Pressfield. Here's an article of his that takes a closer look into one of the tools Resistance uses to take us away from potential achievement towards self-sabotage and negativity: self-loathing. I struggle with this quite a bit myself, so this article was a good reminder for me to recognize these feelings of self-loathing (of not accomplishing enough, of being lazy or procrastinating). Self-loathing is a vicious circle because it keeps you in a negative state that doesn't allow you to do the things you dream you want to do, and that, in turn, leads to more self-loathing. In this article, Steven provides ways of shifting your perspective when stuck in a state of self-loathing.

2) "This 3-Minute Habit Changed My Life" by Laura Vanderkam
Despite the "clickbaity" title, this is a really interesting short article. Laura shares the habit that helped her find more time and get a better idea of how she spends her time day to day. It's a very simple process: she created a spreadsheet, dividing each day into half-hour blocks, and started jotting down whatever she was doing every half an hour. I've read about this practice before and tried it out for a couple of days, but I think because I haven't kept it up for longer I didn't take too much out of it. Laura, however, went long ― she has been keeping these notes for more than 1100 days.

She was able to get insights into how she spends her time, which led to some real benefits. (I must add that she already was pretty organized before - managing to raise 4 children and also working) For example, she understood that she spent more time with her children than she thought, which helped alleviate some parent guilt she's been feeling. Laura also saw that there was time for reading in her schedule (almost an hour every day in the year she measured), it's just that she's been reading for leasure and fun magazines. She swapped those for real books.

3) NASA - Visions of the Future
You've probably seen these around the interwebs in posts on social networks here and there, but this is a link to the source with a full collection. This is a great series of posters made by NASA, which explores the future where some of the planets of the Solar System and some it their moons have been colonized, done in the form of travel agency brochures. Absolutely gorgeous.

Tweet that resonated with me

A reminder that if you don't consciously control and develop your habits, you are still forming them based on your every day actions and activities, albeit in that case it happens subsconsciously.

Ethos:

Quotes:

"Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look."
― Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

"Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours."
― Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
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Keep doing the opposite,
Alexander Kallaway
Website: dotheoppo.site
Twitter: twitter.com/ka11away