Still reeling from the realization that bullet journaling was essentially created to be a disability aid and got legit fuckin gentrified
Like I'm at work and don't have the time to properly organize my thoughts atm but like.
-bullet journalling was invented by a man with a learning disability (99% sure it was ADHD but his website now just says learning disability so I can't be 100%) as a system for organizing his life/way to work WITH his learning disability
-the general concept is bullet point the important things you need to do and use a simple system of symbols to mark whether it's done, rescheduled, cancelled, etc. with very little fanfare, keeping it all in one notebook so you know where to easily find the information at a glance
-people pick it up and it starts getting popular
-bullet journaling becomes an aesthetic movement largely populated by white neurotypicals
-bullet journaling has turned into creating an extremely pretty notebook that has some function, but largely depends on complicated decoration and aesthetic function that takes more time to set up than is tenable for the people it was created for
-new entries to bullet journaling feel pressure to shop at particular stores, use particular brands, purchase lots of stationery purely for its aesthetic value, and prioritize the artistry of the pages rather than the information being stored on them
-people who would massively benefit from the original system can only really find information on it from members of the aesthetic movement. There is now a barrier to entry for ppl with ADHD and other similar conditions, as bullet journaling now requires a focus and motivation to start that these same people often lack or struggle to maintain consistently
-bullet journaling is no longer a disability aid and has become an aesthetic movement largely for middle class white neurotypicals, pushing out the people who the system was created for to begin with
Entry point for people who (like me) saw all the Pinterest BuJo garbage and assumed there was no fucking way it would work for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm15cmYU0IM
I grabbed a grid-lined composition book off my shelf of "office supplies I purchased because I love buying office supplies even though I actually don't need them", started bullet journaling on November 10th (46 days ago), and I hate to say a thing is life changing but .... legit, it kinda has been.
One thing about ADHD that doesn't often get mentioned is the distractibility due to working memory problems. Like, everyone's always talking about the distractibility due to dopamine-seeking, but also, there's a thing that happens to everyone dozens of times a day: you're working on Important Project, and suddenly you remember Other Thing. A normal person can say, "Ah yes, I need to remember to unload the dishwasher when I get home", but we don't have that option. Our choices are: (1) drop what we're doing and go take care of Other Thing right now, and get yelled at because Important Project didn't get done, or (2) go back to working on Important Project, and get yelled at because we didn't brush our teeth / take out the trash / pick up eggs / attend that meeting / whatever.
Or maybe it's an idea for something, which is even worse because it combines so well/poorly with the dopamine-seeking thing: do I drop Important Project to pursue Artistic Inspiration? Or do I complete Important Project and then feel empty and meaningless in my life because I never make any art?
But with my BuJo, I can just write down Other Thing and then go back to Important Project. Other Thing is there waiting for me when I hit a stopping point. It's there waiting for me if I love Artistic Inspiration but frankly I'm outta spoons and imma vomit if I move. It's there waiting for me if shit happens and I have to drop Important Project anyway to Deal With Things. I can come back to this page three years later, and the note "Hypothesis: I have much inflammation, but my core body temp is low; therefore both heat and ice feel good/bad to me" will still be there, and I can do whatever I want to do with it.
- Trying to figure out if your diet is causing health issues, but you can never remember on which days you ate vegetables and on which days your stomach hurt? Bullet Journal!
- Trying to do a regular workout, but can never remember sets or reps or movement cues? Bullet Journal!
- Trying to start a gratitude practice, but can never remember in the evening what you were grateful for throughout the day? Bullet Journal!
When I have a spare spoon at the end of the day, I want to use it to restock the Things I Have Done In Advance For Low-Spoon Days .... but I can never remember what those are. So I have a page where I'm writing them down as they occur to me out of the blue.
I'm trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and I want to start with people I admire and want to emulate, but I can't create a complete list just by sitting down and thinking really hard. So I have a page where I'm writing them down as they occur to me.
What's fantastic about it is that it requires you to keep track of one (1) notebook, and the only required action is that you do a thing at the moment you think of the thing.
- It's not color-coded, so you don't have to keep track of multiple pens in order to function -- you don't even have to keep track of a pen; the system works fine if you're doing it with whatever pen you've dug out of your backpack or stolen from the bank.
- I wasn't sure I could remember what the different bullets were for, so I wrote them on the cover of the bullet journal; now if I ever wonder, I just have to flip to the front cover real fast.
- If you want to use it for health tracking, or mental health tracking, or meal planning, or to run a business, or plan a curriculum, or keep an eye on how your art style is changing, or anything else, the format supports it, because there is no structure. The format evolves organically so that it will always meet your needs at any given time.
Anyway, grab the nearest notebook and any pen you can find, follow along with that video, and you'll be bullet-journaling perfectly within 5 minutes. Thank you for coming to my TED talk
