Content source: Only by controlling your own attention can you regain the initiative in life. This is the reading notes of Bujo's bullet note book Bullet Notes. Notekeeper is released by authorization law.

About the author: Ryder Carroll, the founder of Bullet Notes, is an interactive designer in New York, USA.

How much pressure do modern people have?

A survey in 2017 showed that:

In 70 countries and 15 jobs, the average working hour of each country is 30.84 hours/week.

Hong Kong, China, topped the list, working 50.12 hours a week.

Busy is not equal to high efficiency, and may even cause a series of problems such as anxiety and mental laxity.

In order to regain the initiative in life, busy people have to use various efficiency tools to join various online and offline mutual aid communities. However, the result is often busier than ever, which is counterproductive.

Against this background, a bullet note technique that claims to replace most efficient APPs with only paper and pen has come into people's sight.

The main functions of Bullet Journal are:

Help people sort out their ideas, count their lives, plan their work, and focus on the really valuable things.

Its operation process is simple. As long as there are four icons of "×><", you can get started. It is as efficient, clear and focused as a "bullet".

Reid Carroll, the creator of Bullet Notebook, is an interaction designer who has provided services for Adidas, IBM, Macy's, HP, American Express and other world-class companies.

As early as grade one or two in primary school, Carol was diagnosed with ADHD.

The main cause of ADHD is the inability to control your attention.

In order to be able to concentrate like other students in the class, he recorded his ideas in an old style paper notebook, which combines the advantages of planning book, diary, task list and sketch book, and can help him clarify his thoughts.

Gradually, he found himself more efficient and able to concentrate more easily.

This is the prototype of the bullet note.

How this bullet note technique, which defeats all efficiency APPs, helps to improve efficiency, plan work and life, will be revealed after reading the answers below.

1、 Improve efficiency, starting from organizing ideas

1. Focus on valuable things

Research shows that people generate 50000 to 70000 ideas every day, and these ideas contain a lot of things that need to be decided. However, not all ideas are meaningful.

Those illogical, rambling thoughts can be said to be the culprits that distract me and you.

When you inevitably have multiple items to deal with at the same time, they easily disrupt your schedule, or even cause important things to be delayed and forgotten.

It is precisely because of the limited and valuable time and energy of individuals that we need to make serious and courageous decisions and focus on what is really important.

It is instructive to have such an example of how to invest time and energy.

Buffett, the most successful investor in history, once talked about career planning with Mike Flint, a pilot who has won his trust.

Buffett suggested that Mike first list 25 important career goals, and then select the most important 5.

In Mike's opinion, the five items selected here are the most important, while the other 20 items are not urgent, but they are also things he must work hard to complete.

Buffett said, "Mike, you are wrong."

He pointed out that no matter what happens, don't care about the other 20 items until the most important 5 items are completed.

In fact, this example also explains the importance of avoiding "decision fatigue" - focusing on the key points and not being distracted by a large number of choices.

"Decision fatigue" means that the more decisions you have to make, the more difficult it is to make them.

In this regard, psychologist Roy Baumeister also explained:

No matter how much you want to be rational and noble, you can't make one decision after another without paying the physiological cost.

This is different from ordinary physical fatigue. You don't realize that you are tired, but your spirit is already at a low point.

"Decision fatigue" has been very bad, but if it is not controlled, it will lead to "decision avoidance" - turning to other decisions in order to avoid making such decisions.

So there is a lot of inexplicable pressure to blame.

Too much pressure will lead to overeating, crazy drama chasing and other behaviors, which will only make you more overwhelmed.

Therefore, from a long-term perspective, it is important to focus on valuable things. In order to realize this desire, we should all reduce the decisions imposed on ourselves.

2. Use thought list

The bullet note mentioned that the thought list is the first step to get rid of decision-making fatigue and regain the initiative in life.

Before you write such a list, all thoughts are piled up in your brain. In order to capture these thoughts and sort out your own heart, you need to record the process to concretize your thoughts.

The thought list is divided into three columns, namely "what you are doing", "what you should do" and "what you want to do".

Next, you should honestly write down your thoughts under each column, which will help you identify what your time and energy are devoted to.

Then you need to ask yourself two questions:

Is it important?

Does this matter?

Never ignore the importance of asking questions, which can help you quickly screen out distractions.

Everything that is neither important nor important can be deleted directly, and they will no longer interfere with you; What's left is something worth your time and effort.

Through the process of making a thought list, you can effectively avoid "decision-making fatigue" and focus on the really valuable and beneficial things.

3. Return paper and pen

The above two items can also be achieved through efficiency APP, but bullet notes tell you to return to the most primitive way, paper and pen.

Why choose what seems to be the most traditional note taking in the most efficient Internet era?

① Connect with yourself

Technology penetrates into our lives and constantly distracts us.

We have tried different efficiency APPs and listed To Do Lists countless times. Shuttling between multiple APPs only breaks our ideas into more parts, which leads to our frequent loss of connection with ourselves.

We often think that speed is efficiency, but when we speed up our pace to catch up with the world, we also lose the opportunity to slow down our thinking.

Efficiency does not mean getting started quickly, but thinking and making reasonable plans before doing.

By making a list of ideas, clarifying tasks and disassembling tasks, bullet notes can help us clarify the priority of tasks, sort out the thoughts in the brain and establish a relationship with ourselves when in chaos.

② It seems the most primitive, flexible and efficient

Using bullet note to write is a process of establishing contact with oneself. It also has an advantage that no efficiency APP can achieve, that is, customization.

People who use various efficiency APPs may have this feeling:

In any case, it is always like thinking in the framework of others to cram your own matters into each project.

No matter how carefully the APP considers user experience, it cannot meet the diverse actual needs. After all, everyone's life and thinking mode are different.

The bullet note is designed and recorded by you. It contains all your needs and helps you sort them out.

In addition, the bullet note is relatively flexible, and most of its methods can be used independently according to personal needs.

The bullet note system is also very open.

An index serves as the general program of the whole agenda. You can add pages to it at any time without affecting various functions. You can still quickly find the page you need.

2、 How to use bullet notes quickly

1. Rapid recording method

If you want to capture ideas and plan your life concisely and efficiently, traditional records will not work.

This 343 word note using traditional note taking method looks like the key point of the final exam for students - the whole article is the key point.

With such notes, can you find out what needs to be handled urgently?

For the same thing, the bullet note rapid recording method only needs 173 words, which is nearly half of the number of words. The content is not only a little bit, but also indicates the event type and urgency with symbols.

Quick record method is one of the most basic skills of bullet note, and its purpose is to achieve clear and efficient record.

The quick record method uses the form of symbol+short sentence to record vertically, and each such record is called "bullet".

For example, "• Buy food" is a simple task bullet, and "X Buy food" means that you have completed it.

If the event is important, it is marked with "*". If the event needs to be migrated to another day, it is marked with ">".

In this way, different symbols can help you distinguish the categories of things, and even distinguish the priorities of events, so that you can be faster in the process of processing and execution.

With this fast recording method, you can easily plan your work in 15 minutes or less every day.

2. Collection

Collections are modular components of bullet notes, which are used to store closely related content.

The core collection includes index, future record, monthly record and daily record. You can also flexibly add various collection sub contents according to your own needs.

Next, let's learn how to use these four core contents:

① Index

The index is the general outline of bullet notes. Put your records and collections into the index so that you can read them at any time to find the content you need.

② Future records

The future record is located in the first few pages of the bullet note, followed by the index, and it is your plan for the future.

If there are unfinished items in this month, they can be marked with ">" and placed in future records. They can be moved to the journal of subsequent months at any time as to-do items.

The following figure clearly shows how to make future records.

In October, there is a task that needs to be completed on a certain day in December. At this time, you only need to add the ">" symbol in front of the task for migration, turn to the future record page of bullet notes, write it down, and migrate it into the monthly record in December.

So even though two months have passed, this matter is still in your schedule, and it is orderly integrated into your schedule rhythm, waiting for implementation.

③ Monthly records

The monthly record is an overview of your entire monthly plan. The content of the monthly record is not much, but it can let you quickly understand the key events of a month.

As shown in the figure below, monthly records are divided into calendar page and task page.

You need to write down the date and week in order on the left side of this page, and leave the right blank to add events and tasks.

The task page in the monthly record helps to sort out the important items of a month and record them so that they can be broken down and completed in the following days to avoid omission.

④ Daily record

The form of daily record is like a daily account. You need to record your own items in the form of "symbols+short sentences". At this time, the advantage of quick record method will save you time and effort.

With daily records, you can capture your thoughts, clarify your thoughts, and focus on what you need to do.

In addition to these four core collections, you can also add work items, shopping lists, hobbies, clocking, etc. to create more fun for your life records.

3、 Create your own unique record

After knowing the basic usage methods, you can start to try to arrange your schedule and record your life.

In order to make your bullet notes play a greater role, here are several auxiliary methods worth practicing for your reference.

Through these methods, you will learn how to use bullet notes to integrate beliefs into practice and become a powerful force for you to complete each goal.

1. The power of reflection

Why do I prefer such a book?

Why should I complete this project?

Why do I always feel anxious?

These choices will guide you to the next step, and a wrong decision may cause extremely bad consequences.

However, there is no need to be nervous, because no matter how smart a wise person is, there will be moments of misjudgment, and what you need to know is what you get from it and how to become better.

As the book Bullet Notes says:

The purpose of reflection is not to punish the mistakes made in the past, but to learn rich information from past life experiences to nourish future growth.

Daily reflection is the beginning of your planning for a day's life. It only takes a few minutes in the morning to unload your full thoughts and write them in bullet notes. At the same time, review what needs to be moved to that day this month.

Daily reflection will be the beginning of your organized day.

The focus of night reflection is review.

Mark the completed items with an "X" to appreciate your achievements and progress on that day.

Ask yourself questions if you don't accomplish the goals you set that day:

Why did only one of the dozen to-do items complete?

Which link is the problem?

Why did I choose this thing over others?

Through night reflection, you can identify your gains and shortcomings and prepare for the next day.

In addition, you can also conduct monthly reflection and annual reflection.

When you develop the habit of reflection with bullet notes, you will eliminate interference and focus on the current activities.

2. Decompose objectives

Is it easy to set goals?

Although it is unnecessary to write down "lose weight" or "read 52 books a year" for a minute, if you set goals without thinking and intent, the results may be counterproductive.

For example, if you don't consider the decision of time allocation to "read 52 books a year", half a year later, you find that you haven't started yet.

At this time, you will find that your enthusiasm and initiative are greatly reduced, and you have no way to start.

There is a set of methods in Bullet Note to help you skillfully design goals, break down long-term goals, and help you actively complete them with enthusiasm.

First of all, you need to create a subset of goals on a blank page, and write down the goals one by one regardless of their size.

Next, there is a very useful "Five Four Three Two One Countdown Rule" to help you consider your goals from the perspective of time.

This "five four three two one countdown rule" refers to:

Five year goal, four month goal, three week goal, two day goal and one hour goal.

When you have listed these items, you can fill in the corresponding items in your goal set. At this time, you have completed the planning of long-term goals, medium-term goals and short-term goals.

Maybe short-term goals can be easily achieved, but long-term goals need a certain time and plan to achieve.

Great goals are daunting. If you break them down into short-term, independent sprint goals, even the most impatient people can achieve them.

There is a difference between goal decomposition and goal segmentation. Segmented goals always have a sense of unfinished, while decomposed goals are executable and relatively independent. You can get a sense of achievement and have motivation to continue to implement each decomposed small goal.

The sprint goal keeps you motivated at every stage, just like sprints, and will not kill your morale because you cannot complete the traditional stage goal for a long time.

The sprint goal keeps you motivated at every stage, just like sprints, and will not kill your morale because you cannot complete the traditional stage goal for a long time.

3. PDCA cycle

The PDCA cycle was promoted by W. Edward Deming, the father of "kaizen", which refers to the four quality management stages of Plan, Do, Check and Act, aiming to bring about continuous improvement.

Plan: identify opportunities and develop improvement plans.

Implementation: implement the plan and develop improvement results.

Check: analyze test results and confirm learning achievements.

Action: act according to the learning results. If there is no improvement, change the plan and start the cycle again. If improvements have been made, make new improvements in combination with the learned plan. Remove the crude and extract the essence, and cycle the above steps.

If this method is used in bullet notes, every day can be regarded as a cycle.

Today's reflection is the process of planning, which is carried out within a day, while night reflection is to check and continue to implement the next action in a circular manner.

Through this method, you can improve a little every day, and you will find that life has produced more positive effects, and you are also getting better.

4、 Regain the initiative in life

In such a rapidly developing Internet era, efficiency takes the lead.

People are really busier, and getting off work does not mean "offline". They need to stay by their mobile phones to discuss work plans and update task progress.

As Carroll said, the common symptom of people in the digital age is "lack of self-awareness".

We are in the period of the closest contact with others in history, but we are rapidly losing contact with ourselves.

The information like the tide comes in endlessly and drowns us.

We feel overestimated and unable to rest, overworked and unable to be satisfied, and overwhelmed and exhausted.

——Ryder Carroll, Founder of Bullet Note

Using bullet notes is a way to communicate with yourself. It helps you to judge what is important, how to count your life, and how to complete various things in an orderly manner.

Some of the users of the bullet note have got rid of debt, some have found ideal jobs, and some have just ended a bad relationship

I believe that every person who aspires to effectively manage life and regain the initiative in life can write a life story that makes him satisfied and proud in the bullet note.