On the dot

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/09/2017 (3238 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Oh, September! I love the smell of new pencils, fresh paper and highlighters in the morning.

It’s the time of year when I, like many of you, start a fresh journal — because everything starts in September and not in January.

As a longtime day-planner junkie, I often find myself, a fully grown person with gainful employment, stuck with student planners that start in August and end in July. There is something better afoot, and you’ll find it all over Pinterest and in Rachel Wilkerson Miller’s new book Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide (Thomas Allen & Son, 240 pages, $19.95). The subhead boasts this book is a “How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-do List and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together.”

AndWilkerson Miller (www.rachelwmiller.com), a senior lifestyle editor at Buzzfeed, might just be right.

So what is dot-journaling (also known as bullet-journaling)? It’s a style and system of tracking and recording everything important in your life using your own created page formats and symbols. Use any blank journal. Record everything from work to your personal life, add drawings and symbols and things that appeal to you and how your head works.

You’ll create and include important pages such as an index with your page numbers, a symbols key to remind you what your arrows, dots and other squiggles (which tell you things like what is a task, what is an event or an appointment, etc.) mean to you, pages to use as trackers (for workouts, etc.), yearly pages, monthly pages, weekly/daily pages, and some notes pages — a good place to write your thoughts, feelings and responses to what is going on in your life. You keep track of these things mostly in point form with a little space for flowery prose, if you want that.

Not clear? Start with some resources like Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide. This is new way of organizing yourself. Get a little guidance. Google “dot journals” and look at Pinterest to get the concept.

When it comes to “must have” supply items, Wilkerson Miller says all you need is a notebook you like and a pen you like.

“I use the Leuchtturm1917 A5 dotted journal,” she says. “It has a nice, sturdy cover, quality paper, and comes with printed page numbers and the space for an index, and it’s available in a huge range of colours.” (These are available at McNally Robinsons Booksellers and come with plain, dotted or square grid paper, which help you to keep things straight and neat.)

“My favourite pen is the Pilot Juice 0.38 mm gel pen, and I use a grey pen to do headers and dates, and then a handful of pastel markers, highlighters, and coloured pencils to add flair,” she says.

“I also love book darts for marking the spreads and pages I reference most often.

“I think the most important thing is to just choose products that, to borrow a phrase from Marie Kondo, spark joy, so be honest with yourself about whether your notebook, pens, markers and accessories are really doing it for you, and try to pare down to the things you really love. All of these things should make it easier to dot journal, not harder.”

“Must do’s” for dot journaling

• Start small, doing the most barebones version possible.

“No fancy two-page spreads, no complicated colour-coding, no spending $50 on supplies before you’ve written a single page. Just keep it simple until you’ve made it a habit,” she says.

“It’s too easy to get overwhelmed by all of that, or give up because you forgot your purple pen one day. Let the fun stuff become the reward after you’ve done it for three to four weeks.”

• Decide which planner pages you need (start with the list above). Set them up in a format that makes sense using boxes that divide your pages into places for tasks, list-making, events and other activities. Add dates and page numbers for your index.

“Figure out what works for you; there are no journal police looking over your shoulder to make sure you follow a bunch of rules,” she says.

“Be honest with yourself about how much time and energy you actually have (and are willing to spend) on your dot journal – and on that note – do make the time for it when you first start.”

• “Make the time for it — say, 15 minutes a day, at a time of day when you won’t have a bunch of distractions or be able to make excuses. If you follow through, it will keep you on task.”

Biggest mistake when dot journaling

“If you find that looking at photos of other people’s journals on Instagram or Pinterest is stressing you out or making you feel inadequate, stop looking at photos of other people’s journals on Instagram or Pinterest!” she says.

• Treat things like markers, washi tape (decorative tape), and more time-consuming spreads like fun extras to add in once you’ve built the core habit.

• Don’t create a journal for the internet. Create a journal that you like, that feels special and useful to you.

• Try not to censor yourself. This is your private space to record really intimate aspects of your life; be as honest as you can (safely!) be in your dot journal.

Staying motivated

“When I first started, I was motivated by the promise of this system being good and useful for me, and filling a space in my life that I wanted to fill,” she says. “These days, I’m motivated by so many aspects of it, but mainly, it’s the fact that dot journaling keeps me organized and sane.

“Spending less time online/on my phone is really appealing, and my obsession with recording and preserving history is also a big part of it — and I just really like writing things down, and always have!”

• • •

Wilkerson Miller says a lot people react to the idea of dot journaling with: Who has that kind of time?

“I think it’s good to remember that most of the people who are doing this lead busy, active lives — they are parents, they are students, they work outside the home,” she says. “They make time for journaling because they feel like it’s important and worthwhile and adds something to their lives.

“Also, if you have the time to write ‘Who has that kind of time?’ on articles on the internet, the answer is probably… you. You have the time. Stop yelling at people on the internet and go yell in your journal for a little while.”

And finally…

If you still struggle with the concept of getting beyond list-making and learning to block out layouts on pages, and use symbols and pictures to get things moving, go check out Doug Neill’s website (www.verbaltovisual.com). “Sketch-noting” uses many of the same principles as dot journaling. Watching Neill’s video tutorials will help you wrap your head around the idea of retaining more by using a combination of pictures, symbols and text. And really — retention is the whole reason we use (and love) planners anyway.

Twitter: @WendyKinginWpg