Falling back into Productivity with GoodNotes and Bullet Journaling

After a summer of medical in-betweens, I’m ready to fall back into productivity.  I have many ideas, but without trusted routines and a system I can rely on, these ideas never come to fruition.  Bullet journaling with GoodNotes has been my productivity system of choice for many years, but lately, I haven’t been faithful in my implementation.  This isn’t a huge surprise, given the ups and downs of these last few months.  

I can usually get away with not being focused in the mornings because my energy is high.  I will do my routines and get the basics done.  I have the habits ingrained- so they don’t take much effort.  I will do my basic morning routines whether I open my bullet journal or not.

Afternoon Challenges

But, come 2 PM, that all ends.  My coffee is finished, and I’m left with an afternoon of “What do I do now?”  Perhaps this has been exacerbated by the extreme heat we’ve been having over the last several weeks here.  When it’s 110 outside, who wants to do much of anything?  I certainly don’t, especially when I don’t have a plan. 

The afternoon is when my energy naturally dips, and I don’t have much creative flow.  It isn’t a good time for me to work on writing or website design.  I know this about myself, so the key for me is to be strategic with my daily tasks. If I want to write a post or design something new, I should do it in the morning when my creativity is at its peak.

Here’s where it’s gotten tricky for me.  When I’m on autopilot with my mornings, I will do the daily tasks with no problem.  But, I won’t work on the big projects.  Those aren’t in my mind because I haven’t opened up my bullet journal to think strategically. 

So, I fill my mornings with the easy things and then realize I haven’t done anything creative.  Unfortunately, it’s the afternoon when I don’t have the creativity to do what I wish I had done.

Talk about an unproductive cycle. Around 2 PM, I’ll be sitting on the couch, listening to my high-energy husband talking in his office, and I’m wondering if I should take a nap or watch a TV show.

Matching My Energy to My Activities

Those aren’t bad choices, especially if I’m feeling low energy.  I’ve been resting more in the afternoons with the heat and my surgical recovery from my most recent lumpectomy.  There isn’t anything wrong with taking time to recuperate. But, I’ve been feeling frustrated because I realize I didn’t do the things I wanted to when I had the energy to do them.

I’ve written before about the importance of when we do things throughout the day.  Certain tasks are easier to do when we are higher energy.  For me, that is content creation.  I do my best writing before lunch.  It takes me twice as long to get words on the page in the afternoon.  I know people who are the complete opposite.  In fact, my younger son seems to do his most creative work after I’ve gone to bed.  His favorite time to do art projects was after we had all gone to bed. I would get up in the morning and discover his paintings drying on the kitchen island.  

If we can be aware of when we are most energetic and creative and then schedule our routines around them, we can create with much more ease.

Inventory Before Doing

When I choose not to inventory my objectives for the day in my Bullet Journal, I lose the intentionality that comes with planning.  When I open up the blank page in the morning and take a few moments to write out what I hope to do for the day, my desires become concrete.

The physical act of writing- not typing- causes me to slow down.  As I form the letters and words on the page, I take my abstract thoughts and make them tangible. I can then pause and contemplate them.  Sometimes I realize that I have things on my calendar that will take emotional energy.  When I have a therapy appointment, I know I would benefit from reflection time before and after. By writing both my calendar appointments and my todos on the page, I see them together.  Then I can decide what will work well for me and what may need to move.

I think I’ve been hesitating to get back into bullet journaling because I’m afraid it will point out all the things I’m not doing well.  What if I write all these creative ideas down but can’t get to them?  How will I feel?  Isn’t it better to keep them in my head where I can’t judge them?

My 2 PM swirl would say otherwise.  If I were genuinely benefitting from keeping all these ideas in my head, 2 PM would come and go with no confusion or frustration.

A Walk for Clarity

This morning, I took a walk to Peet’s.  It has finally cooled off, and I’m ready to emerge from my cocoon of AC inside the house.  As I breathed in the scent of the trees and felt the breeze on my skin, I realized the immense freedom of possibility.  I had the opportunity to fall right back into productivity.  I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel.  I know what works for me. 

So, I opened up my bullet journal- with some new fall pages- and wrote some things down.  What posts did I want to edit and schedule?  What else did I want to work on today?  Were there things that I wanted to do for my book? As I sipped my mocha and listened to the birds, I courageously wrote my ideas down.  

Back to Bullet Journaling

Then, I opened my books app and decided to begin rereading the Bullet Journal Book (affiliate link).  What better way to motivate me to fall back into productivity than rereading the book?  Within the first few pages- these words stood out to me “The Bullet Journal is designed to be your “source of truth.” No, this is not some dubious invitation to worship this methodology. It means that you no longer have to wonder where your thoughts live.”

As I emerged from my recovery, I realized that I was using fractured systems to capture my thoughts—a to-do list here, a note there, and a new app.  I was trying to manufacture energy by dividing my ideas into different systems.  The results were not good.  I didn’t know where to go to find my pictures.  Did I put it in my calendar or the new productivity app?  Where did I write that journal entry?  

The scattered methods weren’t helping me be intentional with my efforts.

So, I’ve decided to return to bullet journaling with intentionality this fall.  If I write things down, it will be in my GoodNotes app.  Do I have an idea? It belongs in my Bullet Journal.  Do I want to journal about my day?  Then do it in GoodNotes.  One place for my thoughts, todos, plans, and reflections.

Falling back into productivity feels good.  I may not get all my ideas done in one day, but at least I will know where I put those ideas!

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