I want to hand-write everything!
But my world is too complex. Handwriting everything raises the cost of organization that I can't afford the time to keep up with it.
Yet, living in the digital world exclusively lowers to cost of entering new data to be too low. I have found I have the habit to overwhelm myself with ideas and commitments.
I used the Bullet Journal Method for roughly six years. It was great! Until it wasn't. It raised the cost of adding information high enough that it kept me focused, but the cost was simultaneously so high that I didn't always keep up with the complexity of my real life.
The 12 Week Year (12WY) has been immensely helpful. Though I still have way too many initiatives I've put on my own plate, working within a 12WY framework has helped me raise the most important items to the top of the list.
However, there's something I've always wanted to do: Run a 12WY out of a Bullet Journal! Three main reasons for this:
Having my 12WY off to one side helps me think of it separately from my run-of-the-mill tasks. Housing everything in a single physical object (a notebook) amplifies that exclusivity.
You avoid the anxiety of the Bullet Journal (BuJo) migration. In BuJo land, you're always wondering on what future day exactly you'll fill up your current notebook and have to buy a new one. My BuJo notebooks typically last between 3.5 - 5 months, so aligning them to a 12WY makes a lot of sense.
It becomes the perfect location to track improvements across a whole host of areas of life, capturing within the notebook a multifaceted, timebound snapshot of your life.
So, later today a fresh Leuchtturm1917 Hardcover A5 notebook will arrive at my house, and I'll be setting it up with the following sections:
Strategy - This will contain all the setup & planning components of a 12WY. For the newbie, I recommend The 12 Week Year Field Guide to learn all the steps and what "good" looks like.
Stats - The 12WY scoreboard. This will probably be a single spread across two pages that will include all numbers that I want to pay attention to over this next twelve weeks.
Sprints - My weekly plans (not sure I love the name of this section). Every week will have my 12WY tactics that need to be done for that week, info on schedule and other commitments, a place for habit tracking, and short one-line reviews for each day (like a BuJo monthly log).
Thoughts - One page per day. Very stream of consciousness, mirroring a Morning Pages exercise or 750words.com.
CLI (Captain's Log & Inbox) - The closest thing to a BuJo daily log combined with Cal Newport's WorkingMemory.txt, this is the place where I simply write the date and allow the ideas to flow. You can see it's both a 'log' and an 'inbox' (in Getting Things Done terms).
Fitness - I like to record my workouts in my notebook. Keep it open to record metrics throughout the session. Immediately after the session, plan out what weights, reps, time, etc. I intend for my next session.
Thanks - A simple gratitude journal. Every day write three lines that each begin with, "I'm thankful for ..." or "I'm so glad that ...."
Wins - This is my As Many Wins As Possible (AMWAP) section. Every evening, pop open the page and write a bunch of positive achievements from that day, no matter how insignificant that might seem. A win is a win.
As you can see, I'm developing my own little system here. It's not quite 12WY, but it's not quite BuJo either. It's a funny amalgamation of them with my own spin. I call this combination simply Devin Has A Notebook. They'll live on my shelf as DHAN Vol. I, DHAN Vol. II, and so on.
P.S. I'm thinking I might rename "Sprints" to "Weekly" and "CLI" to "Daily" to even further simplify my approach. I've got a little while to think on it still before I take pen to paper.
P.P.S. Will be using a green Lamy Safari with an extra-fine nib and Platinum Classic Khaki Black ink on a Leuchtturm1917 bright-yellow Bauhaus Edition dotted notebook.