Using a Bujo for Work Works!

Do you have a bullet journal for personal use but when it comes to work, you prefer digital organizational tools?

You might be missing out.

If you’re already a bujo user, you probably know firsthand how fun it is as a creative outlet, how effective it is in helping build good habits and how great it is for your mental health.

But do you know that it’s also a pretty nifty project management tool? And that’s not all. Keep reading to find out how else you can use your bujo for work.

Keep a record of ideas, advice and other nuggets of wisdom that you pick up at work.

Ideas can strike anywhere, even when you’re working on something completely unrelated. Having a bujo on hand will help you quickly capture the idea, which you can explore or flesh out another time, so you can get back on the task at hand.

Sometimes, the good idea may not have even come from you. Your bujo is perfect for recording advice from mentors, insights and realizations from colleagues and anything else that you know is worth preserving.

Use the daily log system.

Meetings. Love them or hate them, but attendance is mandatory. And a productive way to stay engaged during meetings is to take notes.

If you’re a seasoned bujo user, daily logging is probably second nature to you and you have your key memorized. You’ll find it quite easy to adopt this method to note-taking at work.

However, you might need to come up with a whole new set of keys, which you will use not just for jotting down notes, but for your entire work bujo.

If you wear many hats at work or you manage several people, you may feel the need to assign each project or each department their own key. This way, you can easily keep track of your to-dos or tasks you delegated.

Keep a log of the good things.

No matter how much you love your job, there will be days where you will feel uninspired and just blah. Everything will feel routine and you might find it hard to remember what made you fall in love and say yes to this job in the first place.

One way to get out of this funk or to prevent it from happening is to take the time at the end of each workday to write down one work-related thing or experience that made you feel happy or grateful on that day.

This exercise will force you to think past your work ennui and reflect on the positive. Writing it down means you’ll have something you can look back on when you’re having a particularly tough day and you really, really need reminding of all the good stuff.

List down your to-dos for the next day.

We’re big fans of work-life balance. When the workday is done, it’s important to switch gears and clock out mentally.

To the workaholic types who find themselves thinking about work long after they’ve physically left their office, this might be hard to do. Here’s a practice that might make it easier.

Before you leave for the day, make a list of everything you need to do for the next day (or the next Monday). Get it out of your system and on paper.

Knowing you have a plan for the next day and that your to-dos will be waiting for you as soon as you get in can help you feel relaxed and confident that you don’t have to worry about a thing...at least until the next day.

Bujo for Work Works!

Don’t limit your bujo. It is a tool that can benefit you in all areas of your life. But it’s understandable why some people prefer to compartmentalize. It’s their way of preventing work stress from creeping into their personal lives.

If that sounds like you, feel free to maintain multiple bullet journals. You don’t have to use just one bullet journal at a time or one bullet journal for everything. Your bujo, your rules.

One last thing…

Should you leave your work bujo at work or do you take it home with you?

This is a tough one. Work emergencies do happen and you never know when you might need to refer to your bujo. Plus, some people get really great work ideas upon waking up or in the shower and they would want to be able to get it on paper before it escapes them.

On the other hand, we need to impose healthy boundaries between work and home life. It won’t do you any good to hustle all day at work and hustle even more when you get home. Having your work bujo with you just might encourage that.

We're not here to tell you what the right choice is. At the end of the day, no one knows yourself and what’s good for you better than you do. As we said, your bujo, your rules.

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