Here we go with part 2 of Bullet Journaling using Todoist. It's been a while since I published part 1 of this series, and that's probably okay because it has given me a chance to see if the bullet journal format I initially talked about works in the long run. I've had a few changes; most are cosmetic or simplify the process by reducing the number of clicks or movement of an item.

As I pointed out in part 1, the "index" talked about in the bullet journal is automatically created in Todoist. The "future log" has become a central component of my workflow, and I have consolidated the "daily log" under each month, as pictured below.

Future Log December 2019 - Daily Log 2019-12-20

I use "Future Log temp" to capture everyday items such as "Take recycling to curb," which occurs every other week. I have to do it, but I want to avoid the reminder clogging up my essential items that may or may not happen on the same day. I set up reminders so Todoist will automatically move them forward or to the date, I want to see the item again. An excellent example of this would be a phone call to my Dentist. I want to be reminded of the call; however, not until after the first of the year. When it shows up in my Today Box, I'll move it to Daily Log and treat it like any other call. Other items captured under the Future Log Temp list are: "Email - Zero" (daily), Items I'm waiting for, and "Water Softener check and fill," to name a few.

Consolidating daily logs under future logs made it easier to archive each month. As I complete meetings, events, and tasks, I create new daily records of activities and notes. Then, at the end of the month, I drag and drop the entire month to my archive storage location. Sinking a whole month into archives worked fine until I needed to search for something. The Todoist search engine is adequate, but with all the daily histories, it simply became too crowded with the "history" side of a bullet journal.

I also expanded flags to resemble the Getting Things Done methodology more closely because I am used to the context format of GTD I use at work. Here is the mishmash process I find highly functional for my productivity.

First, I use a separate program for all my 20,000 and up categories to use the Getting Things Done vocabulary. In other words, I keep my purpose, vision, roles, and goals separate from another program called The Brain. TheBrain is a form of mind-mapping software I have used since 2005. It currently contains 30,424 “thoughts,” which include journal entries, trip reports, lists of peaks, hikes, books I’ve read, etc. It also consists of 48,519 links between those thoughts as I chase down rabbit trails containing my roles and goals. I’ve tried to use The Brain for actions on numerous occasions, and perhaps if I sat at a single computer all day, it would work just fine. On the other hand, Todoist exists simply for the 10,000-foot runway items in getting things done. Todoist has helped me keep a crisp, clean, and straightforward daily action list by limiting my use case.

Second: I use a future log for each month of the year, twelve months in advance. When I start a new month - December 2019 - as an example, I create December 2020 at the bottom of the future log list. The double entry makes it easy to capture rolling dates like birthdays and Christmas.

Third: I use a daily log captured under the monthly-future record.

Click on the month to see all my monthly commitments organized or sorted in date order (option found under the three-dot project menu). I can scroll down if I want to see daily items, but I don't generally do this because:

Fourth: Daily items run from newest to oldest. Part of the reason it runs this way is to avoid dragging and dropping each day to reverse order upon creating the daily log.

Fifth: I don't keep historical information on Todoist anymore. I use Todoist in the way that Todoist excels at, namely, items and lists. Each day I capture things, notes, thoughts, ideas, books I want to read, articles I should read, company reports, Christmas cards I should respond to, etc. All items are captured under the daily log. Years ago, I read a blog article by Jason Womack, who, at the time, was a coach for Getting Things Done.

I don't write things down to get them done. Whether they get done or not is up to future events unfolding in an order that may facilitate productive/efficient choice-making. I write things down to forget about them; get them out of my mind, and come back to where I am...when I am

I use the Todoist daily log to capture items by writing them down. The beauty of Todoist is its multi-platform ability. In a line at the store, I use my phone; at work, I use my work computer; at home, I use either my home computer or notebook. Have a thought while reading? Open Todoist and jot it down. You can set Todoist up to capture voice messages; Google Home can be set up to capture items into the inbox. Truly there shouldn’t be a thought you think that you can’t capture if you need to. Thankfully we don’t need to capture all of them, but gone should be the days of thinking, “oh I need to write that down before I forget it.” I use the flags discussed above to put items into context if needed. Does the item need to be done at work? @Office, Is it a call? @Call, Putting up Christmas decorations? @Home-indoors. Including transferring the note and reference material to my TheBrain software; I use @PBrain. I then use the Autofocus System to process my items.

The autofocus system is designed to be on paper or notebook, but I find it easily adapts to Todoist and the daily log. The concept is simple. "As you think of a new item, add them to the end of the list" or, in this case, add them to the daily log. Click on the daily log 2019-12-15, click the + button and type in the item. Bullet Journaling is correct in its assumption of capturing notes in short phrases, getting them into the system, and reviewing them at a more appropriate time.

The quoted numbered items below are from autofocus, and I think the magic of using Todoist for Bullet Journaling and productivity.

1. Read quickly through all the items on the page without taking action on any of them.

Scroll to the oldest day in your Daily Log; remember, this could be last month, although I try not to let them get that old (see number 7 below).

2. Go through the page more slowly looking at the items in order until one stands out for you.
3. Work on that item for as long as you feel like doing so.

This is the secret to getting things done and getting started on something. I like this format of scanning, looking, thinking, and using your intuition to help pick an item. It also helps when personal energy levels are low, and you might be cherry-picking the most specific items on the list, but the concept is the same, if it’s on the list and it catches your attention, then it probably needs to be done. In the picture above, note the item: Install: Furnace Filter (every three months from the install date). Upon reading this item, I went downstairs to install a new filter and found that I didn’t have any new ones remaining. New todo item: Buy: 2 Ace Filters and tag as an Errand. You’ll learn in 4 below that I brought this item to the current date and added the new to-do item. I worked on the item “as long as I felt like doing so,” or in this case, as far as I could.

4. Autofocus says to Cross the item off the list, and re-enter it at the end of the list if you haven't finished it.

In Todoist, it is more productive and requires fewer keystrokes to simply hashtag #todays-date to move the item forward. (I generally note what I accomplished before moving the item). Keep in mind that this is where David Allen’s GTD methodology regarding the next actions should apply. Whatever is listed should morph from a random thought you captured into a doable action. Also, in the picture above, “Print and mail: Marilyn Christmas Letter.” This was initially captured as Respond: Christmas card received from Marilyn. It moved forward as Write: Marilyn Christmas Letter, where I used the comments section of Todoist to capture my letter over a couple of days, moving forward each day. After I print and mail the letter, I will complete the item. Another item that occurs regularly for me is a book I want to read. When I first downloaded the book, it was added to the daily log as Read: Tribe (Kindle unlimited). When I started to read the book, it moved forward to today’s date with Reading: Tribe (Kindle unlimited). It moves forward almost daily as I read the book, then changes to Finished reading: Tribe (Kindle Unlimited) @PBrain. The label reminds me to add the book to The Brain journal entry along with my review of the book. I then complete the item on Todoist.

5. Continue going around the same page in the same way. Don't move onto the next page (date) until you complete a pass of the page without any item standing out. (this can be done quite quickly)
6. Move to the next page (date) and repeat the process.

Remember, you don’t have to take action on an item on every page; look for the ones on which you are ready to move. In a sense, this closely resembles Structured Procrastination.

7. If you go to a page and no item stands out for you on your first pass through it, then all the outstanding items on that page are dismissed without re-entering them.

This is the critical behavior of reviewing your captured items from oldest to newest. At some point, you have to question if you will read that magazine that is now a month or a month old. If it no longer stands out, complete it off the list and throw the magazine into the trash.

8. Once you've finished with the final page (today date), re-start on the first page (date) that is still active.

I delete the date in the daily log when there are no longer any items listed for that day (EDIT: If you want to keep a true Bullet Journal, do not delete the date, complete the task, but keep the date so that you can refer to Todoist’s “show completed tasks” if desired). This keeps my Todoist clean and helps me to focus my energy only on those items that continue to hold my attention. Ideally, a date in the daily log should be zeroed out over a month or two, meaning no items should remain in the daily log for that date. Suppose I’m not bringing an item forward to a more current date (meaning I’ve taken no action on the item, see #3 & #4 above) for months. In that case, this means I can’t reform the task into a more specific doable action, or I can’t figure out what the exact next step is that needs to be done to be able to complete the task, or I can’t bring myself to spend a couple of minutes on an item. If this is the case, the item must be deleted from the daily log. The item might appear again in the future, but as Jason Womack indicated, That’s not really up to me; it’s up to “future events unfolding in an order that may facilitate… choice-making.” It’s my job to capture those items and create an environment where making that choice is facilitated efficiently.