I was reading an old blog post from Ryder Carroll and he said the original bullet journal only had four collections

I mean, I've been adding trackers and weekly spreads and mood charts for ages, thinking that was the whole point. Finding out the guy who made it basically just used an index, a future log, a monthly log, and a daily log kind of blew my mind. It was on his personal site from like 2013. Has anyone else tried going back to just the core four and did it actually work better?

3 comments

3 Comments

averym821mo ago

Ryder Carroll's original system was just a simple tool to get things done. All the extra trackers and spreads we add now can turn it into a chore. Why do we overcomplicate a method that was meant to be basic?

ray_carr1mo ago

Wait, he only used four collections? I spent hours last week drawing a perfect habit tracker with little watercolor flowers. My monthly spread has color coded stickers for everything. Are you telling me all that extra work might be missing the point? I feel like I built a whole mansion when all I needed was a solid chair to sit on.

the_jake1mo ago

I was at dinner last week with some friends and one guy spent ten minutes talking about his elaborate meal prep system with color coded containers and a whiteboard schedule. Another guy just said "I eat eggs and rice when I'm hungry." The second guy seemed way more chill about his whole life actually. @ray_carr your mansion metaphor hit hard because I think we do this with everything now, not just bullet journals. People buy standing desks with treadmill attachments and meditation apps and productivity planners trying to hack their way into being organized when really the simpler version just works better. I tried stripping my bujo down to the four collections last month and honestly I stopped dreading opening the thing every morning.