What's the deal with Bullet Journaling?

All of a sudden I’m seeing and hearing this phrase pop up—bullet journaling. To be honest, I haven’t done a very deep dive, but from skimming, I take it that it’s basically a daily diary/appointment book that you design yourself on blank pages with multiple-colored ink?

Is that right? What’s the deal? Is it a general concept or is it something specific? Is it a proprietary method of some kind?

Do you keep a bullet journal? Why? What’s so special about it? What breakthrough in understanding of the human mind does it represent? What does it entail?

What’s the straight dope?

My wife bullet journals and largely it seems to function as a planner. Its real appeal seems to be that it’s obviously customizable and more importantly serves as a creative outlet to make something pretty and useful. I’m not sure that it makes her more productive or anything like that.

Yeah and also you get nifty little stencils that you can use to spiff up your pages with sharply drawn arrows and highlights. And there’s stickers, too.

I get the appeal but I think it’s a trap. In my life it would function mostly as a procrastination device.

There is a pretty sharp divide in the bujo community between decorative and functional bullet journaling. My gf is militantly on the functional side; no artwork for her Hobonichi!!