# What's the deal with Bullet Journaling?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-bullet-journaling/824440>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 13, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-bullet-journaling/824440 "2018-11-13T01:44:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-bullet-journaling/824440/1 "2018-11-13T01:44:41Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-bullet-journaling/824440/2 "2018-11-13T02:26:34Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-bullet-journaling/824440/3 "2018-11-13T03:31:22Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-bullet-journaling/824440/4 "2018-11-13T16:43:52Z")

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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!!