Virtual Bullet Journals

A virtual bullet journal combines the mindful benefits of a daily journal with a digital notebook that’s easy to take with you anywhere. Depending on your approach to virtual bullet journals, another advantage over paper journals is not having to write your notes longhand … or having to improve your handwriting enough to be able to read those notes after they were written.

If you use a platform that lets you access your virtual notebook from multiple locations, then you don’t even need to remember a device – just login on whatever computer, tablet, or phone you have handy.

• Related: Gaming Bullet Journals – Our take on using bullet journal methods to chronicle your video game progress.

Digital & Virtual Bullet Journal Resources

• Friday.app – 9 Best Online Digital Bullet Journals in 2022
  • Reviews of ClickUp, Day One, Grid Diary, NotePlan, Journal It!, Journey, Trello, Asana, Elisi
• Make Use Of – The 6 Best Bullet Journal Apps for Effortless Bullet Journaling
  • Reviews of Trello, NotePlan, Taskade, The Bullet Journal Companion, Dynalist, Elisi
• Dairy of a Journal Planner: How To Start Digital Bullet Journal In 2022
  • A high level overview of digital bullet journaling that covers things like picking a tablet, using a stylus, and suggestions on how to use apps to take notes.
• Zapier – How to design a digital bullet journal
  • Advice on why to go virtual, how to pick a digital bullet journal app, and overviews of using Trello and Airtable to journal.
• Review Geek – The 8 Best Bullet Journal Apps
  • Reviews of a variety of bullet journal apps, rating them on criteria such as Closest-to-Paper Experience (GoodNotes for iOS) and Great Multipurpose App (Elisi), and Best Security Features (Day One)
• The Verge: What keeping a bullet journal taught me about using to-do list apps
• Bullet Journal Companion – iOS | Android
  • The official companion apps by Bullet Journal.

Hybrid Virtual / Real-world Bullet Journal

For my part, I follow a hybrid method. My bullet journal – a royal blue Leuchtturm1917 – is always in my messenger bag, but my messenger bag isn’t always with me. To capture ideas and tasks while out in the real world, I use Google Keep on my phone. I also use it during meetings when I don’t have time to pull out my bullet journal and jot down tasks.

Google Keep is a digital notebook that you can use to capture text, images, and even doodles. For bullet journaling, I use the check list functionality. My work flow is:

1. Each month, I create a “[Month Name] Intake List” note.
2. I set the display option to “checkboxes”
3. As the month progresses, I add tasks to the list.
4. Every few days, I import those tasks into my bullet journal.
5. At the end of the month, if I have any remaining tasks, I add them to my bullet journal or copy them into the next month’s intake list.

I don’t like keeping to-dos in my intake list, because it turns it into something of a backlog graveyard. But at the same time, I don’t want to copy it into my bullet journal if I’m not ready to actually deal with it.

Backlog Alternatives

Alternative strategies I’ve pursued for managing the backlog include:

• Creating a “Backlog of Doom” in my bullet journal for tasks I should do, but haven’t gotten to.
• For tasks that are “watch this video” or “read this blog post”, I move them into a separate “Media to Consume” note in Google Keep. Then, when I have some downtime, I review it and pick some things to watch/read/listen to.

Everything else – my day-to-day tasks, my habit tracker, my weekly schedule, etc. – goes into my paper BuJo. For more about how I use my bullet journal, including example spreads, check out “My Approach to Bullet Journaling on Nuketown.