The Productivity Subculture That Won’t Quit
How BuJo is inspiring endless creative strategies to stay organized
Part 1 of a two-part series on bullet journaling, exploring the rise of its culture, its many uses, and the benefits of this productivity practice.
My decades-long love affair with paper planners came to an end a few years ago, when I turned to digital productivity apps. But since then, I’ve missed the simple satisfaction that comes with putting pen to paper and mapping out your life on the page.
Turns out, I’m not alone.
In 2013, Brooklyn-based designer Ryder Carroll took the productivity world by storm when he introduced bullet journaling, a method that he developed to stay organized without being restricted to a preformatted planner template. As Carroll says in his bullet journal tutorial video, “I needed a system flexible enough to handle whatever I threw at it and fast enough that it wouldn’t get in the way.”
Carroll’s system, now more than 20 years in the making, has become all the rage. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just search the hashtag #BuJo on Instagram to see for yourself. Fair warning: Be prepared to lose a good chunk of time going down the rabbit hole of elaborate designs.
