The Struggle of Working for Yourself
The great thing about working for yourself is that you get to be your own boss. The downside of that equation is that you must be your own boss. Like many creatives, one of the first challenges I faced was engineering my own productivity. In the moment, I would often shrug when things would fall through the cracks only to suffer from anxiety later on. I needed to learn how to be my own supervisor.
My first attempt was to use a journaling app to write down a reflection of the previous day as well as what I wanted to accomplish on the current day. Every morning, I would make three lists: things I NEEDED to do, things I SHOULD do if I finished the items from the previous list, and things I WANTED to do if I finished both previous lists. That worked okay at first, and I finished my first novel using that system. However, it was easy to put off and I had to consult it frequently to remember what needed doing. Since I was using my iPad as my primary device at the time, this meant a lot of ponderous app-switching which tended to knock me out of whatever creative groove I had found. Small annoyances, true, but annoyances nonetheless.
One day on twitter, I came across some tweets from comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnick that would change my life. She was talking about something called a Bullet Journal. I followed her links to the site and after watching a few of the videos, I decided that this was worth trying.
That was a year ago. Since that time, I have completed a novella, edited and published my second novel, finished the rough draft of my third novel, found a place to live in a new city, planned the next novel series after this one, and have gotten halfway through writing a graphic novel as well as improving my skills as a visual artist so that I can illustrate the graphic novel myself. And I did it with the help of the Bullet Journal.
Basics of Bullet Journaling
Essentially, the Bullet Journal is a regular journal which the user transforms into a planner. You’re probably thinking, “Why don’t I just use a planner?” If planners work for you, by all means go and use them. But if you’re still reading this, I’m guessing it’s because you’ve already tried using planners and have yet to stick with them. When I use my Bullet Journal to create my own planner – writing down every day of the month, writing tasks for each month/week/day, feeling the rush of crossing out their bullets – I don’t feel like I’m just adding my own desires to a day which may have a plan of its own. I feel as though I’m creating that day. It gives me a sense of control which I don’t get when I write in a planner that someone else designed.
Because my Bullet Journal is something that I am making myself, I can change it or tweak it however best suits my needs. This last summer, for example, I began to feel overwhelmed by the monthly tasks in the day-to-day. This translated into a lot of carry-over and missed personal deadlines. I solved this problem (for now) by adding my own Weekly Tasks module. This helped my brain not to freak out at the monthly tasks and tackle them one weekly bite at a time.
However, while I was completing the tasks themselves, I started to have problems with my split focus (prose novels + comic scripting + art). Every month, I would end up favoring one over the other and would feel like I was failing one of these areas. So I introduced a new aspect to the task journaling: color coding! I split my life into four parts: prose, comics, business, personal. I’ve only been doing this a few weeks but I already see an improvement in developing each of these areas of my life and productivity and I no longer feel like I’m leaving essential parts of myself behind.
The next modification I’m working on is something I have termed “power-ups.” What I’ve started doing is making two columns, with the primary tasks listed on the left. If I finish those “must-do” tasks, then I move on to the power-ups. I started this because I want to push myself and not become comfortable or lazy with a constant routine. If they start to stress me out then I’ll get rid of them, but for now they push me to do more.
Bullet Journal helps me get things done without making me feel stressed out if certain things take a little longer. If you’re struggling with getting things done or are falling into a guilt hole whenever you have to push something off until later, the Bullet Journal offers a lot of flexibility and practicality that helps me and might just help you too.