Archiving old bullet journals in your own catalog

So you're getting ready to move to a new notebook. You probably want to make this transition as painless as possible. There are plenty of good ideas for setting up a new journal, but what if you want to keep the old journals? Lots of us do.

I just moved into a new bullet journal, the Universal Journal Slim. As the years go by, there will be many journals on my shelf since I intend to keep the old ones. In keeping things simple, I'd rather not reproduce old collections and other information into my new notebook unless it's really necessary. But if I need to reference an old journal I'd like that to be easy as well. So I'll use another journal to act as a long term catalog for my bullet journal archive.

Each time I move into a new notebook, I plan to copy the old index as a new chapter in the catalog. That way if I ever need to go back, I don't have to search each individual notebook. I can simply scan through the chapters of the catalog and find what I need. The catalog will need it's own index, of course. It's a bullet journal, too.

The originator of the bullet journal method, Ryder Carroll, also has some tips for migrating to a new notebook. See his post Yearly Migration.

I may work on a plan for a secondary list of the archive. It could be useful to have a topics list which references major aspects of this or that project I'm working on. For example, I design board games. Some are long term games with a lot of depth and replayability, customizability, etc. These are complex game designs and I can see how it would be helpful to be able to easily find an idea I had years ago and recorded in one or more notebooks. I'd prefer to somehow keep that all in one catalog if possible. Don't know how yet.

How do you keep track of info in your old journals? Comment here and be sure to subscribe.

Comments

Ultra-Streamlined Style Part 1

This first installment on the ultra-streamlined style will focus on the monthly module. It can be set up and filled in 10 minutes, focusing on a minimalist variation of the standard monthly module. (see the updated set up in this Plan with me video ) This technique features: one-time writing of the days of week and month extra space for expanded descriptions calendar items habit tracker standard monthly task list Style Set Up One of the ways of reducing set up time for your bullet journal is to avoid unnecessary rewriting. In this case, a habit tracker is included in the monthly set up, rather than creating a tracker separately. Habit trackers typically require setting up the days of the month and/or week separately from the normal monthly calendar - duplicated effort. Here is a summary of the ultra-streamlined monthly module and a visual example. weekly/monthly dates on the right side of the left page dashed lines separating weeks calendar on the left...

DIY Adding a band around your journal

If your notebook doesn't have a built in band, here are some DIY videos demonstrating two different methods to remedy that - building in a band. On YouTube, Sea Lemon offers a simple and quick way to add a rubber band around your journal. This particular method works best for a book with a thin, easy to puncture cover. It involves a hole-punch and a rubber band . (affiliate links) Also from Sea Lemon, for those who might want to try a more hard-core method of adding a band around your journal, here is a method for a hard cover book . It involves dismantling part of the back cover, cutting an elastic band , attaching it into the cover, and repairing the cover alteration from the first step. This method uses the following tools: (more affiliate links) Pencil Straight edge Cutting mat Bone folder Awl Xacto knife Utility knife Scissors Glue gun Do you have some other ideas for adding or techniques for using a band to a notebook? How do you keep track of yo...

Minimalist Bullet Journal Future Log Workflow

So you've spent some time building your bullet journal layouts and getting yourself organized. But it's just not quite working like you want it to. What's going on here? As is often the case, the what to do is only part of the question. How to do it is another. This is the first in a series of an amalgam between design and technique. Let's take a look at future log workflow. In this ultra-streamlined approach to bullet journaling, it's not only the layouts and designs that are minimalist, but the techniques for using the system as well. The flow of your tasks, appointments, etc. from one module to another can be tricky. Or it can be simple. It's all a matter of how you manage these things. In my journal, most items end up in the daily log for the day I intend to handle them. That may or may not happen on the actual day assigned but the most important thing is I don't lose track of stuff. The daily log is the last stage of a task/event filtering ...

Search This Blog