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Frugal Cooking Tastes Better

I make stock from the turkey carcass every Thanksgiving. I love turkey stock and got a gallon of it this year — wonderful rich liquid gold, I tell you.

Instead of popping this right in the freezer, I’m going to put these bad boys in the fridge to let the fat rise and solidify. I know what you’re thinking. I’m doing that for low-fat stock, so I’ll be throwing it away.

Are you on CRACK?

Save that stuff. You want poultry and dumplins soup that will make you swear to be a better person for the rest of your life for just one plateful? Use the poultry fat instead of butter or oil for the dumplins and you’ll have a little bowl of Heaven.

Besides which, if I bought that turkey by the pound, I paid for that fat. Why buy extra butter, right?

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I Had to Test Something

it literally smells like waking up on a cold night to find a bearded richard armitage adding another quilt to the bed before he gets back in and pulls you snugly against his chest — stepone.tumblr.com

So, I saw this and just had to go to the Yankee Candle store in my town to test it. I had no intentions of buying it, but I was curious.

Friends?

It’s true. It’s completely true. There are many other comparisons made to it, but this one is the most accurate. And don’t be silly. Even Tightwad Noël bought that.

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To Support and Defend: Article One, Section One

In the light of recent events, and a sleepless night pondering what in the world I should be doing, my oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States started poking at me pretty hard.

The problem came in when I realized that I don’t actually know the document all that well. It also occurred to me that I couldn’t possibly be the only person in that position, so why not read it and do the analysis publicly? Knowing the foundation of our country and how it was set up, understanding the framework for our laws cannot be a bad thing in any way, right?

As I mentioned before, I am a layman. I don’t even have a college education. Would a lawyer understand the precedent and subtleties of US Constitution better than I do? Of course she would! That’s fine. It still cannot be a bad start to look at the text as it is there, throw in a minor bit of history as I understand it and see where we go with it.

We went over the Preamble last week, but before we jump in, I want to go over how the Constitution is set up.

The US Constitution is broken down into seven Articles, each article having between one and ten sections. These sections describe what the government is set up to do, as well as loosely the process by which it will do it. After the main body of the Constitution, we also have the Amendments – thirty-three of them as of this writing. The Amendments are important. Showing a level of foresight rare for we impatient Americans, the framers of the Constitution recognized that as our country grew and changed, it was entirely possible that our needs would change as well. We have a method to change our minds. This is important. The Constitution is meant to be a dynamic document by design.

It also behooves us to think very, very carefully about what we want. We could amend the Constitution utterly to destroy the Republic. It’d be legal, and Yours Truly would be bound by her oath to go along with it. Make no mistake, this is a double-edged sword. We need to use it wisely. (Though keep in mind, we who have taken that oath? A movement to destroy the Republic might be interpreted as a domestic enemy, just sayin’.)

With that said, our next step is going to be really simple, and even easier to understand than that Preamble we discussed last week:

Article I

Section 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

There you have it. The power to make a law (legislative comes from the Latin word “legis,” meaning “law.”) of the United States of America is given to Congress. Congress has two sections – a Senate and a House of Representatives.

I’m not going to get into serious interpretation and interaction here yet because yes, there is a whole can o’ worms involving orders and decisions given by other branches of government. We’ll get to that as we go through this series, but I am building step by step and keeping it simple section by section. The whole point of this series is to show what is written down as the text of the Constitution. Yes, it’s simplistic. I also think that you do not come to understand anything deeply until you understand it at its most simplistic level.

Next week we will be talking about Article 1, Section 2 – This talks about qualifications for legislative office and discusses how we decide on numbers of representatives and several other things. This section is much longer and more complex.

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Support and Defend: Our National Mission Statement

Recent events have caused me to think hard on an oath I took back in 1990:

I, Noel Figart, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

As I was thinking harder about it, I realized that while I’ve read the US Constitution, I certainly have not analyzed it in any great detail. Over the next several months, I am going to be taking the Constitution article by article, analyzing it and then giving my opinion about what is meant.

I am a lawyer? Nope. I am an absolute layman. If you read this series, please keep in mind that while I’m bright enough and a history buff, I am neither a professional historian nor legal scholar. I earn a vast majority of my living as a tech editor and computer applications instructor. This is going to be the Layman’s Interpretation of the US Constitution.

I am taking the text of the US Constitution from the National Archives. (Hey, a childhood spent in a Southern Baptist Church really did encourage citing versions for text analysis!)

Today we’re going to start simply – The Preamble. This part, like most people of my age group, I do have memorized. Hurrah for, Schoolhouse Rock!

The Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We the People of the United States is an interesting way to start this. Was People a narrower definition than “human being within our geographic confines?” Yeah, it was. But it was a defiance and a change, nonetheless. In breaking from England, we were saying that we are no longer subjects of a higher power – specifically a monarchy. We, collectively as the humans here, are making this statement and deciding for ourselves what we want to happen. This, my friends, is very much a national mission statement.

What is the mission statement for the United States of America?

  1. We want to perfect our government. The “more perfect union” was acknowledging that the Articles of Confederation that preceded the US Constitution wasn’t working out so well. That whole Union of States thing needed some help. This document is meant to help perfect that. This, to me, does mean that yeah, the US Constitution is meant to be dynamic. As our knowledge and understanding improves, we can perfect how we govern ourselves.
  2. We want to establish justice. One of the goals of our nation and government, in the first twenty words, is that we are to be a just nation. Do we ever fail at this? Yes. Circle back to the first part. The intention is that we continually try for a more perfect union.
  3. We want to ensure domestic tranquility. War on our shores an in our land was in recent memory. After justice, we want peace.
  4. We want to mutually defend each other and create a means by which to do so. We want to mutually protect ourselves from threats. “Defence” is not defined here, and at the time this really meant physical defense. The New World was a hot and lucrative property. We claimed it, nobody else was allowed to come take it. (Sorry, this ain’t all pretty.)
  5. We want to promote the general welfare.
    We want to make sure that We the People of the United States are doing okay. Welfare did have a standard of living connotation. The population should have enough to eat and opportunities for personal betterment. And frankly, content populations don’t riot. Hunger riots were in recent memory. (See Boston Bread Riot as an example)
  6. We want the advantages of a free society for ourselves and the future generations. What we decide, how we vote, what we choose should be done with an eye to those who come after us. What do we want for future generations?
  7. We want to use what we’ve written down here in this little document (it’s fewer than 5,000 words…) to be used to accomplish this. We are saying that we’ve put down what we’re trying to accomplish and we’re going to use the Constitution as a foundation document to do so.

That’s the first analysis. This is going to be a weekly column for a while, as I expect to be heading down the research rabbit hole once or twice. I’m going to try to keep this in small, digestible chunks – going by articles and sections before we get to individual amendments.

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Facebook is the Television of Social Media

I quit Facebook.

Okay, it’s mostly the election. It has made me realize that I’m exposing myself a lot to people and behaviors I do not want to model – even from people I consider quite decent people. I know from past experience that I will rise or sink to the behaviors around me, so, that was a no-brainer in Noël’s World. Perhaps if I were of stronger character, that would not make a difference. But I’m not. Since the human being I want to be is important to me, that’s one biggie.

The other reason is that I am finding that it is reducing my attention span and putting my attention in the wrong places. It’s a distraction from writing fiction. It’s a distraction from taking the time to build out ideas that would be useful.

I also think it was kind of like putting saccharine in a hummingbird feeder. I was getting the sweet taste I would get from my limited need for social interaction, but it wasn’t like I was actually maintaining real, live relationships. I was anxious and burnt out from all the crap online and as a byproduct didn’t want to hang out with people in real life. That’s not a good idea, either for me or people I am close to. While I can see online interaction being a boon to people who are shut-in or distant from people they want to interact with, I am not entirely sure the Facebook wall is good for that. It encourages some amazingly thin and shallow dialog that would be better served via other means of communication. As a member of alt.callahans back in the day, as well as having met many of my RL friends first online, I am not going to knock online communication as a way to connect, mind. There has been an explosion of community building that is truly excellent, and I’m glad it’s there.

I’m not even going to knock funny pictures of cats being forwarded and things like that. Sharing humor can be a good thing.

It’s that the format of Facebook doesn’t really encourage deliberate selection or what I can only call content creation. Yes, you can filter your feed down pretty heavily. But still, it’s a lot more about passive consumption even if it feels interactive. I lost my taste for passive consumption back when I was about twelve, had gotten a really bad report card and had been banned from the television for six weeks. While it wasn’t exactly my parents’ intent, it did break my fondness for being fed information without serious processing from me. (Never did fix my grades, but that’s another story entirely).

The algorithms that control your feed are influenced by your reaction and interaction with the material, but not entirely in ways that I could in any way call curation of that material. Hmmm… curating what you feed your brain. There’s a topic for another article. If you jump on it before I do, comment with the link to it, because I would like to read your thoughts on that! This goes back to passively sitting in front of the television for hours. You’re emotionally engaged. You’re reacting. But you’re not choosing very deliberately what you’re feeding your brain. If you’re at all concerned about the person you’re becoming, it’s worth a thought or two.

After being away only a few days, I do notice how interacting with Facebook has influenced my behavior. I often report silly conversations between my husband I and on my wall. It’s mildly funny and generally benign, so I can’t say it’s contributing to anything bad in the world. But, what’s the important thing – enjoying the conversation with my husband or reporting what was said and polishing it for humor’s sake? I mean, that starts to make it sound like so-called reality TV, doesn’t it? If you know me at all, you know I have Views about reality TV, and few of them printable. This morning, my husband said something funny in response to a comment, and I got the urge to polish and format it to put on Facebook. Then I felt pretty foolish.

I don’t even want to get into what the habit of paying attention in tiny slices has done to my writing. It’s going to take years for me to recover from that!

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Freeze Ahead Recipes

I’m a new grandmother, have done a Grandma Thing, and made up a bunch of food for my daughter and her new family. These are all recipes she is familiar with me serving, but I don’t think I’ve ever made any of these specific dishes with her, so I wrote this up. After doing so, I realized that maybe putting it where it can be found easily online might not be a bad idea.

Really, almost anything that can be cooked in a crock pot can be frozen ahead to be cooked. These are all pretty easy. Conceivably you could freeze up a recipe while cooking another, and slowly stock your freezer that way, if you wanted to. Certainly for those who don’t have a whole hour at a time to spare, that’s a decent way to sneak up on freezer cooking.

We have also found that these freeze-ahead meals are a good choice if you know anyone who might need some help (illness, new baby, bereavement – anytime you might bring someone food) because they can go in the freezer for a later time. If you do that, make sure you know if they have a slow cooker! I also strongly recommend writing the cooking instructions clearly on the bag.

Beef Stew

  • 1 lb. stew beef, diced
  • 4 medium potatoes, diced
  • 4 large carrots, diced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 Tbsp. garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp. beef base
  • 2 t each: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme (Yes, I went there)
  • ½ c. red wine

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer)

Chicken Vegetable Stew

  • 1 lb. chicken, diced
  • ½ lb. frozen vegetables (don’t knock it. This is cheap and easy)
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 Tbsp. garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp. chicken base
  • 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tsp sage

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker with about 1 qt. water, and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer)

Curry

  • 1 lb. chicken, diced
  • 2 medium potatoes, diced
  • 1 c. plain yogurt
  • 1/4 c. raisins, ground
  • 1/4 c. cashews, ground
  • 1 c. peaches, mango, or apricots
  • 1 15 oz can coconut milk
  • 1 large onions
  • 3T garlic
  • 3T sliced fresh ginger (Powered is also fine)
  • 4 T curry powder
  • ½ can tomato paste

Warning, a slight pain in the ass. But oh so very good.

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer) Serve over rice.

Fifteen Bean Soup

  • 1 lb. Italian sausage, molded into balls, or 1 lb. browned and drained hamburger.
  • ½ lb. mixed beans, cooked. (They sell 13-16 bean mixtures all over the place)
  • 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 T garlic, minced
  • 1 T Chili powder
  • 2 t cumin

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker with about 1 qt. water, and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer)

Spaghetti Sauce

  • 1 lb. Italian sausage, molded into balls, or 1 lb. browned and drained hamburger.
  • 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 T garlic, minced
  • 1 T dried oregano
  • 1 T dried basil

Optional

  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 red pepper, diced. (Yes, I did this to sneak in veggies…. Don’t look at me like that. Spaghetti sauce is a great way to do it, and you’ll try it, too)

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer) Serve over pasta. Or eat a damn bowl of it, why not?

Taco Stew

  • 1 lb. browned and drained hamburger.
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 T garlic, minced
  • 1 15 oz. can black beans or ½ c. dry black beans, cooked.
  • 1 15 oz can corn
  • ½ small can tomato paste
  • 1 T taco seasoning or 1 T chili powder
  • 2 t cumin

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer). Serve over tortilla chips. Good with shredded cheese, salsa and sour cream.

White Chili

  • 1 lb. chicken, diced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 Tbsp. garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp. Chicken base
  • 1 small can diced green chili peppers
  • 2 cans white beans or 1 c. dry white beans, cooked.
  • 1 T cumin

Put in a gallon bag. Squeeze the air out. Freeze flat.

To cook, thaw overnight. Put in slow cooker with about 1 qt. water, and cook on low 6-8 hours. (Can go longer)

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Rice Bag Heating Pad

I live in Northern New England. While Autumn hasn’t been particularly cold this year, nights are definitely getting colder. I am too cheap to heat the house much, so I rely on many things to keep warm – hand-knit wool sweaters, socks and shawls, hot soups for dinner and hot drinks.

They’re all nice, but sometimes the cold gets to be a bit much. That’s when I bring out another weapon in my arsenal against the cold. This is the Rice Bag Heating Pad.

Heat this baby up in the microwave, and you can warm your bed, put it at your feet and cover with a blanket or use like you would use any heating pad for aches and pains.

It’s easy to make and incredibly useful. While you can make it exactly according to the directions given, the directions are mostly guidelines. There are only a couple of things you really want to be cautious about and I’ll talk about that.

How to Make a Rice Bag Heating Pad

Materials Needed

  • ¾ yard of 45″ wide cotton fabric. You do not want to use synthetic fibers for this, as they can melt. Quilting cotton is cheap enough. Use that.
  • Thread that will match or contrast nicely with fabric, as it will show when you sew the channels.
  • 4 2/3 cups of rice (The third of a cup thing was only because I happened to grab a 1/3 c measuring cup for this, but it’s about right for the size of the pad and the channels I’ve sewn)

Cutting the Fabric

I actually made a pattern for this just because I was doing this blog post. In real life, I would have simply measured the piece and marked it with tailor’s chalk.

  • Fold the fabric lengthwise.
  • Cut 18″ wide by 13″ long on the fold. You’ll have a piece that’s 18″x26″ when unfolded.

Sewing the bag

  • Turn fabric wrong side up and press.
  • At each 18″ end fold down about an inch and press.
  • Sew folded edges down. You’ll want to do this because otherwise you’ll have to sew a raw edge. This makes it neater.

  • With right sides together, sew a not too narrow seam at both 13″ edges to make a bag.
  • Turn right side out and press. (You always press your seams, right? <stern look>)

  • Using tailor’s chalk, mark channels at about 2 ½” wide. Yes, you’re marking and sewing the right side of the fabric. That’s why you use tailor’s chalk or something that rubs off easily. This doesn’t need to be absolutely exact. It is only necessary that the channels be wide enough to hold decent volume of rice to hold heat, but still distribute it evenly. Getting right angles well is a bonus. I eyeballed it and totally didn’t.

  • Sew along the chalk marks to create channels. This is why you either want thread that makes an attractive contrast or is the same color as the fabric. It’s going to show.

Filling the bag

You don’t actually have to use rice. I’ve known of people using buckwheat hulls and other materials. It’s only that the materials should be able to take being heated in a microwave without catching on fire. If you use rice, make absolutely sure you also put a mug with an inch or so of water in the microwave to heat along with it. Otherwise, yes, you absolutely can start a fire. What’s worse, that fire could start while you’re snoozing under that toasty blanket. Don’t be stupid. Heat it with some steam. You have been warned.

Fill each channel with about 2/3 c of rice. I don’t really recommend eschewing a funnel unless you’re infinitely neater-handed than I am. I’d get rice everywhere if I tried that.

Like my fancy funnel? I have one for liquids, but the mouth is a hair too narrow for rice to flow in well. Never improvised a day in my life…

Now, all you have to do is sew down the open end. Because I’d prepped the edges, I didn’t get too elaborate with this, but just sewed a double seam down the open edge. I suppose if you really wanted to live dangerously, you could just do the single edge. I figure three minutes of sewing keeps me from possibly waking up with a bed full of rice. A chacun son goût.

You will have to experiment a little to see how long you need to put it in the microwave to heat it up. If you’ve heated it enough that it is uncomfortable on bare skin, you’ve heated it too much. Depending on microwave power 3-4 minutes is usually plenty. Remember what I said about using the mug with a little water to heat with it. I was not kidding about that!

If you have any questions, lemme know.

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Don’t be Ashamed of a Minimalist Bullet Journal

I’ve seen something on boards that discuss Bullet Journals that make me a little sad. You’ll see these gorgeous layouts and artwork and suchlike that people post about when they show their journals. No, that doesn’t make me sad. I like pretty.

What I’ll see are people commenting that they don’t want to show or talk about theirs because of crap handwriting, or lack of artwork or lack of pretty layouts. Yes, artsy bullet journaling is a valid way to do it. If it wasn’t, who cares? It’s your life; organize it how you want to. However, I want to put out a much plainer version just to show that the idea of a bullet journal has nothing to do with the art. It is all about the structure and its flexibility. For reference, check out the original video on how to make a Bullet Journal.

Here’s my Index.

Figure 1: Index

There is nothing pretty or fancy about this. The handwriting is legible, although just barely, and I am even switching out pen colors, without using color as any sort of information indicator. I know it looks like I did a different color for a different month. I didn’t. My turquoise pen just ran out of ink, and I’m going to have to wait for the replacement I ordered to come in.

You want part of the beauty of a Bullet Journal for me? There it is. I have a notebook. I have a pen. I’m all good.

In fact, let’s talk notebooks. Yes, you can get yourself a fancy, expensive notebook. I might sometime in the future. This is the one I have. It has hard covers and paper that isn’t too ink-absorbent. But a thirty-dollar notebook, it ain’t. It works great.

Figure 2: Notebook Cover

I did draw out my November layouts a little in advance. I did this first because I don’t have a lot going on between now and the end of the month but routine chores and Halloween, and second because even if it turns out I need to take a lot of notes for something, I can add a module and put it in my Index. After all, that’s exactly the point.

Figure 3: Monthly Log

Figure 4: Menu Plan and Grocery List

Figure 5: Habit Tracker

Even my habit tracker is plain text. If I do what I intend to do that day, I just write a big X over the date just as I would over a task bullet when marking the task as done. The sole exception to this is exercise, as I do more than one sort.

So, for those of you who have very plain Bullet Journals without the artwork, don’t be ashamed of them. While doing the artwork and fancy layout thing is fine, you don’t have to, nor is it at the core of the system. It can work for you how you need it with just pen, a notebook, and text.

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Bullet Journal: One Month In

I’m the beepy reminder girl. My device goes BING! and I do stuff.

I’m learning that in many ways, this is something of a mistake. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to develop routine habits — making the bed, washing clothes, that kind of thing. It’s good for a cue to do routine maintenance.

Where it falls down is when you’re planning a project or working on something where you need to create or concentrate.

Can the beepy reminder go BING! and then you write 1,000 words?

Sort of. I mean, you can. But the problem is that attention, energy and mood matter to creative work. More, beepy reminders interrupt you when you might be deep in creative work.

I want my house clean, yes. But I also want to write books and articles. I want to do cognitive work. I don’t want a beepy reminder bugging me at 10 am that I need to go ahead and fold the clothes from the dryer when I am in the middle of torturing my main character or analyzing the flaws in an organizational system for an article.

I’ve talked about flow before, and how interruptible tasks have often been considered “women’s work,” which very much interferes with the flow state and creative work.

The Bullet Journal is better than beepy reminders for encouraging a flow state.

I have used the Bullet Journal for some really mundane stuff this month. Encouraging me to clean the house, stay on top of finances – that sort of thing. But I’ve also been using it for more long-term work. I have sections for business planning and for a book I am writing. I can always schedule specific tasks to work on for specific days, mind. And I do.

But one of the things that the Bullet Journal is really helping me do is plan my day for more, instead of less, focus. The beepy reminders, for all that they help me keep my house clean, completely screw up my focus for writing.

What I Don’t Do

I’ve been researching Bullet Journals online. There are a lot of amazingly creative people that will draw themselves time period layouts (days, weeks, months) in colors, use color coding, write some headings in calligraphy, draw pictures in their journals and other things. They look great, and I can imagine that it’s fun and soothing to do.

I don’t do this. Mostly I don’t because I can’t draw and my handwriting is terrible, as you can see in the images. I also don’t do it because the “art project” aspect doesn’t add to its usefulness to me. If I want pretty pages and so on, I have a million computer tools that I can use to do so, and it’s not entirely the point of this experiment.

So, if you find yourself drawn to the art project version of Bullet Journaling (and sorry, purists and minimalists, it’s just as valid a use of the system, so get off your high horse), I’m not going to be a very reliable reporter of the experience or the usefulness.

Figure 1: My wretched handwriting

What I Do

The Bullet Journal is a productivity tool that packs a subtle punch. At its purest, it’s absurdly simple to use. It also focuses your brain in a way that I’m sorry to say that computerized tools don’t. This is coming from the Gadget Queen. I especially adore electronic devices, and genuinely do use them heavily. I read on a tablet (or my computer, since there are plenty of e-reader apps for the PC, too). I use my tablet for knitting charts and use OneNote to keep track of where I am in a lace chart. My media collection is mostly digital. I loves me some gadgets.

Even in the face of that, I’m finding the paper journal is better for overall productivity.

Why paper is working better for me

The module layout of the Bullet Journal is quite fluid and allows for creating both date and topic collections of information. When I want to sit down and have a long planning session about a book I am writing, I can keep my notes in a single module. However, if there is something specific about that project that is conducive to a task, I can make that task and migrate it very easily to a specific day where I will be taking action on it.

This means that the actions I’m taking, instead of being “busy” for the sake of being busy, are actual things that will move my project forward.

There is a certain permanence that I tend to associate mentally with paper as well. Since I know it’s really only reasonable to have ten or so tasks to perform in a day, and I’m writing out my to-do list the night before, I’m thinking carefully about what I am going to do. The act of physically writing it seems more serious somehow, if that makes any sense.

This also means that I’m procrastinating less. Oh, I still do some of that, and even blow off tasks. But when I do, it becomes very obvious. I either have to migrate it to a day I will do it, or I have to admit to myself that I’m not going to do it and cross it off. Phone calls I’m avoiding, or tasks I need to do but am balking at? I’m quicker just to do it to get it off my damn conscience with that nice X beside the entry.

That X is also incredibly motivating. One of the things most electronic task managers do wrong is make completed tasks disappear. In a way, it seems good, but seeing what you’ve actually done in a day also can feel pretty good and be motivating.

What doesn’t work for me on paper

That being said, no one system is perfect. There are things the Bullet Journal doesn’t handle well.

The first on the list is a physical reminder. I tend to get absorbed in a task and lose track of time. As a writer, this is not a bug, but a feature. Even so, there are occasions in which I need to drop what I am doing and go to a meeting, appointment or whatever. I like the electronic calendar for that. The fact that the Bullet Journal is a very personal thing also can be a drawback when you are dealing with a group or family project. The fact I can share my electronic calendar with my family is very nice. It makes things easier on us.

It also isn’t too much use in my detail cleaning schedule. I have a list of chores I do quarterly (well, every thirteen weeks) that I find I’d never remember if I had to schedule them daily. I suppose I could make a module that listed these chores and migrate them to daily chores. I don’t, though. I have them set up in my electronic task manager to repeat every thirteen weeks, and I just add the relevant daily chore to my Bullet Journal when prepping for the next day. Anything that’s routine, but on a long cycle might to better in electronic format.

As a freelancer, I also get a lot of my work from clients in the form of email. I am more likely to flag the email to follow up at the appropriate time (I use Outlook) than I am to do anything else.

Better thinking regarding accomplishment over time

Some of the standard Bullet Journal modules – the Future Planner and the Monthly Planner, for instance, encourage you to look at things you want to accomplish over time better.

One thing I tend to find a drawback to the daily granularity is that I let time get away from me. I don’t necessarily think in terms of more than a week when I do this. With the Future Planner and the Monthly Planner, I really do think of what I want to accomplish over a month.

However, a couple of weeks in, I also realized that while the monthly and daily task lists are nice, I do like to see my week as a unit as well. So, I just added a module for the week and went on with my work.

For each unit of time, six months, month, or week, I will glance at what I am planning and migrate any tasks I want to accomplish during that time to the appropriate module. It sounds like a lot of work and migrating, I know. But it turns out to be less than you’d think. Why? It forces you to think clearly about what you need/want to get done, but also forces you to think about whether or not what you’re doing is going to accomplish any of your goals or is just busywork.

Figure 2: A Weekly Spread

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Organizational Systems and Trying Something New

Since I was in my teens, I’ve liked playing with organizational systems. FlyLady, Konmari, a budget book when I was first married, Everyday Systems… I’ve worked with lots of them.

At first, I thought I was looking for The Perfect System. But you know, I don’t think I am. I think what it comes down to is that I like playing with ways to structure life. Which, regarding Real Productivity, would be considered a waste of time. The focus should be more on organization and productivity, not the system, right?

I started to feel guilty about that, but then I thought, “Well, of all the weird hobbies or obsessions one could have, enjoying exploring productivity and organizational systems is hardly a bad one. You do have a clean house. Your bills are paid. Obviously, this is not subtracting from your enjoyment of life, nor from living effectively.”

Which is the point. Playing with systems and routines over the years has ultimately gotten me some things I actually want. Whether or not I stuck with a particular one doesn’t matter as much as the fact that the play and exploration itself has taught me things and I have gained rather than lost from it (I do still shine my sink and question whether or not a possession sparks joy). Is it a weirdly obsessive hobby? Yeah, it sure is.

This brings me to the Bullet Journal. Do I really need this, since I’ve got OneNote and Remember the Milk and a Household Notebook and… Well, you get the point.

No, I don’t need it. I could get along perfectly well without it. My life is pretty organized and has been for some decades. I am productive. My business makes a modest profit and at least pays for our groceries, even in a bad month. Still, when you watch a video on it, and your husband brings you home a blank notebook in which to try it, we’re talking about a hobby/experiment that’s cheaper than my knitting or the books I buy. Why not?

What is a Bullet Journal?

Ultimately, a Bullet Journal is on paper. This is for the Luddite. Normally, I’m all about technology and beepy reminders, so this is going to be a very different experiment.

It is set up in some basic modules that you then use to organize anything you care to, but ultimately your life. It is meant to be quick-n-dirty. In its original form, you don’t need to spend a lot of time doing the logging.

A warning: If you look up Bullet Journals in social media, you’ll see pretty calligraphy, drawings and all kinds of nifty stuff. This isn’t what you’ll see from me. My handwriting stinks. I can’t draw. This is going to be a lot more basic than how many people with considerably more calligraphic ability and artistic flair will use it. My stuff is only pretty when there’s the aid of a computer available!

How does the Bullet Journal Work?

The Modules

The Bullet Journal is broken down into several modules, but the basics are the Index, the Future Log, the Monthly Log and Collections. They work together so that you can integrate and update your work on the fly. This is meant to be dynamic and intuitive. I’ve already found it works well to organize the results of brainstorming.

Index

The Index is exactly what it says on the label. A place to record information and where to find it. You list topics and then the page number of where you can find these topics in the Bullet Journal. The advantage here is that this can be a work in progress acknowledging you don’t know what the future will look like. If you need to add something, but there isn’t room, it’s easy enough to add and record where to find it in the Index.

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Future Log

After you’ve created your index, you turn to the next two-page blank spread and create your Future Log. While you can break it down however you want, I’ve taken the advice of the Bullet Journal originator and chosen a six-month period for my spread. As I think of things I need to get done in the future, this is where I can record it for future reference. When the month approaches, I can then copy what’s necessary to my Monthly Log. Remember to write down the location of your Future Log in your Index!

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Monthly Log

To create a monthly log, turn to the next two blank pages and begin. You’ll notice I did not do two blank pages for September. It’s almost over. When I get to October, I’ll do it properly.

On the left-hand side, you number the dates and then list the days of the week beside each date. For those of you who have packed days, THIS IS NOT A MEETING CALENDAR. You can adapt the Bullet Journal for that by adding a calendar module, and if you scan the Internet, you’ll see that many have. The point here is to record important, high-level highlights for your month.

On the right-hand side, you list the things you need to accomplish in the month. As you start to use the journal over time, if there are things from the previous month that you did not get done, you can migrate them to the new month. This sounds like a lot of tedious copying, but in fact is a feature rather than a bug. If you’ve postponed it month to month for a long time, is it really that important? Maybe you ought to cross it off your list. It’s a great way to evaluate what’s genuinely worth your time.

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Daily Log

The Daily Log is where you focus on a day-to-day basis. Notice how you’re already encouraged to take a longer view, and then an increasingly more granular view of your time as you progress? This allows for both big picture planning as well as breaking this down into actionable items you can do on a daily basis. I really like how this works.

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Collections

Sometimes you’re working on something that’s more properly a project and should be organized in a single place. This is where you can record your ideas, tasks you need to accomplish, any brainstorming or notes about the project. When you create tasks, you can migrate these to your daily tasks, thus keeping a daily to-do list pretty organized. More about migrating tasks under Bullets.

I decided to make a Collection to organize for the holidays this year. It’s a decent enough project and should be a good experiment.

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The Bullets

The bullets are symbols or signifiers indicating what the entry actually is. You’ll start by listing tasks with dots. Then it is easy to change these symbols as you need to reschedule a task, or need to indicate it’s important, or just about anything else.

  • Task (Just a dot)
  • * = High priority task
  • X = Completed task
  • < = Migrated to Future Log
  • > = Migrated to Monthly/Daily Log
  • 0 = Event
  • – = Note
  • ! = Inspiration
  • = Explore/Needs research

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Conclusion

In playing with the system for a day, I do find it kind of fun. It’s not yet ten in the morning, and you can see I’ve already completed a few items on today’s list as well as written this article. Over time as it becomes more mundane, I’ll do another article to report on how much I liked it, what works, what doesn’t and if I want to keep up with this.