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I was at the library and saw someone using a bullet journal for their research | Bullet Journaling - Vivisector

I was at the library and saw someone using a bullet journal for their research

I was at the main branch downtown last Tuesday, trying to find some old newspaper articles. At the table next to me, this person had a dotted notebook open, and it wasn't just notes. They had a whole spread with a timeline, color-coded sources, and a tracker for which archives they'd already checked. It was for a big history project. I always just used my bujo for daily tasks and maybe a monthly log. Watching them map out this complex project in such a clear, visual way was a real lightbulb moment. I've been doing my own family tree research for a year and my notes are a mess in three different apps. I went home and immediately made a project collection for it. Now I have a migration tracker for records I've requested and a simple index for each family line. Has anyone else used their journal for a long-term research project like that? I'm curious about how you set up the pages.

4 comments

4 Comments

daniela856mo ago

Mine's just for my grocery list, so...

julia_carter616mo ago

Ugh, seriously? That sounds like a huge waste of time. Why would you copy all that into a notebook when you could just use a spreadsheet? It's way faster to search and sort. I tried a fancy spread for my thesis once and it was a disaster. I needed to add a new source category and the whole page was ruined, had to start over. Digital stuff you can just move around. A bullet journal is for quick tasks, not for holding a whole research project hostage on paper.

anthonynelson6mo ago

Honestly, I see this everywhere now, people using simple notebooks to untangle complicated stuff. It's like the act of writing it out by hand forces your brain to slow down and actually see the connections. A spreadsheet just feels like data entry.

linda_reed3mo ago

Oh totally, I feel like my brain just short-circuits if I try to do anything more complex than a grocery list, so @daniela85 I see you. I once tried to "bullet journal" my way through a budget and just ended up doodling a bunch of sad little dollar signs.