Book: The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll
Category: Roots (Foundations & Organisation)
Date: February 2026
There are moments in life where a single recommendation changes everything. For me, that moment happened in 2020, sitting in a physio’s office in the south of France.
I’d just moved back to France after 18 years in the UK. Three kids. A teaching career that suddenly meant nothing because my qualifications weren’t recognised. 3 children struggling with adapting to a new country and Covid restrictions to top it all up. They needed me more than ever. And inside? Darkness. The kind I’d visited before—three times roughly after each birth—but this time felt different. This time felt heavier.
My physio could see it. Not in my body, but in my eyes, my words, the way I held myself. She gave me a name: Michelle Colomer, a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner in Fayence. “You have to go and see her” she said.
One session. That’s all it took for Michelle to hand me two book titles that would reshape my life: Petit Traité de la Vie Intérieure by Frédéric Lenoir, and The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll.
I bought them both the same day.
This is the story of the second one—the one that taught me how to organise my chaotic mind when everything felt like it was falling apart.
What Is the Bullet Journal Method?
If you haven’t heard of it, the Bullet Journal (or BuJo) is a customisable organisation system created by Ryder Carroll. It’s part planner, part diary, part to-do list, part whatever you want it to be! You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want, but at its core, it’s just a notebook and a pen.
Carroll created it because he struggled with focus and organisation himself. He needed a system that was flexible, forgiving, and actually made sense for how his brain worked.
Turns out, I needed the exact same thing.
The Basics: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future
The beauty of the Bullet Journal Method is in its simplicity. You use “rapid logging”—short, bulleted entries that capture tasks, events, and notes quickly without overthinking.
- Tasks get a dot (•)
- Events get a circle (○)
- Notes get a dash (–)
You create daily logs, monthly logs, and custom “collections” for anything you want to track or explore. Need a page for book notes? Make one. Want to track your mood or water intake? Add it. The system bends to your life, not the other way around.
But here’s what really got me: migration.
At the end of each month, you review your tasks. The ones that still matter? You migrate them forward—intentionally, consciously. The ones that don’t? You cross them out and let them go.
This simple act of reviewing and deciding what deserves your energy is revolutionary. It’s not about doing everything. It’s about doing what matters.
How This Book Changed My Life
When I first read The Bullet Journal Method, I was drowning in mental clutter. My head was full of worries about money, the kids, teaching jobs that barely paid enough, whether we’d made a terrible mistake moving back to France.
I didn’t need another rigid planner telling me what to do. I needed space to think. I needed a way to get everything out of my head so I could actually see what I was dealing with.
The BuJo gave me that.
I started with one notebook. Just daily logs and a few collections—books I wanted to read, things I was grateful for, worries I couldn’t shake. Writing them down didn’t make them disappear, but it made them manageable.
Then something shifted. I realised that pen on paper felt like therapy. The act of writing—slowly, intentionally, by hand—was calming in a way that typing never was.
So I kept going. One notebook became two. Two became five. Now I have eleven.
Yes, eleven.
I have a gratitude journal. A garden planner. A family notebook where I track parenting notes and what helps. A “brain dump” notebook for when my thoughts spiral – a place for negative thoughts I need to release.. A teaching planner (obvs!). A beauty notebook where I keep all sorts of recipes, info and reading notes. 2 personal developement notebooks: one for my French and one for my English notes on books. A podcast notebook to keep notes on the best podcasts I listen to. And more.
I’m not saying you need eleven notebooks. But I’m saying this: if you give yourself permission to write—to capture your thoughts, your plans, your mess—you might be surprised what happens.
The Method That Became a Practice
Ryder Carroll talks about the Bullet Journal as a mindfulness practice, and he’s right. It’s not just about ticking off tasks. It’s about regular reflection. It’s about asking yourself: What deserves my time? What can I let go of? What do I actually want?
Every month, when I migrate tasks, I’m forced to confront the truth: some things I thought mattered don’t anymore. Some goals I set were never mine to begin with. Some worries aren’t worth carrying forward.
That’s the real gift of this system—it teaches you to be intentional.
Carroll writes: “The Bullet Journal is designed to become whatever you need it to be, be it a fitness log, food diary, sketchbook, or all of the above. It’s a framework that’s meant to be personalised.”
For me, it became the foundation everything else grew from.
Because here’s the thing: without this book, I wouldn’t have started writing. I wouldn’t have kept tracking. I wouldn’t have built the habit of paying attention to my own life.
Without this book, there would be no blog. No “Notes from Soph.” No 57 books read and reflected on which led me to this blog. No 11 notebooks holding pieces of my journey.
This is where it all started.
What You Can Take from This (Without Needing Eleven Notebooks!)
You don’t need a fancy system. You don’t need the perfect notebook or the prettiest handwriting. You just need to start.
Here’s what I’d suggest:
- Get a notebook. Any notebook. Lined, dotted, blank—doesn’t matter.
- Start with a daily log. Write today’s date. Write down what you need to do, what happened, what you noticed. Use bullets. Keep it simple.
- At the end of the week (or month), review. What got done? What didn’t? What still matters? What can you let go of?
- Add collections as you need them. Want to track books you’ve read? Make a page. Want to brainstorm blog ideas? Make a page. The system grows with you.
- Be kind to yourself. Some weeks I don’t open some of my notebooks at all. Some months my logs are messy and incomplete. That’s okay. It’s not about perfection. It’s about showing up when you can.
Why This Belongs in “Roots”
My blog is organised around my Tree of Life: Roots, Body, Mind, Heart, Soul, Purpose. Each section represents a part of my life that needs attention.
This book belongs in Roots because it gave me the foundation everything else stands on.
Roots are about stability, organisation, the systems that hold you up when things get hard. They’re about creating structure so the rest of you can grow.
The Bullet Journal Method taught me how to create that structure—not through rigidity, but through flexibility. Not through control, but through intentionality.
It taught me that I could start messy, start confused, start overwhelmed—and still find my way.
And that’s what roots do. They don’t need to be perfect. They just need to hold you steady while you figure out which way is up.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Maybe I should try a notebook”—do it. You don’t need a system. You don’t need permission. You just need a pen and a page.
Start where you are. Write what you need to write. See what happens.
Because maybe, like me, you’ll find that this simple act of putting pen to paper is where everything changes.
Notes from Soph | Learning, not perfection.
Have you tried bullet journaling? What system works for you? I’d love to hear—leave a comment or reach out.
Book Details:
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll
Published 2018 | Portfolio/Penguin
📚 Amazon.fr https://amzn.to/4kW6ii9
🎧 Audible.fr https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Bullet-Journal-Method-Audiobook/0008261393?source_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp
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Notebooks: my personal choice is Dingbats. I love their colours, animal and nature themes and the paper is delightful to write on. Plus they’re eco-friendly. Love all around.
