I think the whole 'perfect weekly spread' trend is missing the point

I mean, I used to spend like 3 hours every Sunday drawing out these super detailed weekly pages with washi tape and watercolor headers. My journal looked amazing, but I stopped actually using it to track tasks because I was scared to mess it up. About 6 months ago, I switched to just a simple two-column list on a blank page. My productivity went up because I was actually writing things down and crossing them off, not just making art. It feels like a lot of the content online pushes the aesthetic over the function. Has anyone else moved away from the fancy layouts and found it works better?

4 comments

4 Comments

mia_baker2mo ago

Oh totally. I got so caught up in making my bullet journal look like the Pinterest ones that I stopped using it for actual planning. Now I just use a cheap notebook and write the day and date at the top, then scribble my list underneath. If I need to move a task, I just draw an arrow. It's messy but I actually get stuff done.

the_mia2mo ago

Wait, you actually date your pages? I just scribble until the notebook runs out.

morgan.jason2mo ago

My Leuchtturm notebook has numbered pages and a table of contents. That structure forces me to review past entries and actually follow up on old ideas. The mess just gets lost.

olivermason4d ago

Tbh I get what you're saying about function over form, but I gotta push back on the messy arrow thing. I tried that for a while and ended up losing track of half my tasks because the page turned into a mess of crossed out stuff and arrows going every which way. Having a simple structure like numbered pages lets me flip back and actually find what I wrote last week without hunting through the whole notebook. A Leuchtturm or even a Moleskine with a basic index isn't about making it pretty, it's about making your brain stop having to remember where everything went. Honestly, a clean system beats a chaotic one every time for me.