A Bul­let Jour­nal For Magic

Not so long ago the con­cept of the bul­let Jour­nal came to the awa­re­ness of many peo­ple which had used the clas­sic Filofax time manage­ment systems.

It was­n’t long and the thing crea­ted a real hype on the inter­net, a lot of peo­ple for­get­ting the major idea behind and making their jour­nals into a scrap­book, glu­e­ing silly stuff inside. Some made it a book for prac­ti­sing calligraphy.

This is typi­cal in these modern times to make a trend (often saleable) out of an idea and jump onto the train, copy­ing sla­vishly and wit­hout thin­king what others do. The basic ideas behind the bul­let jour­nal and why it was inven­ted are often for­got­ten with all the hype, using expen­sive colou­red Japa­nese pens being more important that the con­tent (read an inte­res­t­ing view on this here).

If you stick to the main con­cept and use it what it was inten­ded for, it is good. The idea is to stay away from digi­tal note taking and go back to the basics with pen and paper. With the bul­let jour­nal con­cept, you can do this wit­hout being forced into the allo­ca­ti­ons a Filofax has.

Being a paper and pen afi­ci­o­nado mys­elf, I quickly rea­li­sed the poten­tial of this con­cept for magic and became an avid fan of it. By incor­po­ra­ting this sys­tem into your magi­cal note­books, you will not only have a coll­ec­tion of your ideas, but also an agenda to keep track of your prac­ti­sing times and achievements.

All you need is a simple note­book and a pen. The thing that makes this sys­tem dif­fe­rent to the Filofax is that here you create your tables and time­lines. You can even insert cer­tain spreadsheets which are tra­ckers, show­ing cle­arly the monthly results.

The bul­let jour­nal will be more or less a note­book with a time­line. Also, using the sys­tem will make sure you remem­ber and put a ‘time stamp’ on when exactly you have a cer­tain idea. Con­side­ring the amount of ideas I gene­rate and coll­ect each month, this sys­tem really saved my life and made things a lot easier for me.

Just think about crea­ting a few monthly spreadsheets for prac­tice and achie­ve­ment of cer­tain sleights, tricks or rou­ti­nes. If you get into the habit of using your note­book on an ever­y­day basis, you will be auto­ma­ti­cally remin­ded to put in those short time prac­ti­sing ses­si­ons of your favou­rite techniques.

With this sys­tem you can also sche­dule these trai­ning ses­si­ons and divide them into smal­ler chunks, achie­ving much more wit­hout even noti­cing it. Ano­ther useful spreadsheet would be the habit tra­cker they very often use in this sys­tem. With this, you will be able to change the way you do cer­tain sleights in a very short time.

Give it a try and think about it, it is really worth it. You’ll find all neces­sary basic infor­ma­tion here: www.bulletjournal.com. On You­Tube, you can find many very nice and refres­hing ideas on how to main­tain such a per­so­na­li­sed note­book. Check out the working and the con­s­truc­tion of the various tra­ckers and think how you could apply them to your magic training.

Final Tips

Don’t get over­whel­med by the vast amount of dif­fe­rent tech­ni­ques. Just start with a simple plain note­book and a pen.

Install the basic fea­tures of a bul­let jour­nal: index, year, month, week, day, future, trackers.

If you do this the first time, just install one month and work with it for that 30 days. Don’t install the whole year. Things will change on a monthly basis as you get bet­ter with it.

Don’t go for all the hype and expen­sive ‘props’ peo­ple want to sell you. The bul­let jour­nal idea was a mini­ma­li­stic idea and should remain so.

Con­cen­trate on the con­tent, not on the form.

Take wha­te­ver works for you, and for­get the rest.

Pass it on!