"Say What? What's a Bullet Journal?®"
I was explaining my background to a new professional contact, and the conversation was going well. People love to talk about how we're drowning in data and thirsting for insight.
But when I got to the part about being an Official Bullet Journal® Trainer, that is when the conversation got interesting. We spent almost an hour talking about ADHD and productivity, driven by him, building a bond over the shared struggle. Question after question came my way: how do you get things done? How do you decide what to do? Do I have to use paper, or can I use my laptop instead?
I wish I could say that experience is typical. Most of the time, the hardcore technology marketers I come in contact with seem, well, surprised.
This post is for everyone who asks me why a marketing analytics expert decided to become a Bullet Journal® Trainer.
Flash back to 2012.
Facebook was about to go public. Gotye's "Somebody I Used To Know" was topping the charts. I was the head of marketing for a Y Combinator startup, Poll Everywhere.
A BuJo® From 2018. I was obsessed with check boxes. Sorry, Ryder.
And I was diagnosed with Adult ADHD.
There are moments in your life that change everything, and a team offsite in Tahoe that year was one of them for me. By far the oldest member of the team, the only woman, and the only marketer, my role in the hackathon was, well, more nebulous. I was granted the luxury of more private accommodations and a quiet spot to "hack" some marketing. I sat there, with a stunning view of the Sierra Mountains, coffee in hand. Silent room, well rested, company and team I really wanted to do well for.
And. I. Could. Not. Get. Anything. Done.
It was like I was frozen. I couldn't decide how to spend my time or what to do next. I'd been reading about ADHD and that moment made it so clear for me: I was lacking in executive function. I was fortunate enough to have good health insurance, and found a great doctor who specialized in the condition.
"You're lucky you're not in jail," he said.
"Say What?"
"Well, most people with your level of ADHD usually can't hold down a job, let alone get a graduate degree from one of the most demanding MBA programs in the world. Basically, you're a miracle," he said.
Jaw on the floor.
He went on, "Most high IQ women are undiagnosed at a rate of 8 to 1. Somehow, you built processes and systems around your ADHD and managed to survive. I think you should try medication and see if it can help."
I will be forever grateful to the Poll Everywhere exec team, who let me figure out what I needed to do to work with this diagnosis, which included at one point letting me resign with dignity when it became clear what I needed to do, and could finally do, was to start my own company.
I was lucky. I had great insurance and found a therapist to work through the emotional aspects, the first medication I tried worked for me and was covered by my insurance, and I had the means to engage an executive coach who specialized in ADHD. Slowly, patiently, he helped me figure out what my brain liked and didn't like, how to advocate for myself, and how to set up those systems and processes to work with my brain and not against it.
At first, he made me start with a pencil and paper. But not long after, I found todo.txt.
I am not immune to the temptations of color in my BuJo. Here’s a monthly “spread” for the cruise I was taking, back when we used them to list our our plan for the month. The method has since evolved to reflect a summary of what happened each day. I love how Ryder is constantly finding new ways to help us all use this tool.
In August of 2013, Ryder Carroll launched The Bullet Journal Method. It was a simple, elegant idea: we log our daily thoughts, notes, and actions; then we reflect on them at prescribed intervals. We set intentions for our life, and we measure our progress against them, and make the necessary changes based on those reflections.
I was hooked.
After some flirtations with colors and drawing and "pretty" pages, I came back over and over again to the simple, yet powerful idea:
A pen. A notepad. And quality time with myself.
In the beginning, it was a tradeshow pen and a notebook from a client. But a few years later, Ryder introduced his own notebooks designed for the method. They have only enhanced my practice and deepened my commitment to it.
Through starting a company, then starting another. Through my relationship with my now husband. Hiring and firing employees. Facing my own story and growing through it. Growing my company to almost $2 million in revenue, then finding out I had breast cancer and watching it go back to almost nothing. To restarting again in the age of AI.
The ten (or so, because i tried out so many kinds over the years) Bullet Journals® that hold the story of my life.
There are now ten notebooks in the pile. There will be more. In their pages is the record of my life. Sometimes there is no record, and that alone is a record of a time too painful to even journal about.
I had to figure out a lot of things on my own in the last ten years. Now, I want to help others learn from that struggle.
When Ryder offered me the opportunity to become one of the first ever Bullet Journal® Trainers, I was recovering from breast cancer treatment, and wondering what I was going to do with my life next: help others learn and make the struggle just a bit easier for the next generation of leaders, especially those with ADHD.
I found a community in BuJo U. My fellow trainers and practitioners come from all over the world, from all walks of life and all professions. But we share one thing in common: we want to make the most of "this one wild and precious life," as my favorite poet Mary Oliver wrote.
Once again, I was hooked.
When I was a kid, there was an ad about a man who used to look into the camera and say, "I liked the product so much I bought the company."
That about sums it up. When you use a method that changes your life, and you see the impact it can have on so many others, you are motivated to share it with the world.
The Bullet Journal® I used after early stage breast cancer treatment, January 2023. Yes, I love Ted Lasso.
I didn't become a trainer to be an Instagram influencer, and my handwriting is terrible. Sucks, actually.
But ten years on, I realize I am actually becoming the person I said I wanted to be in my Bullet Journal® all those years ago. That's the power of the method. That's why I do this: to help my clients take the actions in their life and recognize their own intentions and goals, no matter what they are.
Ryder Carroll says that time can never be granted, only taken away from us. When you (and that includes your teams!) are ready to live a life that speaks to the unique and valuable human that is you, I hope you'll let me help you walk the path.
…and that's why I'm a Bullet Journal® Trainer.