OneNote as Bullet Journal

Bullet Journaling

For a couple of years, I use the technique of a bullet journal to get my days, weeks, and months organized. I am not someone who can handicraft for hours as relaxation. So my bullet journal was just a huge book with handwritten notes and a default calendar so I don’t need to prepare every day in a bullet journaling fashion -which is very time-consuming.

My shelf is filled with some books with memories and notes. It contains tickets from concerts, and important notes I did for example during my renovation. But the disadvantage, I don’t carry them along all the time, I cannot search history easily or find important notes from a few years ago fast.

OneNote

A year ago I started using OneNote for my notes, especially when I copy information from the internet. I had some sections with recipes, some notes for the next trip to the Netherlands or just memory minutes I took. I created a lot of notebooks with a few sections and pages in each book. It felt like having a notebook for each page.

For work, I started using OneNote for my personal and project notes. It started with meeting minutes of planned meetings but it became a good place for all kinds of notes. As a benefit, this information is shared across the project and put all information in a central place -our project workspace.

In the end, I ended up with a mix of OneNote, Bullet Journal, and sticky notes.

A new iPad changed it

At the beginning of November, I got myself an iPad with an Apple Pen and I started to love it. I used it excessively during my attendance at the ESPC22 and took handwritten notes in all sessions. And I used OneNote for it although the Apple built-in tool might be better for this. But I wanted to keep my notes still in one place which can be structured well.

So the ESPC22 was the kick-off event for my OneNote Bullet Journal experience.

12 Months Bullet Journal in OneNote

End of last year I decided to use OneNote for my entire bullet journal including daily planning and notes. Therefore I started restructuring my OneNote notebooks, sections, and pages. This year will be a digital bullet journal and I will write down my experience and find out, if this suits me or not.

• Bullet Journal Templates

OneNote Wishlist

After working with OneNote, I came up with some personal wishes or feature requests for it.

• Flatten a page. Make all pencil notes a single background picture
• Improve PDF export. Make note width fits a single PDF page.