Source
r/bulletjournal•
GreedyScience

Survey for a scientific elaboration in the field of bullet journals and journaling in general

Question

Hello People of r/bulletjournal,

i´m a german student and i´m currently working on my thesis. The thesis is about bullet journals and journaling in general. We know that journaling can have a positive effect of ones organization. Especially people with ADHD can profit from this technique. Therefore, we want to know if it is possible to map the processes behind journaling into digital ones.To do so, we want to identify the most beneficial components, we want to discuss the most confusing processes and we want to pack all of this into a User-Interface which help the users the most.

For this, we created a survey. I would be very happy if some of you would participate. The answers are completely annonymous. No personal data will be processed.

The survey can be found here: https://campus.lamapoll.de/BuJo-REEN/

The concept, which will be based on the answers of this survey, will be published. Anyone who is interested can have a look, once it is finished.

Thanks in advance!

Posted May 27, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC · edited

2521
julietides•

Done! I love analog, there's something about it, but your project looks amazing! Coincidentally, my fiancé suspects he has ADHD (not diagnosed for a variety of reasons, but checks a good amount of boxes), and has just started his first bullet journal because he got inspired by mine. I'll ask him to fill out the survey too when he can.

6
yetanotherdeathstar•

Top tip from someone who has been diagnosed - make sure he leaves the journal somewhere open to the right page, and in sight so he doesn't forget it exists! Object permanence can be a real issue sometimes - if I don't have mine in sight, I don't use it 😅

7
julietides•

Omg, this happens to him a lot! We're keeping them together and he picks it up with me. Just started, so he's thrown himself into it very intensely, but he says he feels how good of an effect it has already, and liked the fact we can bond over it. Thank you so much for the tip!

2
MenthaAquatica•

I answered that I do not use bullet journal, so I do not know how my opinion will be treated. But I read Ryders book and I plan to use it. Just in case I will write this:

I love graphs. Round graphs for summarizing how much of a big project you realised this week/day/month, point and line graphs for tracking things such as distance run per day in perspective of a week/month. Including graphs with 2 axis or several things tracked on one graph. Small graphs for every day in monthly log that track the same habit/action/chore/job. Or in weekly log. Big monthly spread where you log daily hours spent in sleeping/working/exercisising/leisure every day. This and weekly/daily spreads for tracking hours spent on one subject/specified project. The last two sentences concern a mega graph where you have 0.00 am-11.00 pm on horizontal axis and 1-31 or 1-30 on vertical axis.

graphs on top of each other

This would be so much easier if I could log hours spent doing something on my smartphone (Android) and graph would be created/updated automatically. As you can use smartphone everywhere, and laptop - not so much. Also iOS is less popular. Here is also a question of data sync between devices. I really urge to have possiblity of planned data sync, in hour specified by user. Automated sync can made data eternally unavailable if sync breaks mid synching, and I heard of such examples in case of one of that big noting programs like Evernote/OneNote. If I plan synching, I can made backup copy beforehand. This is a dealbreaker. Also raw data should be stored in no proprietary format. This is to combat the issue that 40 year-experienced scientist and Obsidian user told me: in the end what will survive is the paper, as operation system changes and programs fading into obsolete will rend all data unreadible.

That was answer to "self defined featryres that I would like to see".

Also "other elements": OCR that can read handwriting. Sometimes it is safer/faster to scribble down something in mass commute/during lecture then pulling out phone/laptop. Seeing many layouts filled by me at the same time (think libreofice print preview), as it makes future planning easier.

1
GreedyScienceOP•

Thank you! Every opinion matters.

There is much to learn and consider for us, especially from those who are just starting their journaling journey.

2
ChuckACheesecake•

Thanks for saying that! Gratitude makes the world go round

3
AngryPotatoNoises•

A digital bullet journal which can be fully personalized would be reeeally nice.

5
GreedyScienceOP•

Exactly. The idea is to combine the customizabillity with the underlying processes behind journaling.In the best case, you woldn´t even notice those processes, so you can focus on what matters the most. We hope that, by reducing the overhead behind the processes, we can leaverage the effectiveness of bullet journals.

5
VikingRaider77•

Done! I wish you all the best of luck and I’ll be ready to sign up for betas testing when you’re ready! I love digital but I keep creeping back to analog because there are so many less friction points. It’s so hard to beat the ability to just pick it up and go—no tapping to get to the right menu or pen or color, just…GO.

4
GreedyScienceOP•

Would an immediately view, of the latest entry you worked on, help to avoid those friction points?

1
Heavy-Alps•

Done!

3
GreedyScienceOP•

Thank your for participating!

3
Evelf•

Done too!

2
GreedyScienceOP•

Thank you also for your participation!

1
womantoday2•

Done.

3
GreedyScienceOP•

Thanks!

2
yourboyfriendscrush•

I did it ❤️ good luck

2
GreedyScienceOP•

Thanks a lot!

2
katherine197_Minimalist•

That is interesting, but as someone with ADHD large part of me actually using my notebook is the physical notebook being opened on my desk. At least personally I don't think I could go digital, I mean I already forget to use my notebook when I close it and put it out of sight

2
GreedyScienceOP•

Do you think that some kind of notification, visual prompt or other "disturbance" would help reminding you?
Is there something you can think of that would help you remind to use it?

1
TinyStrawberryCat•

I already filled it in two or three days ago, but kept thinking about it - especially about what I would need to make a digital journal better for me than a physical one.

- prepare my bujo on my pc or tablet, but use it on my phone
- get push notifications reminding me to use it, ideally one in the morning giving me the choice of regular reminders or only end-of-day reminders (until I at least open the app for an end-of-day review) for chill days
- push notifications/alarms/timers for appointments/timed to do's (if I can organise everything in one place instead of writing it down and then setting an alarm, that would be great, and a timer for things like "draw for 30 minutes)
- saving recurring appointments with "get ready routines" (I am diagnosed with ADHD and it would be amazing if I could just add "14:15h uni" or "10:15h uni" and then automatically get notifications like "leave for train now" - 50 minutes before, "put on shoes" - 55 minutes before, "get dressed" - 80 minutes before, "pack bag" - 95 minutes before...), maybe even the building/room number
- habit trackers, mood trackers, gratitude log etc added to every day in a space-saving way (so I don't forget and can do it on the day but it doesn't detract or clutter) but linked to a monthly overview so I can actually see trends and have usable data (amount of sleep, mood, weather, exercise, energy levels, food, meds, word/sentence about the day, ...) I want a clean overview but the possibility to just add it to the day I'm currently on (I don't have a lot of space for single days because I need to work with weekly spreads or I lose track of things)

I hope some of that makes sense to you!

2
GreedyScienceOP•

It does! Thank you very much! This is much appreciated!
I´m actually having a look at this thread on a daily basis and besides the survey, here are some comments that help to understand even further, what the community expects and wants from a digital variant.

These interactions realy helps enormously and i´m very thankfull for that!

Let me know if you have more ideas or any other wishes.

2