The Value of Assessing and Reviewing
I have used a Bullet Journal, or BuJo, for nearly 4 years now after stumbling across Ryder Carroll’s website via Reddit. It’s simple by design and as flexible as the journal keeper wants it to be. If you’re familiar with BuJo, then you might also be familiar, too, with the fancy spreads and artistic displays people plaster on Reddit, Instagram, and personal blogs like Tiny Ray of Sunshine and BohoBerry.
As a BuJo semi-purist, I’m all about function over form. I discarded what didn’t work from Ryder’s structure, retained what did, and added new things I needed as I discovered I needed them. But structure is not all there is to BuJo, and Ryder carefully and repeatedly mentions that on his website, in his videos, and (presumably) in his book.
Contrary to appearances thus far, this article is not about BuJo, but about the process behind it — a process that forces periodic review and assessment in order to focus attention, maximize time, and optimize resources.
First, let’s separate form from function.
The Structure of a BuJo: How a Bullet Journal Works
As Ryder notes, a standard BuJo is comprised of an Index, a Future Log, a Monthly Log, and Custom Collections. Most of these sections make use of these core elements: Bullets, Tasks, Events, and Notes, any of which can be further modified by a Signifier, such as an exclamation point, an asterisk, or a question mark, each denoting something special to pay attention to for one reason or another. All of these things together can make a pretty well-structured journal, but, as I’ve mentioned, structure is only half of the equation.
The Process Behind the BuJo: Why a Bullet Journal Works
The true strength of a BuJo is in its process. Notes are taken in a manner Ryder calls Rapid Logging, which consists of jotting down whatever task, thought, or observation you may have as soon as or as shortly as possible after you have it. Were that all there is to it, you’d end up with a fantastic record of your day for future generations to gaze back upon in wonderment and awe, but it wouldn’t exactly help you organize, plan, or prepare.
But wait — there’s more! Ryder mentions a process he calls migration. Migration is, in short, the vital process of reviewing and assessing the past to inform the future. Well, maybe that’s a bit too esoteric. In Ryder’s words:
At the very end of each month… review the pages of the month gone by. Chances are, you didn’t get around to completing all your Tasks. That’s fine! What’s important is figuring out which incomplete Tasks are worth your limited time and energy moving forward. Strike out those that aren’t, and migrate the ones that are.
Essentially, migration is the act of reviewing notes from the past month (or timespan of your choosing) to determine what information you need to keep at the forefront as you move forward. The could include incomplete tasks or thoughts and observations you want to keep in mind over the next week or month.
Ryder concludes:
It may seem like a lot of effort to have to rewrite all these things, but that’s intentional. This process makes you pause and consider each item. If an entry isn’t even worth the effort to rewrite it, then it’s probably not that important. Get rid of it. The purpose of Migration is to surface what’s worth the effort, become aware of our actions, and to separate the signal from the noise. This is where BuJo shifts from a system, into the practice… [bold emphasis mine]
The process Ryder describes is ingrained in the Bullet Journal concept. I can understand a certain level of trepidation if you’re not doing Bullet Journals, but fear not! Reviewing and assessing are processes that can be practiced with or without a handy BuJo. Let’s take a closer look at these two keys to success.
What Does it Mean to Assess and Review?
The Army Operations Process Model
If you’ve seen my previous article on the value of planning, you’ll know I’m a planner in the Army and I may demonstrate a tendency to include the Army’s doctrine in my writing. That said, the Army’s operations process, shown above, consists of three steps: Plan, Prepare, and Execute. Each of these steps occurs within an environment of persistent, continuous assessment, culminating in a review of actions and decisions once execution ends.
As planning gives way to preparation, leaders in the Army assess the assumptions they made during planning to determine if they are still valid or if they need adjustment to account for an unanticipated environment. Similarly, as Army forces execute an operation, leaders work hard to assess conditions on the ground necessary to inform decisions or develop innovative solutions to accomplish the mission when things change.
After an operation concludes, leaders and units conduct a review, referred to in the Army as an After Action Review (AAR), that captures detailed, broadly-sourced feedback on…
- what was supposed to happen (the plan)
- what actually happened
- for each major point of the operation, a review of what actions and decisions should be sustained
- for each major point of the operation, a review of what actions and decisions should be improved (along with how and why)
This process and its results form a larger body of work shared across the Army enterprise called Lessons Learned, compiled, for those interested, at the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL).
Both processes I’ve discussed here, assessment and review, are critical to operational success for the Army. By conducting continuous assessment during plans and preparation, leaders make their current operation more effective and reduce or mitigate risks inherent to Army operations. By conducting a review after execution, leader inform future similar operations to anticipate challenges.
Bringing it Back to You
So that’s what the Army does. Of course, we are individuals, not a massive organization. Even so, by now, you’ll have noticed the similarities between the Army’s process for conducting tactical operations and Ryder Carroll’s process for managing his life’s down daily affairs: reviewing and assessing the past to tease out practices to sustain and areas to improve for the future.
The Takeaway: Reviewing and Assessing is Critical
Whether in a Bullet Journal, on 1,000 color-coded sticky notes, or via a superhuman memory, we all have some way of tracking tasks and other pertinent information, both for our personal lives and for work. Like the Army’s model, however, we have to have all four components of our own personal operations process — planning, preparation, execution, and continuous assessment — to be successful. Even the most organized person will face challenges without a solid assessment process.
If you truly want your organizational system to effect positive change in your life, you need to set time aside periodically review all of that fine note-taking you’ve done and make an assessment on what continues to be important and what tasks still need to be done. Putting some real time and effort into thinking about what’s important and why, as well as how it applies to your own future operations, will help you focus attention, maximize time, and optimize resources.
As the end of the month draws near, grab your journal and start your own review and assessment. Make next month the start of a better you.
