Bullet Journal: Collections

I struggled with collections from the very beginning; I understood the idea of rapid logging, but how do you decide on a collection? I watched the Youtube channel and I read the bullet journal collections pages, but it just didn't sink in. 

According to the authoritative sources (linked above), collections should be related to a project or theme. <snark>Um, thanks. Super helpful there. </snark> My blocker with collections was, how do I know if the work I'm doing it related to a project or theme? Especially when starting out, I could have a journal full of loose sprouts on pages that could be related or that I might want to connect later. I was paralyzed. 

As a professional, when I'm stuck thinking about how to work or how to organize something, I often think back to what I did (or should have done) in my academic career. What would I do for a college class? The professional equivalent to a college class is a recurring meeting: it's functionally the same. Both have a regular cadence, both (should) have an agenda, both likely have work to complete after. For my academic work, I had a notebook for each class. Since I'll want to keep all the information for a recurring meeting together, that will be a collection. 

I have lots of recurring meetings: Scrums, one-on-ones, team meetings, project status meetings. Each of these gets a collection. Before each meeting, I'll review my notes from the last meeting, and have updates ready for any action items. 

ProTip: make sure your collections are updated in your index. I do this as part of a review. Makes finding your notes later so easy. 

I use collections for other things too. If I'm reading a book, I'll take notes in a collection. If I'm attending a webinar or training session, I'll take notes in a collection. As it turns out, MOST of my notes go in a collection. 

This is a sample collection. I have a title at the top for a real recurring meeting on my calendar. I have the date and some sparse notes on what we chatted about. On the next meeting, I'll repeat the process. 

I use one spread (left and right page, with spine in middle), to maximize the available space for notes to review. 

I will also note that I had a recurrence of meeting in my daily log too. That way, when I do my periodic reviews, I know that the meeting actually happened.