I recently discovered Tim Ferriss' "Five Minute Bullet Journal" through a Twitter/X post he made. What first caught my attention was the aesthetic. What next caught my attention was its approachability. It's a 2 min video to get the full experience. The gist:

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The gist is five questions:

Tim's work to reuse popular tools like a "gratitude journal," while expressing each question in its most concise form, is sure to benefit many. Including, hopefully, this author.

But, while it's clear that these are smart questions deserving of repeat consideration, what's less clear is how to leverage the result of this daily habit.

linkInk vs. Bits

Nothing I could write is going to change a reader from preferring ink or bits. But it's still entirely possible that readers will transition between the mediums -- both because different tools can be preferable in different environments, and because tastes change over decades. Having created thousands of paper todo lists during my 20s, and approximately zero annually by my late 30s, I can appreciate the upsides of both.

Since there are already plenty of treatises and thinkpieces that lay out the general upside of paper vs. electronic, this article is going to focus on a much narrower question: what benefits accrue to each medium in the context of a daily bullet journal?

linkTop Bits Benefits

The top five benefits that "digital" holds over "paper" for keeping a daily bullet journal habit:

link1. Typing is 5x faster, and faster is better for daily bullet journals

According to research found by ChatGPT, the average non-professional typist can produce 52 wpm. Experienced typists average 65-75 wpm. Most programmers I know are faster than 75 wpm. English is written on average at 13-19 wpm, around 4-6x slower. Since Tim Ferriss specifically brands his journal the "Five Minute Bullet Journal," his experience corresponds with my intuition: that to make daily journaling a habit, it needs to be possible to finish in 5-10 minutes. Bits have a big advantage here.

link2. Backlinked sections promote pattern discovery

By linking titles of the bullet journal sections, modern note taking apps allow answers to be scoured for themes:

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The "Backlinks" section of a linked note gathers daily responses to the "gratitude" question

Done right, a bullet journal benefits its author in both short- and long-term. The daily, short-term benefit is more gratitude, and greater clarity of "the plan for today." The meta, long-term benefit is finding repeating themes in what brings the author greater gratitude, happiness, and progress.

link3. Seamless transfer into digital task management

...where you can reliably stockpile your bullet journal data over months and years. If the rest of your task/scheduling system is online, it's a pain to have this data marooned outside "the system."

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Seamless transition from bullet journal to one's daily source of tasks

Contrast the static paper list to its electronically-stored counterpart in Amplenote. In the latter, a "Today would be great if..." response can be converted from "bullet item" to "pending task" with a pair of of Ctrl-Enter (PC) or Cmd-Enter (macOS) keypresses.

The task can then be copied to an inbox or "daily plan"-type note by typing !copy, to ensure that whatever task would make today great will get done.

linkTop Paper Benefits

Although I've left paper behind for the time being, it's not without its own strong merits.

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link1. Mindfulness and intentionality

The tactile experience of writing in a paper journal can promote mindfulness and intentionality. The slower pace of handwriting encourages users to think more carefully about their entries, fostering a deeper connection with their goals and tasks​.

link2. Less distraction potential

What's the friction to move from "attention on the bullet journal" to "attention elsewhere"? With paper, an author has to set down their writing instrument, unlock their computing device, and initiate a search. If you're ADHD, or you've observed yourself leaving a trail of incomplete bullet journal entries, advantage to paper on this dimension.

link3. Nicer, more tangible feeling

It doesn't get much more subjective than this, and yet.... I doubt that I even need to sell this point to the average reader. Chances are, they already agree with it, because the texture and resistance of paper and pen are inherently more satisfying than mere keystrokes.

linkPick a Tool

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Lamest looking title fight ever?

Both ink and bits rightfully earn adherents. For those that fancy the pen, the paper version of Tim Ferriss' "5MJ" bullet journal is available for purchase on Amazon for $29.

For the bit peddlers, Amplenote has built an omni-platform notes/tasks/calendar app, optimized for bullet journalers. You can start using Amplenote here, and install our free Bullet Journal plugin here.