2021 Notion Bullet Journal Template
Daily journaling is increasing in popularity because people are realising the impact that a daily journal can have on our lives. Journaling allows you to reflect on your day, week, month and even year so that you are mindful of the decisions that you're taking and the direction that you're going. I built this 2021 Notion Bullet Journal Template while reflecting on how I wanted to organise my own life in 2021. After I spent a few days building it, I realised that others would also benefit from using this template and decided to share it with everyone.
You can watch the video below to get an idea of how the template is made and how you can use it in your own daily life.
Template Philosophy - Align the Long Term with the Short
The philosophy of this Bullet Journal template is to always align long term goals with the medium & short term. Through my own journey in Journaling and holding myself accountable, I have found that I am the most lost when I am not looking at my long/medium/short term goals on a regular basis and when they're not aligned with my current tasks.
I achieve this philosophy in the following ways:
- Asking you for Goals on a 3-year horizon and keeping it on the front page.
- Making you think about your beliefs about yourself and the habits you want to change.
- Asking you HOW you're going to achieve the goals with a framework to think though the how.
Thinking Long Term
The templates starts by asking you to define your 3 year and 1 year Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). This forces you to think long term. It also forces you to think BIG so that you're not always stuck on small ideas that are easily achievable. This BHAG lives on the front page of the template so that you're always aligned with your long term goals. You never forget about it. And in case your long term vision changes, you can always modify your BHAG. However, I'd recommend against changing it too often.
Your annual goals are thus products of your your 3-year and 1-year BHAG creating alignment with your long term and medium term BHAG. These will then flow into your monthly and weekly goals.
In order to ensure that you're looking at your goals on a regular basis, I have also integrated these goals into your daily, weekly and monthly reviews. Looking at these goals on a regular basis will give you that clarity of mind that 'Hey! I'm heading in the right direction and I don't have anything to fear'.
Each monthly, weekly and daily review is linked back to the annual, monthly and weekly goals respectively so that you are always reviewing your goals and are aware of the work that you're doing to move yourself closer to those goals. Thus, your 2021 Notion Bullet Journal will help you reflect everyday to make sure that you're moving towards the goals that you actually want to achieve.
Incorporating Your Beliefs & Habits into Goal Setting
This part of the Philosophy was inspired by James Clear's article, 'Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year'.
Through the articles, James articulates how "key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first." We need to focus on the person that we want to become and shape our habits to help us take a step in that direction every day.
For example, I want to become the kind of person who writes 1000 words everyday. However, if I try to start writing 1000 words everyday, I am bound to fail. It is not part of my routine and I'm not used to it. Instead, I can just build a habit of writing a small paragraph about my dreams as soon as I wake up. This helps build a habit of writing which, over time, can evolve and help me become that 1000 word/day writer that I want to become.
I have provided a section where you can write down the beliefs of the person you want to become and the habits you need to incorporate. Thus, as soon as you open your diary each day, you can look at those habits and reflect on whether or not you're meeting those habits. All it takes is a moment of self-reflection each day to build the habit you need in your life.
How will you meet your Goal?
Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. - Steve Jobs
The 'HOW' is more important than the 'WHAT'. I recognized the same issue in my own planning exercise. I get so excited by the what that I never take a step back to think about the how. That's why, I've greated a template for each Annual Goal for you to answer and figure out exactly how you're going to execute that goal.
Step 1 - Is it a SMART Goal?
I'm not trying to use corporate lingo but a SMART Goal helps align your goals in a strategic manner. Without the SMART framework, people tend to give vague goals like, "I want to be fit". But what does fit actually mean to you? It needs to specific.
Step 2 - What are the low hanging fruits?
With any new goal, it's always good to get the low hanging fruits out of the way so that those small wins help motivate and direct you towards the big goals for the year.
Step 3 - What are the intermediate targets to achieving your goal?
Each big goal has targets that you need to hit in the middle of your journey in order to finally achieve the final target. What are those targets? I ask you to list down all those targets so that you know each rung of the ladder that you have to climb before you begin your journey.
Step 4 - What habits do you have to change?
Going back to James Clear's article - what are the small habits that you need to change so that you improve incrementally everyday and achieve your big goal by the end of the year? I've also provided a habit tracker where you can check your habits on a daily basis.
Last Words about my 2021 Notion Bullet Journal Template
I really enjoyed building this 2021 Bullet Journal Template on Notion and I hope you enjoy using it. My hope is that it helps you align all your goals and find a way to change your habits as much as it helped me. If you have an feedback on the template or just want to chat, feel free to drop me an email.