Bullet Journaling + Junk Journaling + Interstitial Journaling
My journaling is a mix of bullet journaling + junk journaling + interstitial journaling. This is a joyful and achievable mix for me that doesn’t feel like work, though it assists work.
I keep my notebook open next to me as a regulatory artifact and as working memory.
Bullet Journaling
Bullet journaling (BuJo) is an analog organizational system created by Ryder Carroll, designed to be a customizable, flexible method for tracking the past, organizing the present, and planning for the future — all in a single notebook.
The core of bullet journaling is rapid logging: capturing information in short, scannable bullets using a simple symbol system.
- actions/tasks get a dot (•),
- events get a circle (○),
- notes get a dash (–),
- moods get an equal sign (=),
- and actions can be migrated (›), scheduled (‹), or marked done (×).
- NAME = Notes, Actions, Moods, Events.
This quick notation means you spend less time writing and more time doing.
Key components:
- Index — a running table of contents at the front of the notebook, so you can always find what you need.
- Future Log — a bird’s-eye view of the months ahead for long-range events and goals.
- Monthly Log — a two-page spread with a calendar view and a task list for the month.
- Daily Log — where most of the action happens: a running stream of tasks, events, notes, and thoughts for the day.
- Collections — any custom spread you add: habit trackers, reading lists, project pages, brain dumps, reference pages. These are where BuJo gets personal and powerful.
Migration is a key ritual in bullet journaling. At the end of a week or period, you review your undone tasks and decide: Do this now? Move it forward? Strike it because it no longer matters? Migration creates natural checkpoints for reflection and intentionality, and it’s surprisingly clarifying to ask, “Is this actually worth migrating, or am I just hoarding tasks?”
Bullet journaling is particularly compatible with ADHD and neurodivergent ways of thinking because it externalizes working memory, makes priorities visible, and is endlessly adaptable. There are no rules about what it has to look like. Minimal BuJo and elaborate BuJo are both valid.
Resources:
Migrated to the collection: the videos this part points at are on the Bullet Journaling shelf.
Junk Journaling
Junk journaling is a tactile, creative practice of making and keeping journals (or journal pages) from found, repurposed, and “junk” materials: ephemera, paper scraps, packaging, old book pages, envelopes, fabric, washi tape, stamps, tags, stickers, and whatever else comes to hand.
Where bullet journaling is about organization and intentionality, junk journaling is about play, texture, and self-expression without pressure. There is no wrong way to do it. Pages don’t have to be beautiful, cohesive, or finished. The act of making is the point.
What goes into junk journaling:
- Collage and mixed media: layering torn paper, magazine clippings, old receipts, maps, packaging
- Pockets and envelopes sewn or glued in for storing notes, cards, or small treasures
- Handwriting, doodles, and stamps alongside printed imagery
- Washi tape, twine, ribbon, and other found embellishments
- Lists, words, phrases, poetry, or stream-of-consciousness writing embedded in the visual
- Memorabilia: ticket stubs, dried flowers, candy wrappers, labels
Junk journaling has deep roots in scrapbooking and art journaling, and it’s having a sustained revival in online craft communities. Its ethos is inherently anti-perfectionist. Because the materials are “junk,” there’s nothing precious to protect. You can glue that piece of packaging without overthinking it. This makes junk journaling a low-stakes, high-sensory creative outlet.
For neurodivergent and sensory-seeking folks, junk journaling can be especially grounding. The physical handling of materials, layering textures, and making visual choices provides a kind of productive stim. It engages the hands and eyes while the mind wanders or rests, making it a natural accompaniment to listening, thinking, or decompressing.
Junk journaling is also archival in its own way. Pages become a record of moments and moods through the things you saved: a bus ticket, a note someone wrote you, the label from something that made you happy.
Resources:
Migrated to the collection: the videos this part points at are on the Junk Journaling shelf.
Interstitial Journaling
Interstitial journaling, developed by Tony Stubblebine, is the practice of writing short, timestamped journal entries in the transitions between tasks, in the interstitial moments when you finish one thing and before you start the next.
Instead of a separate journaling session at the start or end of the day, interstitial journaling is woven throughout the day itself. Each time you shift your attention — finishing a meeting, completing a task, taking a break, returning from lunch — you pause to write a brief entry. You note the time, reflect on what just happened, capture any stray thoughts, and then set a small intention for what comes next.
A typical interstitial entry might include:
- What you just did or what just happened
- How you’re feeling, your energy level, or any friction you encountered
- Things you want to remember or follow up on
- Distractions that arose and what you did with them
- What you’re going to do next and why
Why it works:
Interstitial journaling acts as a context reset. One of the biggest sources of distraction and lost time is the mental residue left over from the previous task bleeding into the next one. By writing at the transition, you close the loop on what just happened, offload anything lingering in working memory onto the page, and create a clear mental starting point for the next thing.
For ADHD brains in particular, this is powerful. ADHD creates significant challenges with task-switching. The old context can hijack attention long into the new task. Interstitial journaling gives the brain a structured moment to “land” from one thing and deliberately “launch” into the next. It replaces chaotic mental drift with a brief, intentional ritual.
It also creates a running log of the actual shape of your day — not the idealized plan, but what really happened, how it felt, and what got in the way. This is invaluable for self-knowledge and for adjusting systems over time.
Cognitive offloading:
Interstitial journaling is a form of cognitive offloading: the practice of transferring information from internal working memory onto an external medium to reduce mental load. Working memory is limited, and for many neurodivergent people it is more constrained and less reliable than average, making the cost of holding things mentally quite high. Every unresolved task, pending thought, half-finished idea, or nagging “don’t forget” sitting in working memory is competing for cognitive resources that could otherwise go toward the thing in front of you. Writing it down moves it out of the mind and into the page, where it will wait without consuming attention. The notebook becomes a trusted external memory system — and, crucially, it only works as a trust-builder if you actually look at what you wrote. Interstitial journaling builds that habit naturally, because each transition is also a moment to glance back at the previous entry and confirm that what was offloaded is still held. Over time, this creates a feedback loop: the more reliably the notebook catches things, the more easily the mind lets them go.
Interstitial journaling and distraction:
When a distracting thought arises mid-task — something you remembered, an urge to check something, an idea — interstitial journaling gives you somewhere to put it. Rather than acting on it and losing your thread, or suppressing it and losing it entirely, you write it down. It’s held. You can return to it at the next transition.
Resources:
Migrated to the collection: the videos this part points at are on the Interstitial Journaling shelf.
Why This Mix Works
Bullet journaling provides structure and captures tasks and plans. Junk journaling provides sensory engagement, play, and a pressure-free creative outlet. Interstitial journaling provides in-the-moment grounding and transition support throughout the day.
Together, they address different needs: the organizational brain, the expressive body, and the transitioning self. None of them require perfection. All of them work with how the mind actually moves, rather than demanding it behave differently.
Keeping the notebook open next to you — not put away, not closed — means it’s always available as an external brain. It holds what working memory can’t always hold. It absorbs the things that would otherwise scatter. It witnesses the day as it happens.
This is journaling as tool, as companion, and as practice rather than as performance.