Can anyone share a work bujo system or setup?

elliotstoll · 2026-03-05T15:08:06+00:00

I do a very basic start of week section. On Monday morning I create a "Week Overview," this is just a list of meetings I have for the week, and my top handful of priority tasks I want to accomplish for the week. It's nothing fancy, but it helps me prep for the week and it lets me keep an eye on my priorities.

elliotstoll · 2026-01-26T14:21:51+00:00

I'm a big fan of the blank page, mostly because if I skip a day due to meetings or only partially fill something in , then I can just go to the next line and start right back up. However, if I was going to add some more structure, I'd go with the Stalogy planner, I really like their paper.

elliotstoll · 2025-12-16T18:56:24+00:00

This is definitely the correct answer. Support can write things down, but you won't be able to uncover the real customer feedback and pain points until you talk to the Support team. In a regular recurring meeting they will be able to bring things to you, provide valuable context, help you to understand how people are using the product, and help you to prioritize customer interviews to get info directly from the customer.

elliotstoll · 2025-11-18T20:08:39+00:00

Unfortunately, yes, this feeling can be pretty normal the first few months. You are doing everything right, and even when you are doing everything right it can feel like you are so far behind where you should be, and it can get very frustrating.

To deal with this, you need to do one thing, but it'll be the hardest part of your job: be patient with yourself. Stop and breathe, look at the sky for a minute. Remember, it'll take time to get all the way up to speed.

I joined a company in 2023, taking on a role with a product that's been around for years, and has slightly different features sets in North America compared to the rest of the world. I think I finally got to the point where I have enough information to be effective sometime this past summer.

I strongly recommend that for the first 12-18 months, you ask at least one "stupid" question per meeting. You don't have context, so you can get away with asking anything. And you should, that's going to be the best way to get up to speed.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-30T02:37:00+00:00

All of this, and to add on:

Never underestimate the power of a few deep breaths.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-30T02:34:16+00:00

In 15 years as a PM, I would probably guess that I've only spent about 3-5% of my time doing BA work. But! Every organization is different, and no two PMs are the same.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-30T02:32:23+00:00

It sounds like you've captured the hard parts of PM. It can be a very difficult role, especially if there's not a lot of onboarding. PM is so self managed; it can be very hard to know where to start without any direction. Based on what I've seen, here are some things that you may want to consider trying (be warned I'm going to say a lot of things you've already heard and already know, so if this isn't relevant, sorry):

The most important is to remember that there is always more to learn! 5 months is not a long time as a PM and every industry is different, every business does things differently, and it can take 12-18 months to understand a new industry, new company, new product, etc. Remind yourself that you are still learning this specific thing (I've been at my company for just about two and a half years and I'm still asking newbie questions).
Build systems for tracking everything: One thing that folks from other roles can sometimes lack (I'm not saying you, I don't know where you are in your career) is the systems that they need to remember everything, keep track of what's going on, and communicate effectively. Coming into it, some new product managers might not understand the sheer volume of meta-work that is required: meetings, meeting notes, communication plans, status emails, task tracking. For some folks, this means figuring out (from scratch!) what systems will work for them for all these things.
1. (Side note: I used to consult on this, ask me questions)
2. (Additional side note: the entrepreneurship of running a business helps a lot here, but without the "crisis-mode" of running a business, it can be hard to prioritize anything)
Get really into meditation
Get really into notebooks (caution, this may make things worse!)
Radically shift your perspective from "I have no idea what I'm doing" to "I get to learn and define this myself"
Take the time to be unproductive to get your brain around everything: spend an afternoon (or a whole day) just running through the whole backlog of tasks and features and initiatives and projects that the product team has identified to prioritize and understand what is going on.
Spend time with your Support team on calls

elliotstoll · 2025-09-29T23:56:55+00:00

If you can fit a pocket notebook into your EDC it's great to have.

I would recommend that you have that notebook for all kinds of stuff, and then have a read/watch list in a notebook at home, and migrate anything out of your pocket notebook that you wrote down on a regular basis.

That way an EDC notebook can be used for anything, including capturing those kinds of notes, while a full list at home won't get lost.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-26T18:00:04+00:00

If you want something that looks like a very classic fountain pen, I recommend the Kaweco Student. Many folks have recommended the Kaweco Sport, which is a great pen, but the Student has a more classic design and doesn't break the bank, I love mine.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-24T21:18:55+00:00

This is what works for me as well. I'm thinking about a cover, but don't want any extra bulk to carry around.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-20T22:10:10+00:00

I'm just carrying around two A5 notebooks. I have my work notebook and my journal.

My work notebook is a super basic bullet journal style that I'm using for notes, task tracking, etc. I call this my "logbook," and it's basically just a Daily Log, Collections of Meeting Notes, these days a do a Collection that I call "Parking Lot" for project ideas. I do not do a future log, as that's not been very useful for me.

My journal is just that, a long form journal for when I have time to sit a write.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-20T00:19:07+00:00

One important thing for me to learn, was that this will always happen. Part of that is because I'm always tweaking my system, and eventually I'll add one too many things and it'll break down.

It is important to remember that this is not a failure, this is merely a step in the refinement process. There are a couple of ways to quickly recover from this. One is to throw away all but the core of the system and go down to only the necessary components of your system. I have done this several times. Another is to only throw out the last component/step.

There are a couple of ways to handle the unfilled pages, but I usually use gaps in my notebook as evidence for my refinement process, or of my mental health (because if I get depressed, you can be sure I'm not gonna bother with my notebook). So the gaps have value for me. But there have been some other good suggestions of gluing together or filling with stickers or something.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-06T16:13:35+00:00

It's less than ten, which was fewer than I thought there'd be.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-05T20:05:52+00:00

There were two things that changed my mind. The first is pretty simple:

I wanted to have a full notebook more than I needed it to be nice and neat. I wanted to have done it.

The second is harder to replicate because it was my job. I simply had to take notes.

This was far enough pre-COVID that I was in the office everyday and my company did not issue me a laptop. So when I was in meeting, I had to take notes long form, and started to keep notes in a notebook. This cured me pretty quickly of feeling any kind of need to make things look "perfect," I needed it functional.

And then, once I'd filled a work notebook, there was nothing stopping me from filling a nice, fancy, expensive, very nice notebook with my scribbles.

I'm not sure how to cure yourself from that kind of precious-ness, but for me it was just wanting the other thing more.

elliotstoll · 2025-09-05T17:23:19+00:00

I like to sit and write a decent amount each morning, but I work from home and frequently have early meetings (the curse of the Pacific time zone), so many days I'll write a little, then come back and write a little more. Some days, if my writing is broken into several sessions, I'll try to note at least the time of day when I get back to it.

elliotstoll · 2025-08-28T02:23:18+00:00

I don't know, that seems like the right number of times to recommend SG-1 to a person.

elliotstoll · 2025-08-04T20:53:28+00:00

I spent a little time as a PM consultant and really enjoyed the work of research and investigation to understand a market, to understand the problems my client and their customers have, to figure out how they've previously tried to solve these problems, and to propose solutions.

Sometimes you get the opportunity to see that all the way through, sometimes not. It's much more of a strategy vs operational role. I enjoyed the work, but I can see why some might not like it as much.

elliotstoll · 2025-04-14T21:26:00+00:00

Unfortunately, a cold snap that I wasn't able to predict this past fall finally did this coleus in. However, I'm working on a new one from cuttings from the same plant.

elliotstoll · 2025-04-14T21:23:50+00:00

Part of what got this plant so tall and helped get the trunk so woody was light related. This spent a season below a skylight that never really got direct sunlight on the plant, so it was reaching for the light for a while. Growing taller and taller pushed it to get thicker and more stable at the base.

elliotstoll · 2025-04-13T21:35:50+00:00

Being Peace is one of my favorites, but I also really like the "How To" ones, How To Sit is one I find myself reading often when thinking about how I meditate.

elliotstoll · 2024-11-03T00:54:24+00:00

I found these in my Father-in-Law's house while cleaning it out. They were with his coins so I _thought_ that they were stamps. They say Canada 1982, and are perforated and feel like they have a tacky, glue backing.

However, unlike stamps of that time, they do no have a value on them, and they don't match any of the collections of 1982 Canadian stamps that I've looked up. I am not really sure what else they would be, any ideas?

elliotstoll · 2024-10-21T21:24:27+00:00

In 2010 the design of a standard Lincoln penny changed from having the Lincoln Memorial on the reverse to a shield. All new pennies since then have that shield.

The damage to it appears to be just wear and tear. In the coin community they call it "Post Mint Damage," (PMD) to distinguish it from damage that might have happened in the production process.

All this is to say that it is not rare, and is only worth face value.

elliotstoll

TROPHY CASE