And Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together

There is a lot of helpful information in here. However...there are unfortunately quite a bit of things in the book that I really wish weren't in there. I wanted this for my daughter and I to use as well as to possibly purchase others as gifts. There are expletives (albeit asterisks in the words but still) throughout the book (beginning with "sh" and "f") as well as some sharing that I wish the author hadn't shared (sexual, drinking). I'll attach a couple pages. It may not bother others but did me. Would have been a terrific book otherwise. The book starts with the quote "Jesus, I am graduating in four days a VIRGIN!!!" from her diary and ends with "Over the course of the night, we did everything. Yup, everything." which were diary entries written months apart. It's dedicated to all the boys/men who have given her so much to write about in her diaries. My husband even looked at some of the things she wrote and thought it was crude. Kind of like a really good movie that has bad language and sex in it. Ruins it for some people. In her sample layouts, she mentions snuggling in bed with "Sam" and being grateful for it; later in another sample diary layout she writes that one low moment of the month was when she came home and found "Sam and Dakota in bed together. In (my) own bed! IN MY OWN HOUSE!!!" and then goes on to write about other stuff. I mean...c'mon....can't the author come up with more wholesome things to use in her samples?

‘Dot journaling’ is just code name for bullet journaling. I’m so happy that I read this on Kindle Unlimited and not wasted money on this. You can find all this information from blog posts and YouTube videos.

I agree with the commentary that this is really bullet journaling. I see no difference. I see no reason to call it dot journaling. If she wants to write a book about bullet journaling as many others have- that is ok, just be up front and honest. I also agree that her references are not appropriate for some audiences, but then again I am not sure I think young children are bullet journaling- your call. Other than these issues the book is ok.

The kindle edition is very disappointing as the photos in the journal are illegible on my Kindle Paperwhite, it's vital to be able to see the illustrations but they are tiny and blurred. I read on my computer kindle app but unable to scroll larger, works on the phone version, you can scroll, but the screen is tiny. so unsatisfactory on three devices! The actual book is many times better. I blame the Paperwhite, it's alright for straight text, but illustrations are hopeless. As far as the content goes, one really needs to reference (and see) the pictures to understand set up.

I devoured Dot Journaling in one day. It was funny and easy to read. No really, I laughed while reading this. My favorite quote is the author explaining why you need to bother making an index.

"It may seem like a hassle to keep updating the index, but in a few months, when you're flipping through your journal trying to find something important that you could swear you wrote down--and when your brain keeps telling you "Just type it into the 'search' box!" and you realize that computers have ruined our damn minds--you will be glad you have an index. (pg. 24)"

Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide explains the process of bullet (or dot - they are the same thing) journaling quickly and gives a lot of examples so you can make a customized bullet journal just for you. I didn't feel like I had to be an artist to try this out. I've seen all the pictures on instagram of bullet journaling and even though they were gorgeous, I felt intimated to do my own because mine would never look that amazing. This book will cure you of that! The examples are simple, elegant, and still instagram worthy without taking tons of time or artistic talent to make. See below :)

About 2-3 hours later, I set up my own bullet journal and I love it! It combined my planner and my journal that I was already doing in two separate notebooks. I also added my book reviews in my bullet journal which I was doing in a third notebook. Three notebooks in one! I spent most of my time deciding how to lay things out. I spent a lot of time erasing and rearranging things. I used sticky notes to help me set it up. I wrote a sticky note for each of the main layouts - future, monthly, weekly, and daily - with what information I wanted in that layout. Then I experimented with the layout ideas in the book with pencil until I found a layout that could hold all the information I wanted.

I thought it would be really time consuming to set up my plans since it's a blank notebook instead of a pre-printed planner like I had been using before. But it hasn't been any more time consuming than using my old passion planner. In fact, I like the flexibility of a blank notebook more. I found myself "hacking" my planner so much to get it to do what I wanted that I dreaded using it. And it took forever to change all the printed spreads to do something else. Starting with a blank notebook and tweaking layouts as I go along has created the perfect planner for me and it's a joy to use now.

Dot Journaling was inspiring to me because Rachel Wilkerson Miller focused on function and not how it looked. There were great quotes about journaling, examples of how people have kept diaries in the past, and reasons why you should keep a diary. The back of the book had simple embellishment and doodle examples, pen reviews, marker reviews, and a supply list. In addition to layout ideas, she had great list and collection ideas - a lot of which I used in my bullet journal. I loved reading her tips from her experiences like erasing pencil marks before the ink has dried leading to "so many smeared layouts. Do not be like me. (pg. 83)"

If you have ever thought about starting a bullet journal, go get this guide and get started!

Most of this information can be found online by looking up the tag "bullet journaling" and all its different spellings on tumblr. There are hundreds if not thousands of posts where you can read how to make your own journaling system that are more in depth or brief than this book. I like the examples of using the author's own journal, but this book is aimed to people who are true beginners. That is, people who have no idea what bullet journaling is and want a physical book instead of looking it up on the internet. The writing style is okay and reads more like a very personal blog that kind of works for the book's topic, but it doesn't really pull me in. Would recommend to someone who prefers physical books to learn things, but I'd stick to looking up bullet journaling online.

I liked how the book covered a number of different styles to utilize and had pictures to help readers visualize how things look. I thought it rambled on a bit at some points where it shouldn't have (I personally didn't think we needed that much detail on tracking meals & what you ate for dinner). I get trying to provide a variety of information, but some of the 'diary extras' in the book were a bit annoying and unnecessary. I also didn't like how she included a diary from a woman journaling the sickness and death of her baby (came out of nowhere) and then later she writes about the poor lady & losing 8 of her 13 kids. Can we please stay on topic?

Otherwise, great tool to help organize your life a bit. I can definitely see how many different types of people with different goals and styles can benefit from the majority of the book.

I got this wondering, "Can journaling actually be this easy yet "all-encompassing", AND also be fun enough to keep doing it?" The answer is... yes.
Finally, a fresh new way to organize, list, journal, or whatever else strikes your mood. Something that makes sense and is flexible to fit you and your lifestyle.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to be more organized, stay on track and incorporate a journal/diary into their life. This has very helpful ideas to get you started & keep you going.
With the sample layouts, you will soon be making your own dot-journal and it will truly be your own!
Happy "dot - journaling"! ☺

4 Star Prime Read
This book is loaded with information to make the daily diary of yesteryear hip and current. Unfortunately, with the title Dot Journaling I assumed without reading the synopsis that this would be tutorial on how to journal on a computer or internet. However, I feel that the ideas presented here can somehow be transferred to a digital diary. One I e of live to try.

I journal already, but had never heard of dot journaling or bullet journaling until the author introduced me to both. Despite at least one of the reviews out there, the author did not rip off the bullet journaling idea, but does give the proper acknowledgement to the creators of bullet journaling. If anything, I now know about this book and the bullet journaling site. I like this book better, because the author just plain explains it better. I LOVE the examples in the book and can’t wait to try them on my own!

I have been so curious about bullet journaling, and this book really got me excited about starting my own notebook. Like most people, I think I was afraid to start and make mistakes. But the suggestions in this book have me feeling empowered and ready to go. Loved it!

I got this wondering, "Can journaling actually be this easy yet "all-encompassing", AND also be fun enough to keep doing it?" The answer is... yes.
Finally, a fresh new way to organize, list, journal, or whatever else strikes your mood. Something that makes sense and is flexible to fit you and your lifestyle.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to be more organized, stay on track and incorporate a journal/diary into their life. This has very helpful ideas to get you started & keep you going.
With the sample layouts, you will soon be making your own dot-journal and it will truly be your own!
Happy "dot - journaling"! ☺

4 Star Prime Read
This book is loaded with information to make the daily diary of yesteryear hip and current. Unfortunately, with the title Dot Journaling I assumed without reading the synopsis that this would be tutorial on how to journal on a computer or internet. However, I feel that the ideas presented here can somehow be transferred to a digital diary. One I e of live to try.

I journal already, but had never heard of dot journaling or bullet journaling until the author introduced me to both. Despite at least one of the reviews out there, the author did not rip off the bullet journaling idea, but does give the proper acknowledgement to the creators of bullet journaling. If anything, I now know about this book and the bullet journaling site. I like this book better, because the author just plain explains it better. I LOVE the examples in the book and can’t wait to try them on my own!

I have been so curious about bullet journaling, and this book really got me excited about starting my own notebook. Like most people, I think I was afraid to start and make mistakes. But the suggestions in this book have me feeling empowered and ready to go. Loved it!

I absolutely loved this book. I refer to it often. But I’m writing this review because I cringed when you were talking about 2016 being a year that you described as garbage, and I ask why? In fact you said it was a bit unfair to garbage using that term. I hope to God you are not referring to the election of Donald Trump. In my opinion, he has done more to positively impact our country than any other president in my lifetime and I am 52. After Bush and Obama bringing our country down from being the 2nd or 3 rd freest country in the world to number 17. That’s embarrassing. And I voted for Bush and Obama the first time around. You should learn some facts about Trump and get off the “never Trump” band wagon. The media doesn’t want you to know about any of the positive but I can promise you that there is an incredible amount of wins you can add to your win column if you just open your eyes. I thank God everyday for Trump and pray people will wake up to the truth. I love your book though and it is very helpful

I am thoroughly enjoying this book. She offers many different ideas on how you might want to set up or change your Bullet Journal. She also offers some great advice to people new to the bujo world. As for those people who think this book is about “stealing” the Bullet Journal concept designed by Ryder Carroll....you are wrong. This author continually credits and references Carroll. She just expands and details more about bullet journals

I feel ready to actually start my bullet journal now. I kept getting hung up on the index page thanks to some bit of perfectionist in me, but this has given me the confidence to start. I probably would have started it while reading except my kids have been exceptional pains in my butt the past few days.

This guide is great for anyone who thinks they may want to start bullet journaling.

This is pretty clearly a ripoff of bullet journaling. It's disappointing that someone would take another's intellectual property and re-package it as her own. I believe that Ryder Carroll (the inventor of bullet journaling) is coming out with his own book soon, I'll wait for that one instead.

I have read many books about journaling, time management, and the tools necessary for both, and this book is one of the best. The author's system of dot journaling is simple enough to be immediately useful, yet flexible enough that the reader will feel free to experiment with different approaches to the system. It has many photos of sample journal layouts provided by the author, so many that the reader is bound to find one or more that resonates. And over all, the author's writing style is friendly, engaging, and just downright funny at times. I enjoyed reading the Kindle version of the book so much that I immediately placed an order for the hard copy version. Highly recommended!

All of this information is available for free on Ryder Carroll's website, and there are tons of content creators who work with Ryder and in the Bullet Journal community to give you all this information for free. Don't buy this book.

This is the perfect companion to Beyond Bullets by Megan Rutell. This book gives the clearest description and theory of bullet journaling. After reading this book a few times I realized that I wanted to do this. Megan's book is the perfect companion on how to accomplish it. I checked out several other books, but these were the best available at this time.

If you’re waiting until you’re “ready” to begin a journal, this book is for you. It offers options and outlines and lists to get you started. And once you get going, you will devise your own plans and designs. I highly recommend this book for everyone who wants to journal but doesn’t know how to begin.

This is a practical book. The emphasis is on what will work for your needs and that content is more important than a specific layout or decoration. Even after a couple of years of bullet journaling the practice continues to evolve and I found several ideas.

Comical, straight to the point, skim-able, so educational. Really enjoyed learning new techniques and found the pictures to be extraordinarily helpful, I took a screenshot of them and save them for references as they begin my first dot journal

I really want to be organized! My intentions are good and pure. However, I needed someone to sit down with me and give me step by step directions. This is that "someone"! I took notes as I read and now I feel prepared, not afraid or intimidated, but empowered. I'm not stressed about messing up either. I love the flexibility of this dot journaling approach. I can do this!!!!!

Rachel Miller's explanation and examples of what dot journaling is and can be are inspiring and feel completely attainable, even for busy working moms. Her humor made reading this book a fun experience. I highly recommend for anyone who is curious or even skeptical about dot journaling, or for anyone who once journaled faithfully, but the time commitment of continuing now makes it difficult when competing with everyday life. But I warn you: you may get hooked!

I had never heard of "Dot Journaling" when this came in my book recommendations. I have become a big believer in journaling and have seen the difference it makes in my personal and professional life. I will be adding some of these methods to my own journalling based on her recommendations of what she found most helpful.

Bullet journaling can be very intimidating. One could find similar ideas online, but the book combines a lot of good info and layout options into a single manageable resource. There are nice simple ideas for getting started along with more ambitious layouts for the aspirational. I read it in an evening and found lots of inspiration for my own journal.

This book helped renew my love of journaling. I've been writing for years, but stopped recently because of life. I want to get back into it, but with a fresh spin. Rachel offered some great tips to get me started again. This book was easy to read, and can be read in a day. If you are looking for something to being back your writing inspiration, this is it.

I loved the author's supportive attitude and ideas. What's right FOR YOU is what's right. Lots of samples. Lots of ideas and suggestions. I also liked the quotes from other diarists/journalists. She gives you a feasible starting point and also provides inspiration for expansion.