Crafting Personal Information – Resistance, Imperfection, and Self-Creation in Bullet Journaling

DOI

Bullet journals are hand-written and self-created combinations of calendar, journal and planner. Central to this practice is how personal information is managed through a craft-based process. Based on a qualitative study, we discuss a set of themes that emerged in our analysis of this practice. We discuss how open-ended use of various materials for crafting of personal information engages in: 1) deliberate and strategic boundary work of what information to include and how combinations of data provide holistic and novel views of practitioner's life situations; 2) processes of self-creation and reflection on personal life trajectories; 3) appreciation of ourselves and the world around us as imperfect; and 4) ways of resisting the "business-like efficiency" that come with the large quantities of information that permeate contemporary life. We propose that this opens up new directions for thinking about how technologies of personal information may come into play in people's lives.