Matt Ragland shows how he uses a Bullet Journal to plan trips, combining handwritten spreads for packing lists and weekly schedules with digital tools like flight info and calendars. For a multi-day trip covering Denver camping, a Spartan Beast race in Breckenridge, and San Francisco, he details specific gear like calf sleeves and GORUCK bags, and explains why writing things down creates stronger memory connections than apps alone.
Chapters
Alright, this is gonna be a different kind of vlog.
I've never, I've never done a proper vlog like this.
Hi everyone, my name is Matt, and welcome to another Bullet Journal productivity video. I'm really excited about this episode because it's a little bit different. Because it's kind of a mashup of, I'm still talking about the Bullet Journal, and how I use it for trip planning. I'm also showing you the results of those plans, and actions, and decisions that I've made in the Bullet Journal, reflected in real life. Of course, I put some things in apps, who doesn't? But, like, again, just writing down, like, this is what I'm doing for the day. But I wanted to switch it up a little bit, I wanted to show you something a little bit different about my day, and about my life, and about my work. So, very interested in how you'll receive this. But let's go ahead and get started. When I'm traveling, I set up my prep on two different pages. This is the overall categorical travel prep between workouts, maybe work and conference, travel details, miscellaneous, and clothes. I'll come back to that in a second. And then there's the weekly plan. And so I still have my project blocks, I have tasks, outcomes, and then whatever the notes, tasks, and meetings are for that week.
I'm here in Denver, Colorado at the 38th and Blake station, and I'm gonna be camping tonight and doing a Spartan Race tomorrow. I wanted to do it for this trip because I have something really, really cool. So this little dream right here is Toyota Land Cruiser, and I've got a tent right up top. This is from a great local company, but it is like everything that you would want for a sweet camping trip in the mountains.
Here's to— here's to being okay tomorrow at 10,000 feet after doing lots of obstacles. When I'm putting the gear together for either Spartan Race or the workouts that I'm doing, I make sure that I have all of this listed right here. All the extra workout gear is here, and then for a Spartan Race specifically, I take a little bit more than normal because I need more specific things like calf sleeves, salt tabs, GORUCK bag, headband, all these things. I wouldn't normally bring all these, but since I'm doing a specific event, I want to make sure that I have everything that I need.
Race morning. It's a beautiful day here in Breck. Chance of thunderstorms. No one wants to be stuck on a mountain for a thunderstorm, but that's part of, you know, the Spartan ethos. We're gonna see how it goes.
I'm excited.
This thing is great.
Not bringing this camera. Into the race area, but I'll still have my phone and a GoPro.
Y'all, just finished the Spartan Beast, 13 miles, about 36 obstacles. Those were the last 2 right there.
So this is all very normal based on what you've been seeing through, you know, the many, the many months that we've been together. Some additional, like, yeah, just making sure that I reach out and confirm with everyone, so Delk, Mayuko, Alexis Jarvis, shout out to all of you. Good times.
Successfully rode the BART.
Ooh, empanadas. Definitely gonna come here.
It's been a good day in San Francisco so far.
I'm in the Mission District. It's where our Airbnb is. It's, uh, unique.
Chill afternoon run.
Like, right down there. The way that I do this to think about how I'm going to prep and plan for travel is that I have a specific page or set of pages for everything that I need to bring, or the details that I need to have in place to make my trip a success, or at least to get on the daggum flights and trains. And then back over here is where I'm doing a normal planning of the week. The reason that I keep coming back to a bullet journal when so many, like, digital apps you know, on the phone or on my computer, could do a perfectly good job of recording information is because to me, and there have been studies about this, I'll link to one in the show notes, the show notes, like this is still a podcast, but there is a very real connection between the things that we write down and how they connect in our minds. And so that's why I keep going back to like writing things down. Like there's all kinds of, like there are all kinds of things that I, write down that I have in the computer as well. And trip planning is a perfect example of this. Like, of course, I have my flight information, I have my calendar, like connections with the people that I'm meeting with. I use Yelp to find like the places that I want to go eat or meet up with people. That all still happens, but when I write it down, it really makes me think about the person that I'm going to be interacting with. It helps me remember a little bit more, like without having to rely on a bunch of beeps and buzzes on my phone, because then I'm not relying on my phone I'm not like constantly thinking about like, when's the next thing that's going to beep for me? And so those are a couple of things that I find really valuable. They're scientifically proven through research. And so I find them to be really worthwhile for spending my time on. And I know all of you do as well, but I just want to give you like two thumbs up to all of you for being on the scientific cutting edge with very analog resources. I hope you enjoyed this video. Please let me know. Give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you are here. If you're here for the first time, it's a really interesting video because not all of them have been like this. I encourage you to go through the backlog or the playlist that I'll have linked in the end card, one of these places, and you can learn a little bit more about what I do on these videos for Bullet Journal productivity and the type of community that we're building here. So, thank you so much. Leave a comment, let me know what you thought about this, and I'll see you next time. Peace.
Pro tip: you know you're good, or maybe it's not a good thing, when you can hold them one-handed and—
