Spent 8 months using a monthly spread and it was a mess

I kept seeing people rave about the monthly log view in their BuJos. Gave it a solid 8 months, tried different layouts each time. Switched to a simple weekly spread with time blocking and my productivity went up by a lot. Has anyone else found monthly layouts just don't work for their daily workflow?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy8241mo agoOG Member

Disagree completely. Found that monthly layouts give me the big picture without getting lost in the weeds. A week is way too short for planning projects that need multiple checkpoints. Time blocking in a weekly spread just made me feel like a robot punching a clock. The monthly view lets me see deadlines and events at a glance without micromanaging my hours. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but calling the monthly log a mess feels like blaming the tool for the user.

phoenix_adams608d ago

@elizabethwhite nailed it with that rolling weekly idea. Tried that myself after getting sick of feeling trapped by Monday's empty squares. Monthly logs work fine for big deadlines but I need the daily grit for things like breaking down a client project into actual action steps. Had to combine both - monthly on one page for the bird's eye view, weekly across the next spread with a tiny future log column for stuff bleeding into next month.@nancy824's right about not blaming the tool though, honest truth is I just needed to stop overcomplicating it.

elizabethwhite1mo agoTop Commenter

Did you try the Alistair method for your monthly spread or just the standard calendar block? I had the same issue until I switched to a rolling weekly setup that bleeds into the next month. @nancy824 makes a good point about big picture stuff but some of us need the daily granularity. What finally worked for me was a two page weekly with a tiny future log column on the side for upcoming deadlines.