Impressions of the Clear Habit Journal

While I haven't read Atomic Habits, I follow James Clear's social media, and I've learned a thing or two about his core principles. Some of my favourite notebooks come from Baronfig (referral link), so I decided to give one of their 'Special Editions' (created by Mr. Clear) a try.

Here are my early impressions.

1. The Bulk of It Is Still a Blank Notebook

There are 167 blank pages; or at least they are blank except a dot grid, which is my favourite pattern for Bullet Journaling.

2. There Is A Split Grid To Make Designing Your Own Spreads Easier

Small markings show where the 1/3, and 1/2 portions of the page lie.

3. Habit Tracking is Easy

While the flexibility of using a blank notebook is a major reason why I use Bullet Journaling and eschew traditional planners, I have found making habit-tracking spreads to be difficult to do well, and tedious to do at all.. As should be obvious of anything involving James Clear, the habit tracking pages at the back of the book make it easy and there is some guidance too.

4. Two Bookmarks

There are ribbons to mark pages. I use one to mark the current day/page and one so I can flip to the habit tracker pages in the back.

5. Numbered Pages

This is something I like in a blank notebook. It makes it easier to create an index. Speaking of which...

6. Index Section At the Front

After a couple of pages that show how to use the features of the notebook, there is a 2 page spread for an index you put together yourself. Each page has 2 columns of blank lines to put a title and page number, but what I really like is a space in the margin to mark the start and end dates of your journal.

7. Toolkits: Decision Making Toolkit

Shows how decision-making strategies (including Prediction/Decision/Review and Second Order Thinking) can be implemented in a Bullet Journal.

8. Toolkits: Productivity

Shows how to build the Eisenhower Box and the Ivy Lee Method into a Bullet Journal. The former classifies tasks by importance and urgency (which are independent concepts). The latter is about limiting your task list and prioritization (while reducing multi-tasking)

9. Toolkits: Fitness

Shows how to build Workout Trackers and Food logs into a Bullet Journal

10. Final Thoughts

I haven't read all the toolkit and guidance sections properly yet, but so far this notebook is a wonderful hybrid of the flexibility I want with some valuable structure and content that can improve my productivity and journalling practice.