Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome
back to Pattern Shift.
I'm a little bit excitedbecause I just had an idea, and
when I have an idea I getexcited.
It's almost the summer holidaysfor the kids here, I think.
For them it cannot happen fastenough.
(00:22):
For me, I don't know.
I really love having them inand around the house, especially
if they participate in keepingthings running.
There's going to be a little bitof a shift again, a pattern
shift, if you will, because thisis what happens If the summer's
coming or if it's aroundChristmas.
(00:44):
I tend to take a break frompodcasting because it really
helps me to think about thingsand to process things and to get
even more ideas and to dothings and to basically relax,
because it does take a lot oftime and a lot of work to make a
(01:05):
whole episode and I've beendoing it by myself for a couple
of I don't know a stretch oftime and it's not as hard as it
was.
I can do it pretty quickly now,but it's still a lot of time.
So I like to be more flexiblein the summer and therefore I'm
(01:27):
taking a break, but I have alsocome up with an idea so that we
can keep hanging out.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hey and welcome to
Patternship, the podcast for
fiber-loving business ownersshaping a slower, more
sustainable world.
I'm Saskia, a creative businesscoach and support guide for
makers, teachers, designers andindie shop owners in the needle
and fiber arts.
I help you way, find your nextstep, organize your business to
fit your life and launch ideaswith joy and action.
(01:58):
Let's untangle the yucky bitslike branding, marketing and
sales and build somethingsustainable, soulful and truly
unique.
So grab your favorite brew tea,coffee or, you know,
brewiklarit and let's ship thepattern one stitch at a time.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Now this is the thing
I want to do.
A challenge, a summer challenge, and that sounds like, oh,
buddy, I want to have a breakfrom work and stuff.
I don't want to do a challenge,a summer challenge, and that
sounds like, oh, but I want tohave a break from work and stuff
.
I don't want to do a challenge.
Yes, you do, because this is afun one and it is made
especially for summer so that itis easy to do, doesn't take a
(02:39):
lot of time, but will give you,like really cool results,
hopefully, if you engage, if youdo the thing.
So I'm calling it Bujo by theSea, which kind of brings me
images of the south of France.
(03:00):
I don't really want to go there, it's too hot for me.
I don't really want to go there.
It's too hot for me, I don'treally like the heat.
So let's bring it up to aDanish beach or I don't know,
just Bujobai, to see.
It sounds good, it soundssummery, it sounds relaxing,
(03:30):
that's what I'm calling it.
So what we're doing is it'sgoing to start the 19th of July,
so that's in a month, and it'sgoing to be easy prompts daily,
and we're going to do like abullet journal style logging of
the day, but just in a fewminutes every day.
So I'm going to teach you howto do that, how to use the
actual bullets, and I'm going togive you prompts and it's going
(03:51):
to be fun.
So this week, this episode andthe next episode will be about
bullet journaling in general,specifically my thoughts about
it and my experience with it,and then we're going to start
the bullet journal, the Bujo bythe Sea challenge, and it's
(04:12):
going to be fun.
This challenge is something thatyou can do in one of two ways,
in two of one way you can do.
You can choose how to do it.
You can either sign up so thatyou can get it in your mailbox
every day, just through email,and if you would like some I
(04:36):
don't know contacts, then youcould mail me back and say
something to me and I could mailyou back.
That is an option.
But if you really want to havethe actual connection and the
talking about the things and theshowing of the pages and all of
(04:56):
those things, then why don'tyou join our community, even if
it's just for the summertime,just for the challenge, for
however long you like it?
Basically, this challenge willbring you a lot and it will cost
you like not a lot If you stayfor the whole challenge.
(05:18):
It's about $20.
That's about it.
If you want to keep in the loopand if you want to not forget
about this, sign up for mynewsletter so you'll hear about
it in time.
All right, then, about bulletjournaling, I'm sharing today
(05:39):
how I discovered it, how I useit now and how it really
supports me in the way that Irun my life and my business.
I think it was because I havethe bullet journal next to me.
I'm just going to grab it now.
This is it.
It is a little journal I thinkabout, is a little journal I
(06:17):
think about?
Is this A5, b5, b6?
I don't know.
It's small-ish.
It's smaller than an A5 journal.
It's a sign.
Anyway, this is dated April toJune 2017.
That's when I started, or atleast this is the bullet journal
(06:41):
that I kept.
It is very interesting.
It's super messy.
It definitely is not how Ibullet journal these days,
though, I did use all thebullets talking about the tasks
and the events and actions andcrossing it out and moving it
(07:06):
across to the next week, thingslike that.
I did do that, not superconsistently.
I have to say yeah, so that'swhat I'm doing today.
It is very fun to see the bigthing that I wrote inside of it
is will this work?
And I put some shiny maskingtape probably there over
(07:30):
something that was messy and Idecided, oh, I'll better make
this look better, because atthat time I believed that bullet
journals were about beautifulhandwriting and were about
(07:51):
beautiful handwriting andembellishing and making little
drawings of things and usingyour best handwriting and all of
that.
I definitely did not do that,but I gave it a go At some pages
.
I really tried to make it lookgood.
It's so fun to see what I wasworking on at that time and who
I was working with.
(08:11):
It's ages, ages ago.
I did some scribbles here,designing a logo.
I don't know what that was forFor my own yarn, perhaps I don't
really know.
Yeah, it's for my yarn labels.
Oh, that's fun.
That is fun.
So, yeah, looking at thisreally brings me back to those
(08:36):
days.
This says that my youngestdaughter needed to go get
glasses, which is ages ago.
She now has contacts.
I've kept my invoices in here,my actual.
I had an extra phone for theshop with an extra number.
(08:59):
Some dried flowers, pretty.
I just I really made an effortto get some organization going
because at the time, I hadsmaller children.
I mean 2017, ages ago, althoughhonestly, I'm turning 50 this
(09:23):
year and to me everything after2000 is like yesterday.
So I definitely didn't fillthis journal.
I gave it up at some point.
But let me first talk to youabout why I started doing this.
I had two small children.
I had a business.
(09:45):
I was already running my yarnshop 2017.
12, 13, I think I must havealready been in the bigger shop.
I'm so bad with numbers.
This is why I need a bulletjournal to help me remember
(10:06):
stuff like that.
So I was overwhelmed by all thethings I needed to remember the
things for school, for the kids, for school for the kids, like
the contact that not the contactlenses the glasses, the
doctor's appointments, theparties, the play dates, and
then everything for my shop, andthen keeping the house together
(10:27):
, which is never my strong feet,and also I'm very much.
There's a really big part of methat doesn't want to do it,
because I don't want to be ahousewife.
So taking care of my housemeans that I'm a housewife and
very all of that now is clear tome, is part of my demand
(10:48):
avoidance and all the ADHD stuffthat I didn't know at that time
I was struggling with.
I did have some idea, but Ididn't really take time to
figure it out, although thebullet journal had a really big
part in figuring out thesethings, because, as some of you
(11:11):
might not know, bulletjournaling is not what lots of
people think.
The bullet journal method isabout mindful productivity.
It's about reflecting, lookingback, so that you are able to
move forward in a way that'smore intentional.
I needed an anchor.
(11:33):
I needed something that helpedme re-anchor.
Is that a word?
Is that a verb?
I needed to be re-anchoredevery day.
When I woke up, chaos startedagain and I needed something
that I could hold on to so thatI knew what was next, and the
(11:53):
bullet journal helped me withthat.
I learned from it, obviouslythrough the internet, I think.
Youtube quickly figured out thedifference between the artistic
way of bullet journaling andthe actual methods.
That was designed by writerCarol.
He wrote a book.
Let me find the year I've gotthe book here.
(12:26):
The book came out in 2018.
So I was bullet journaling evenbefore the book came out, just
going by what he was sharing onYouTube, and it was just exactly
what I needed.
Not a long time after, I alsodiscovered Marie Kondo, whose
philosophy at the time kind ofalso really matched this whole
(12:50):
conscious choice slowing down,paring down, just learning how
to choose which has been my wordof the year at that time.
I think I've had that as a wordof the year for at least six
years and I still have a hardtime choosing.
Choosing is something that Isuck at, and the bullet journal
(13:14):
method Ryder and Marie reallyhelped me with that.
I needed to find a way throughthe chaos and the overwhelm and
I was at my shop and I wasteaching.
I was teaching, I was designing, I was selling, I was doing all
(13:34):
the things.
I really, really don't knownowadays how I had the energy to
do that.
It's I'm, I'm just still wipedout because of it.
That's why I cannot understandhow I did it then, like my
natural amount of energy hasjust I don't know what happened.
(13:56):
So when I found it, I ate it up.
I just had to see every clip,every video that Ryder made and
I loved it, but in true ADHDfashion style, fashion style.
I thought it was hard to keepup, and now I know that was
(14:20):
because I didn't fullyunderstand it, yet Over time I
got back into it.
I have a bookshelf full ofjournals and I think the gap I
took another journal that Ididn't stop because I stopped
completely.
I see now I just wanted betterpaper, so I became snobby, I got
(14:43):
a Rhodia book and I still lovethe way that feels, but I
haven't bought one ever sinceBecause then, after a while oh
wait, let me focus on what I wassaying I had a little bit of a
drop between 2018 and 2022.
Actually, I have been prettyconsistent.
(15:07):
I mean like six months a year.
What happened then?
Oh, I remember now whathappened then.
You can tell this is not reallyscripted.
What happened then?
You can tell this is not reallyscripted.
What happened is I fell intothe rabbit hole of productivity
and journaling and I found outabout what was that?
(15:29):
The one with the monkey.
I don't have it on my shelfbecause it feels like I at this,
now that I'm so connected tobullet journal, the method and
everything, I feel like I had anaffair with another type of
journal, so I don't remember hisname but I remember there was a
(15:51):
monkey on the front, but it wasall planned, it was all written
out.
I had to fill in the gaps andthat felt easy.
But it also came with a lot ofguilt whenever I didn't do a
page or didn't have time to doit.
This still happens.
I don't think I no, I didn'tjournal yesterday, but I will
(16:13):
always come back to it nowbecause now I know how it works.
Now I know how to pick it upagain.
It doesn't take me any effort.
So if it's weekend, if I havesome things going on, I don't
necessarily need to do it everyday, but I will go back to it
after a few days or so becauseit just brings me so much and I
(16:33):
kind of need it.
The only hiatus that I had wasexploring different journals.
I think I went into theHibunichi Weeks thing for a bit,
the Traveler's Journal, but Ididn't like the way.
I didn't have enough space towrite.
It felt constricted and I kindof built a hybrid of some
(17:01):
methods, but that wasn't reallyworking.
So I just got back to bulletjournaling and got the book and
really got into it.
Then, when I got the book, Iactually got the audio book
first and Ryder has a reallynice voice to listen to.
So I did that first, and thenthe book, and it took a while.
(17:23):
I have to be honest about this.
It took a while, but slowly allthe things started to click.
I'm like, oh, now I get it.
This is like this builds onthis, and then this builds on
this and you reflect back sothat you can go for, I get it.
And I have been prettyconsistent since I was so
(17:45):
enthusiastic that I actuallyproduced my own bullet journals
for Yavol, my brand, and theyhad the dots on the pages, which
are not the bullets, by the way.
I had two sizes, a5 and what'sthe other one, the big one, b
something, and I worked togetherwith a very local to me
(18:10):
bookbinder, I guess.
So I worked with this local tome bookbbinder, publisher type
small business and they madepaper for me that was specific,
so that you can use it as aknitting designer to design
(18:30):
knitting patterns, becauseusually the dots on the pages of
a bullet journal are in squares, but mine were in rectangles,
because when you design forknitting and you do it in
squares, then your actualknitting will be warped, not
warped like stretched orsquished, Because a knitting
(18:54):
stitch is not square, it'sactually a rectangle.
So with my bullet journal youcould also design knitting
patterns.
On one side it had the dots andthe other side was empty, so
you could draw or do whateveryou like.
So that was fun.
I did that twice and then theyweren't selling as much anymore,
(19:16):
because it's a very nicheaudience, I have to say.
And then I just started to usethe Leuchtturm books that the
Bullet Journal company makesthemselves, because they're made
for it.
They have specific thingsinside it that are pre-printed,
(19:36):
like the index and the key thekey where the bullets are
explained.
It has a little booklet thatshortly explains the method.
It has stickers.
It's just nice.
I would feel bad if I usedanother journal for bullet
journaling, because now I'm anofficial bullet journal trainer,
I took a course and I got thecertification and all of it.
(20:01):
So there's no way I can useanother notebook now, but I love
them, so that's no issue.
So, yeah, that's why I started.
I was overwhelmed.
I needed something to anchor me.
I needed to have a moment inthe day where I could know what
was next.
What do I have to do now,instead of just going around in
(20:25):
circles and just the whole ideaof working in your business
mostly instead of on yourbusiness.
When I started to bulletjournal, that gradually started
to change.
It showed me what was important.
It helped me to differentiatebetween things that were
(20:46):
actually helping my business andthings that were not and yeah,
it was a huge, huge, huge thingfor me.
I've always loved stationery.
I've always loved paper andpens.
(21:09):
When I used to go to the Southof France or Brittany as a child
, what I would love to do is togo to the bookshops and look at
the different kinds of papernotebooks that they would have
and buy pens and everything thatwould be so different from what
we had at home.
I guess times have changed.
(21:31):
You can buy the same thingseverywhere now, but at that
point there was theClairefontaine notebooks and
stuff and I just loved it.
I've always loved it.
So the fact that bulletjournaling isn't digital and is
something that is analog, thatreally fits with me Because, as
(21:54):
when, ages ago, when I was a DJ,I used albums Albums, no, final
, that's the word.
I used vinyl as well, but Ialso love digital and they work
like my digital calendar and mybullet journal.
(22:15):
They work together so well.
It's just fits for me and I canhave fun with fountain pens and
different inks and sometimes Ihave a journal that's just black
and white and all veryorganized and you would think I
would.
I was German if you look intoit.
Just making a joke, I'm justjoking.
(22:37):
I love German, it's okay.
And so if you open up some ofmy journals, it's all very
strict and black and white andit's just purely functional.
But sometimes I feel a littledifferent and I'll draw a little
birdie or I'll go wild withsome washi tape, or I want to
use all the different colorsthat I have in inks and fountain
(23:00):
pens, and then I feel badbecause I wanted to keep it nice
and neat.
So now it's all over the placeand there's no theme to it.
It should be a theme, should it?
No, relax, it's all good,because the bullet journal and
the system, the method, is atool.
It is not supposed to lookamazing, it is supposed to help
you.
So there you go, and if ithelps you to make it look
(23:23):
beautiful and you don't feel anyanxiety or stress or
perfectionism around that, byall means make it beautiful.
But when it does do all thosenegative things, then just focus
on the method's.
It's a tool.
So, yeah, the the, it was themethod.
(23:43):
It worked.
It was also just Ryder, becausehe is, he's just really smart
and I don't know.
For a while I followed him onInstagram and I would have a
word for the year and then hewould have the same word for the
year and he was building hisbusiness around his method and I
(24:03):
was building my business aroundmy thoughts and I just felt
like this is my kind of personand I love to think deeply about
things and it was just a reallygood connection.
And then I just I think Iactually became a member of the
(24:25):
Bullet Journal community, whichis also on the same platform as
my community is on MightyNetworks, and, yeah, I just
loved looking at what otherpeople did and connecting with
them and connecting with theBullet Journal team, and every
time that they had like a jobopen at Bullet Journaling, I
(24:47):
could not sleep.
I wanted to be on that team.
I wanted to work with theBullet Journal team.
So much to work with the bulletjournal team, so much
no-transcript, I just wanted toapply to the jobs.
(25:07):
But then I had to stop myselfbecause, however much I love the
method and their team, theirbusiness, their everything,
their thoughts, if I work forthem, I cannot work for me.
If you have your own business,you can always use more time me.
(25:31):
If you have your own business,you can always use more time.
And I always came back to theeffort and time and energy I put
into their business is notgoing to go into mine, but at
one point they were starting acoaching course.
I was like this is perfect.
I can become a coach and abullet journal teacher all in
(25:52):
one.
This is amazing.
I can bring that to my businessand teach everyone who wants to
learn from me how to use bulletjournaling for within their
business and bring all the magicto what I'm offering myself.
I was in the beta group and sothey started with calling it
(26:14):
coaching, but eventually wefigured out together because we
kind of built this thingtogether, which was really,
really fun and complicated butgreat.
We figured out that it wasn'tcoaching.
Actually we were going to betrainers.
So we changed the name and thatis the reason that I, once I
finished that, started to thinkabout.
(26:37):
I also kind of want I reallywant to be a coach as well and
have coaching tools in mytoolkit as well as the bullet
journal method.
So that's how I started thecoaching journey.
By the way, I still have one ortwo spots for people to come in
(26:58):
and do coaching with me, butnot for long.
So if you hear this and if youwere on the fence.
If you were shy, this probablyis your last chance for a while.
So let me know I had somepeople through the podcast sign
up, so that's really exciting,especially exciting because I
then get to talk to the peoplewho listen to the podcast, which
(27:19):
is you.
The mindful productivity that isthe thing that speaks to me
most.
Productivity as a thing initself feels like it has to do
with the rat race and alwayshaving to be more, do more,
harder, further, you know, andthat really doesn't fit with me.
(27:41):
Well, not because I'm lazy, butbecause I want to be
intentional, because I want tostay healthy, I don't want to
burn out again, so I have tomake intentional choices and
that mindful productivity thereflecting on what you have done
so that you can decide on whatto do in the future is really,
(28:05):
really valuable and that reallyconnected with me.
So, looking at me as a personnot so much my business, but how
I use bullet journaling toalign my day by looking in my
journal and when my workdaystarts that could be different
(28:36):
moments during the day.
It's hard for me to be superconsistent with things just
because my neurodivergent brainstruggles with it, but I also
really crave it.
So the bullet journal againanchors me in a way, because it
(28:57):
might not be the same time everyday, but before I actually
start working my bullet journalis there and I will first look
at my bullet journal to see whatI was able to do the day before
, what I can do today, how I wasfeeling before and what I can
do today, how I can set anintention to make use of what
(29:21):
I've learned from the day beforeor the week or the month before
.
So that really helps me to stayconsistent in a way that fits
my brain.
See, brushing my teeth is noteasy for me.
That's where I am.
You might not recognize thisand that's fine.
(29:45):
But what's good to know is thatwhen your brain works more
neurotypically, this might beeasier or not.
But what I'm trying to say is,if I manage to keep bullet
(30:05):
journaling, to keep bulletjournaling over years and years
and years, with little gaps andeverything, but I'm kind to
myself, that's okay.
And also it fits with themethods, because the next page
is empty.
You can wait a while before youcome back to it.
You just flip back to the pagewhere the week before was and
(30:29):
then you realize where you wereand you pick it up again.
So I'm well aware that thismight all sound a little bit
abstract to you if you don'treally know what bullet
journaling is.
By the way, if you want tolearn, I teach workshops, as you
might have guessed, and you canfind the information on
patternshiftfm so I can actuallyteach you how to do it in more
(30:54):
detail, because now I'mbasically just talking about it
and not teaching anything.
I usually have my bullet journalon my desk, but these days,
with our new puppy, skip, I haveto bring it with me downstairs,
back upstairs again, dependingon she's sleeping or not if I'm
in the kitchen working insteadof at my desk here.
(31:16):
Actually, today I found myfriend Thea and I I think it was
her idea, but we were talkingand we came up with a kind of a
productivity hack to have abasket with stuff that I can
take with me through the house.
I have a four level house and Iwas used to working in this
(31:44):
room, in my office room, I guess.
For most of the day I wouldjust go down to get lunch and
that's it, but now with thepuppy, I'm here and then I'm
down again, and so I need tobring my stuff where I am.
So now I have this basket withmy bullet journal, the book that
I'm reading for fun, a knittingproject, my study book, book
(32:07):
and laptop and actually waterbottle.
I've been doing it for a daynow.
Let's see if it sticks.
Seems like a really good idea.
We'll see.
This is actually a really nicecomparison to bullet journaling.
You really just have to trysomething.
But really try it like reallytrying means stopping and going
(32:31):
back to it and see what'sdifferent and reflecting and all
of that.
So, yeah, bullet journalingit's all about intentionality,
reflecting, making the rightchoices, reflecting on your
values, on your needs, takingtime to do things, also taking
(32:52):
action, not like overthinkingforever all of those kinds of
things, being conscious.
I haven't been using it as muchthese days, but that was my
word when I was talking aboutYabble on social media.
Everything was conscious.
It's just I like to live thatway.
(33:13):
That's kind of like how I liketo do things, and it really
matches with the bullet journalmethod.
So it matches with who I am asa person, how I work, and it's
my sidekick and it works.
So, yeah, there's also lots ofspace for creativity.
(33:34):
You can make it into whateveryou need, and I really like that
, even if you don't want to belike creative, creative with it.
My daily spreads have a certainlook to them, which I will,
coincidentally, also use in thechallenge.
I will share that with you atone point and it just has grown
(33:57):
to something that is tailoredeven more specifically to what I
need as a person in myday-to-day, in my business, in
everything.
So yeah, when it comes to thebusiness how bullet journaling
supports the business, howbullet journaling supports Yavol
(34:21):
as a business and Pattern Shiftthe podcast is I have specific
collections.
That's what, like groups ofthemed pages, are called
collections for the podcast, formarketing, for the community,
(34:43):
for my program, and I keep onthose pages.
I keep the action steps, myintentions, my goals.
I have everything together andI can just flip to them and add
new action steps, add new ideas,notes and take from that, from
(35:04):
that container, from thatcollection, as I move through my
months, my weeks and my days.
So it's like a folder on yourcomputer, but it's like I don't
know.
It's close to your heart.
It moves with you.
Whenever you go to a new bulletjournal, you ask yourself
(35:25):
questions to figure out if youstill need all these things or
actions, if they are serving apurpose or not.
And what is that purpose?
It's just a really mindful,slow kind of process of
determining whether or notyou're on the right track.
And if you're a solopreneur, ifyou work by yourself and you
(35:50):
cannot sit and talk about thesethings over coffee, then it's
really nice that you can do thatwith yourself and have a system
and a list of questions to gothrough, like a list.
It's just a few, so that youknow that you're on the right
track.
Of course, it's also just anotebook where you just jot down
(36:13):
ideas and thoughts and preparefor workshops or for podcasts.
At the same time, I also useNotion a lot when it comes to
podcasting.
When it comes to podcasting andthat's the great thing you can
pair it really well with othertools that work better for other
(36:35):
things.
I mean, I wouldn't record apodcast with my bullet journal.
It doesn't have a microphone,so you definitely need to have
different tools for differentthings, but the bullet journal
covers a lot.
It is such a big part of mylife, my personal life and my
(36:55):
business, and that matches sowell with what I teach in the
Business Circle program.
The workshops are separate, butonce you know how to bullet
journal, you can make reallygood use of it in whenever you
do a program or any other course.
(37:17):
Next week we'll talk some moreabout the bullet journal.
This was about my personalexperience.
If you want to join Bujo by theSea, our challenge for the
summer a really gentle practiceof just a few minutes every day
that helps you become moreconfident, that helps you to get
(37:39):
a better idea of what you needand want in the future for
yourself and your business orthe business that you're
building just sign up for it anduse the link in the show notes.
You can also go topatternshiftfm and find
information there in the shownotes.
I'd love to have you and, again, you can join the challenge
(38:02):
through email.
If you want to connect withother people who are doing the
challenge, then maybe join thecommunity for the duration of
the challenge and, if you likeit, you can hang out and stay
longer.
If you want to know more aboutbullet journaling the full thing
just go to patternshiftfm andfind information about my
workshops.
(38:22):
If you've been curious aboutusing your journal to support
your life and business, thissummer challenge might be the
nudge you need Thanks forlistening to PatentShift.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
If today's episode
sparked something for you, I'd
love to hear about it.
Or, better yet, help you takethe next step.
You'll find links to myprograms, community and more
support for your creativebusiness at PatentShiftfm.
Until next time, keep creatingwith care and trust your own
pace, and don't forget to eatand stitch your fibers.