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Making Time for Research (and You): Using an “Intentionality Toolkit”
to Achieve Your Goals and Mitigate Feelings of Overwhelm

Thea Atwooda

aPublic and Environmental Health Sciences Librarian, Indiana University Bloomington,
Bloomington, Indiana, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-1097 , tpatwood@iu.edu

Cite as: Atwood T. Making Time for Research (and You): Using an “Intentionality Toolkit”
to Achieve Your Goals and Mitigate Feelings of Overwhelm. Hypothesis. 2025;37(2).
doi:10.18060/28774

Atwood. All works in Hypothesis are licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0
DEED Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. Authors own copyright of their articles
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1

https://www.orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-1097
https://orcid.org/
mailto:tpatwood@iu.edu
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


Peer Reviewed Article Hypothesis, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2025

Abstract
Introduction: Academic, professional, and personal life are a lot to balance, and there is
always more work to do than there are hours in the day. The Bullet Journal Method, the
Weekly Meeting, and the Semester Plan, which come together as an “intentionality toolkit,”
are three practices to help prioritize competing interests, mitigate feelings of overwhelm, and
practice saying “no.”

Experience: Each method hosts its own distinct benefits: the Bullet Journal Method offers a
strategy for managing your day-to-day tasks, the Weekly Meeting provides short-term
planning and the opportunity to practice saying “no” to requests, and the Semester Plan helps
break down long-term goals into smaller, achievable tasks.

Discussion: An intentionality toolkit can help in numerous ways. This includes reducing
cognitive load; improving prioritization practices; improving openness and flexibility;
mitigating perfectionism; owning your time; and incorporating reflective practices into your
workweek. This isn’t a perfect toolkit. It is a set of options that might be beneficial to
librarians.

Takeaways: These three techniques create a toolkit to provide structure and personal
accountability, specifically to achieve goals that traditionally have less oversight and
accountability, like writing and research.

Introduction
We are asked daily to make choices about a variety of competing priorities: emails,
consultations, child- and elder care decisions, teaching, professional development, sick time
(for yourself or someone that depends on your care), research interests, vacation time, service
commitments, doctor appointments, travel, and so much more. Requests from our supervisors
compete with our own priorities or goals, and creating a thoughtful reply can feel daunting –
maybe even career-ending if you feel you need to say “no” to a request. Our lives are made up
of uniquely complex dynamics, which, unaddressed, can feel overwhelming and crushing.

This paper highlights three techniques that comprise an “intentionality toolkit.” These include
the Bullet Journal Method, the Weekly Planning Meeting, and the Semester Plan. While not
the cure for burnout or the stresses of life, the toolkit is a starting point. It is of use to
librarians and professionals who wish to improve control over their day-to-day activities,
achieve long-term aspirations, and practice saying “no” to requests that are not aligned with
their goals.

The Bullet Journal Method
Ryder Carroll published The Bullet Journal Method in 20181. The book formalized his
organizational method, publicly available since 20132. Carroll created the Bullet Journal
Method to help him manage his own Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and
describes the method as “a cross between a planner, diary, notebook, to-do list, and
sketchbook”1(p4). The method has a low start-up cost (requiring only a notebook of your
choice and a writing instrument) and is highly flexible.

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Carroll designed the Bullet Journal Method to be one place for all things – “you no longer
have to wonder where your thoughts live”1(p18). One notebook with everything in it is a lot
easier to keep track of than a smattering of sticky notes, to-do lists written on scraps of paper,
meeting notes saved on your PC, project notes in one notebook, webinar notes in a different
folder – and on and on. One place for everything (or most everything) lightens cognitive load
– or the amount of working memory being used to keep track of the important information in
the world around you3. See Appendix 1 for more information, images, and examples of the
method.

In both physical and digital formats, task management and tracking improves productivity,
time management, and organization4 as well as task completion and efficiency5,6. Journaling
is linked to a variety of benefits, including better sleep, a stronger immune system, and higher
self-confidence7, and is widely studied in dissertations and theses8-10, knowledge
syntheses11-13, and websites and blog posts14-16. A handful of studies explore the benefits of
bullet journaling specifically, with results that focus on mindfulness17, the exploration of
self18, and improvements to mental health19. Intrinsic and extrinsic barriers do exist to
journaling, however, and understanding these barriers plays an important role in the adoption
of any new practice20.

The Weekly Planning Meeting
The Weekly Planning Meeting (WPM, or sometimes the “Sunday Meeting”) was introduced
by Kerry Ann Rockquemore, the founder of the National Center for Faculty Development and
Diversity (NCFDD), in 201021. The WPM takes about 30 minutes, and is composed of three
parts: skeleton, brain dump, and task assignment. This meeting can happen at either the
beginning or end of a work week – but it is more important that the planning happens before
the new week begins. See Appendix 1 for more information on the Weekly Planning Meeting
in practice.

The first step, the skeleton, helps create the foundation for the coming week. This step
elucidates the time available to focus on projects and goals. The skeleton for the week is
created by blocking off time in your calendar for all those items that are important or critical
to work and life. Items in this step include appointments, picking up the kids from daycare,
classes, team meetings – anything where your absence would be noticed.

Next, the brain dump allows for the free-flow of information from brain-to-paper and helps
make all the tasks for the coming week – and beyond – evident. This list might be long,
especially in the beginning.

Finally, items from the brain dump are prioritized, then assigned to a chunk of time in your
calendar.

The Semester Plan
The third skill in the intentionality toolkit is the Semester Plan, a part of the NCFDD’s Core
Curriculum22. While the NCFDD is geared towards teaching faculty, who typically have
10-month academic contracts, a lot of their advice can be modified to a 12-month contract.

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A Semester Plan taps into long-term goal setting while providing the structure to break goals
down into achievable pieces. You first brainstorm the goals you would like to achieve and
then select two to three goals to prioritize for the semester (or a six-month period – whatever
works for you).

Next, you brainstorm all the steps it could potentially take to accomplish each goal. This
helps clarify how long it might take to complete your goal – by breaking the goal down into
discrete tasks, you make the implicit more explicit. One way to accomplish this is to frame
your tasks using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)
goals framework, first proposed in 1981 by Doran23. This method will help you craft a
specific task to accomplish, versus a vague idea to pursue. For example, “Revise manuscript”
is vague – it is difficult to measure and see your progress. But “spend 25 minutes working on
revisions for our manuscript for three days this week” is something that is specific (write for
25 minutes); measurable (three days); achievable (is doable in the time period allotted);
relevant (need to revise in order to publish); and time-bound (completed this week).

Finally, as with the Weekly Planning Meeting, you assign your tasks to a particular week in
the semester.

Experience with the Bullet Journal Method, Weekly Planning Meetings,
and Semester Plans
These three tools are the parts of an “intentionality toolkit.” The toolkit helps me mitigate
feelings of overwhelm, plan for the future, and say “no” to projects that do not align with my
own goals. I feel more intentional about my days, and feel more empowered to navigate
tremendous life changes, including having children, searching for and starting new jobs,
planning big moves, and experiencing major health events or family crises. I’ve also
published several articles, established new services for data management and for evidence
synthesis, and navigated a contentious and emotionally exhausting faculty leadership role. My
practice – and to be candid, therapy – has helped me keep afloat.

Day-to-Day Task Management and the Bullet Journal Method
When I started my first librarian position in 2012, I wondered how to accomplish all I needed
to do. I felt overwhelmed and became a regular “work-crastinator” – where I procrastinated
productively by doing small, fun projects, instead of devoting time to bigger, more complex
projects. I felt like I didn’t have any long-term goals or aspirations, though I knew I wanted to
publish. When I took my first tenure-track job in 2014, publishing became even more
pressing, but I couldn’t figure out how to make the time. I didn’t feel as though my degree
prepared me to develop a research agenda, much less how to write and publish. I did not
recognize that I needed help with the nuances of scaffolding my work and my career, from the
granular day-to-day and week-to-week support to the large-scale semester planning to achieve
my goals. I felt pulled in many directions, from moving between meetings, to the classroom,
to a faculty request – sometimes with very little notice. Additionally, our tenure process and
criteria were opaque. I felt anxious about doing “enough” to get tenure but was never clear on
what “enough” meant, nor how to get there.

I took up bullet journaling in August of 2016 to start organizing my day-to-day tasks. I
abandoned the practice after less than a month – in part due to an extensive and complicated

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family health emergency that required most of my attention. When my family and I returned
to our new normal around January 2017, I tried again. Since then, I’ve used my bullet journal
nearly daily.

My first bullet journals started out as very pretty – perhaps closer to what you might imagine
if you’ve come across bullet journals on the Internet. I liked to include hand-drawn images to
separate the months. I used a lot of color to make each week stand out. I outlined boxes to
designate as spaces for reflection, doodles, tracking the weather, to-do lists, and more.

As I found myself with less free time to spend with my bullet journal, I dropped the practices
that were time-consuming. I spent less time optimizing and perfecting my designs and
focused instead on writing down what I wanted to track. My bullet journal is my safe space
for my work.

I use my bullet journal to map out complex projects, brainstorm new ideas, keep track of my
tasks, see my progress, and see trends in where I am spending my time (see Appendix 1 for
more information about my method). In the beginning, I dropped the ball on some projects,
but I also learned I did not allow enough time for my tasks, and I was not prioritizing larger
projects. As my practice with bullet journaling and time management has progressed, my
ability to complete self-started projects has improved.

One thing I deeply appreciate about the Bullet Journal Method is its flexibility. There are no
set pages – every new page is a new possibility. For example, when I have the sensation of my
brain being full, I know I need to offload some information into my bullet journal. I need to
pause and take some time to figure out what is causing my cognitive load to get filled up, and
why it’s happening. This tends to look like a brain dump plus sorting task. I open my journal
to the next new page and write down everything I think I need to accomplish. Then I take a
quick break. When I revisit my list, I sort each item into one of three categories – must do,
could do, and want to do. Each category has its own weight, and it helps me see what I
“must” do in the next day or so, what I “could” do in the next week, and what I “want” to do –
but can be put off to the future.

This flexibility also allows me to change my practice in response to my needs for the current
day, week, month, or semester. For example, because I only plan my bullet journal a day at a
time, the following page is a blank canvas. This makes it a straightforward task to take notes
on a meeting or a webinar on the following page. I am not constrained by a pre-printed format
– I am free to use any page as I see fit. Or perhaps one week I want to track my progress on
overhauling a LibGuide: On a blank page, I can write out each step of the process and when I
accomplished the task, as well as notes to myself. Self-directed learning with individual
courses can have a small table where I track my progress. And long-term projects, like
supporting a team on an evidence synthesis project, can have two or more pages devoted to
tracking our progress. This isn’t to say this information can’t live elsewhere; but it’s helpful to
me to know I have it in a space that is just for me.

The Bullet Journal Method’s flexibility extends to layouts and approaches. I have
experimented with design – using journals with thick paper that support watercolor and
markers, as well as thin paper with minimal amounts of color. I’ve iterated continuously how
I track information, especially around what information I track for my annual reports. I have

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found it much easier to write a yearly report when I have kept track of my progress on
projects in a space allotted for that purpose. The bullet journal works for me – I am not
constrained by any one format.

The freedom to iterate bleeds into other areas of my life and work: nothing needs to be
perfect, because everything can change. This has helped reinforce a “growth mindset” – a
way of thinking that embraces change, failure, and development.

Finally, I want to highlight that when you go looking for ideas about bullet journals, you may
be overwhelmed by the artistry that goes into them. Or, you may have an idea of what a bullet
journal “looks” like: Instagram, Pinterest, and Internet searches will show you highly curated
bullet journals. They may be beautifully artistic or look like a scrapbook, full of well-laid out
pages that take ample time (and resources) to create. This is not what I am advocating. At its
core, the Bullet Journal Method is a method of being intentional about your time. Your bullet
journal is for you, and you alone. There is no “right” way to keep a bullet journal. If you want
to explore drawings and doodles and scrapbooking – of course you can. But you don’t have
to. All you need to begin is a notebook, a writing instrument, and a willingness to try.

Short-Term Planning, Saying “No” with your Calendar, and Weekly Planning Meetings
In late 2017 and early 2018, I had two pivotal changes: I accepted a newly created position
tasked with implementing a brand-new service at my library, which was quickly followed by
the birth of my first child. While my bullet journal helped me plan one day at a time and tasks
to accomplish in a particular month, I found I needed an intermediate step between thinking
about my day and thinking about my month. I had a lot of uncharted territory to navigate.

I needed more training. I first came across Library Juice Academy’s Working Faster, Working
Smarter, Productivity Strategies for Librarians in July of 201824. It was one of my first
introductions to breaking out of the busy-ness trap, and planted the seed for intentional,
long-term planning. The course was the foundation for practices I refined through another
professional development opportunity: The National Center for Faculty Diversity and
Development’s (NCFDD) Core Curriculum25.

One of the major practices I took away from the Core Curriculum training, and the second
piece of my intentionality toolkit, is the importance of giving myself 30 minutes to plan for
the coming week. This was transformative: planning my week puts me in control of my
calendar and my time. The Weekly Planning Meeting helps me understand what time I have
available to do my work and helps me chip away at my goals. It also reduces the time I spend
deciding on what I should do next.

The result of the Weekly Planning Meeting is a fully-booked calendar, accomplished one
week at a time. This means no last-minute bookings, and I get to decide whether to accept a
last-minute meeting request. This works with faculty requests, too – my time is already
spoken for, so I may need to decline some requests. “No” is a muscle that I give myself ample
opportunities to practice. This transforms my calendar from a passive tool to help remind me
to go to meetings, to an active partner in helping me say “no” to last-minute requests.

Additionally, having my week fully booked means that I am more likely to pause and figure
out what I say “yes” to. My weeks are already full of the work I need to accomplish as part of

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my job and the goals I have set for myself. Looking at a fully booked calendar helps remind
me that, to get my work done, I need time. Time itself is finite and fickle, and I can’t make
more time magically appear.

The Weekly Planning Meeting has some potential pitfalls: you must be able to honor your
own time, because you are the only one holding yourself accountable to this work, and you
must be able to prioritize knowing we can’t do it all in the time we have available to us.
Humans are notoriously bad at predicting how long a task will take (known as the planning
fallacy, coined in 197726,27), with humans often woefully under-estimating how long a task
will take. A good rule of thumb is to multiply an initial estimate by three – so if I initially
think a task will take me one hour to finish, I give myself three.

I also find that I am not afraid to block out time even further in advance. A complicated
evidence synthesis project I am undertaking with several librarian colleagues deserved some
planning ahead of our kickoff meeting – so I set aside a couple of hours of time for four
weeks ahead of the project kick off. If I missed a little bit of this time because of a more
urgent matter – say I need to prep for a class or schedule meetings for a hiring committee –
then I can adjust, knowing I have set aside time to set myself up for success.

One way I have found helpful to honor my time commitments is to frame this blocked off
time as meetings with myself. I wouldn’t cancel a meeting with a colleague just to respond to
an email. I am just as important as my colleague, and a meeting with myself is just as
important as a meeting with a colleague, a student, or a faculty member.

Prioritizing takes practice, and this practice may elicit some feelings – around worth,
productivity, and more. A saying I like to keep in mind is: “If everything is a priority, nothing
is a priority”28. There are many techniques on how to prioritize, like completing a structured
brain dump29 or filling out an Eisenhower Matrix30. These techniques help you achieve clarity
on where your limited time and energy should go.

You may find you want some external accountability. An accountability buddy is one way to
set up a supportive network, and programs like CoJourn31,32 offer a structure to that support.

Long-Term Planning and the Semester Plan
The final piece of my intentionality toolkit is the Semester Plan. This step, also part of the
NCFDD’s Core Curriculum25, takes some practice. The Semester Plan relies on our ability to
break down our big ideas into small, accomplishable tasks. All my Semester Planning
happens in my bullet journal. I dedicate several pages to this work, because it is highly
generative. See Appendix 2 for an example of a Semester Plan. I need space to brainstorm my
goals and write out the steps I will take to accomplish my goals. I balance this with a
structured chart that lays out what I will accomplish each week. There are many successful
ways to approach a Semester Plan – this might be a spreadsheet or on your whiteboard.
Because my bullet journal is the home for all my work, my Semester Plan “lives” in my bullet
journal.

When I noticed that I kept forgetting to devote time to my Semester Plan dictated tasks when
setting up my week during my Weekly Planning Meeting, I modified my practice. Once I
complete my Semester Plan, I add my tasks associated with each week of the semester into

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my work calendar. This small modification has helped me immensely, because I’m already in
my calendar with my Weekly Planning Meeting, I can easily see what my focus for the week
is. My bullet journal is my generative space; my calendar is where I hold myself accountable
for my goals.

Another challenge is figuring out the “right size” for a task that is assigned to a week. I’ve
found that it really depends on the difficulty of the task – according to what I perceive as
being difficult. For example, I found a cold-call email introducing myself to an advising
director really challenging to do, so to make progress on my goal of connecting with students,
my goal became “email [a colleague] for feedback on email to advising director.” Don’t be
afraid to get granular if a task is holding you up.

Finally – importantly – your Semester Plan should be considered a guide, not a playbook. The
plan won’t be perfect, but it’ll get you closer to a goal than if you didn’t have a plan at all. For
example, I’ve been able to complete lengthy, self-paced trainings because of my Semester
Plan. When a project on curriculum mapping took an unexpected pivot, I didn’t abandon my
plan or feel like a failure. My plan pivoted, and I adapted my goals as needed to work towards
a greater understanding of the areas I work with.

Discussion: Benefits of Using an Intentionality Toolkit
The Bullet Journal Method is about cracking the code of your own intentionality. Note it’s not
productivity – we aren’t machines and there is no way to do more with less, a way of thinking
that leads to decreased motivation, stress, lower morale, poor results, and burnout33, especially
among women34. You can use the time you have in your working day with intention. And
because you are being intentional and documenting, you can see your progress on your
projects.

An intentionality toolkit can help you in numerous ways. This could include: reducing
cognitive load; improving prioritization practices; improving openness and flexibility;
mitigating perfectionism; owning your time; and incorporating reflective practices into your
workweek. It’s also not a perfect solution and has some limitations, which are briefly
discussed below.

Reducing cognitive load. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of the task-management aspects
of bullet journaling is the reduction in cognitive load. The simple act of writing down what is
on your mind frees up the space in your brain: that item no longer takes up space in your
working memory35. Your journal is a safe, consistent, and structured space. It is a reliable
place for your brain to offload the tasks it has been carrying around. No more worrying about
where that sticky note went, which file you saved that to-do list in, or if that to-do list lives in
your email, on your pc, in your phone, or on the fridge. All these items are in the same place,
lessening your cognitive load.

Improving prioritization practices. You will discover, in completing a Weekly Planning
Meeting, and likely in your Semester Plan, that you have more you wish to accomplish than
you have time for. This is a painful discovery, and a pitfall of academia and academic work:
There is always too much to do, something to perfect, another email to write. None of us can
accomplish all our tasks in the working hours we have allotted each week. It’s just not

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possible.

The Weekly Planning Meeting is regular practice in prioritization. As you continue to practice
prioritizing, you’ll improve your confidence in knowing what aligns with your goals, and
what might be nice to do, but isn’t possible for now. This can also help with work-life balance
and offer a balm in burnout culture, though prioritization is not a solution to burnout.

Improving openness and flexibility (or changing course when things aren’t working).
The combination of the long-term view with a Semester Plan and the day-to-day advancement
on tasks with your bullet journal has you constantly in touch with your progress. You begin to
notice trends and make adjustments as necessary. Practices are modified, tweaked, or even
dropped.

Dropping a practice is not giving up or failing. Walking away from something is hard to do.
The narrative that you did nothing or will lose everything by dropping a practice does a huge
disservice to your time and your ability to adapt. These tiny practices in adjusting your work
help you see that modifications and flexibility happen all the time and are a normal part of
work and life. That doesn’t make change any less difficult – but perhaps it makes it more
evident.

Being ok with imperfection / mitigate perfectionism. In bullet journaling, it can be
tempting to try to make lines perfectly straight or figure out the “perfect” colors for this
month. You may try to develop the “best” Semester Plan that requires no modifications. You
will also be in your bullet journal nearly every day, writing down tasks, checking them off,
trying again tomorrow, or crossing them off completely. These are all tiny moments working
in imperfection.

Each piece of the toolkit is for your benefit, and none of them are set in stone or immovable.
Our lives can change quickly – the flexibility of the bullet journal, and a mindset that our
Weekly Planning Meetings and Semester Plans are guides are the foundations to flexibility.

Owning your time. Time is a finite resource – you cannot make more time appear, and it
progresses without ceasing. Adopting the Weekly Planning Meeting to block out your
calendar a week in advance means you dedicate time to your own goals – you are not at the
whims of others. This demonstrates to students, colleagues, faculty, and collaborators that
your time is important and has value. You aren’t hoping for a block of time to magically be
free – you’ve made it a priority.

Additionally, this helps you practice saying “no” – consider the time you block off in your
calendar as meetings with yourself. You cannot be in two places at once. Your time is
important. Your goals are worth achieving. Adhering to your calendar will help you
immensely.

Inevitably, things with a short timeline will turn up, or a collaborator reaches out
unexpectedly asking for a quick turnaround. With this practice, you can thoughtfully reply
with an emphatic “yes,” a “no,” or an adjustment to your calendar, knowing that you own that
reply.

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Incorporating reflective practices into your work week. One component of the Bullet
Journal Method is the practice of deciding what to do with unaccomplished tasks from the
previous week, also known as migration. While not formally touched on above, it’s an
important piece: looking at what you accomplished, and noting what you didn’t accomplish,
helps you see trends. This practice helps you get curious with yourself – was that item just not
important this week? Why or why not? What is stopping me from accomplishing that task? Is
this practice helping me or is it causing anxiety or frustration? What do you need your bullet
journal to do for you? A few minutes reflecting during your Weekly Planning Meeting can
help clarify what is holding you back.

It’s not perfect and limitations of the toolkit. Brain dumps, calendar blocking, and
Semester Plans can all be profoundly helpful – but they aren’t perfect. You may exist in an
organization with faculty that request quick turnaround times; you may struggle to adopt a
new habit; some work may come to you outside of normal business hours; you may still feel
overwhelmed despite adopting these tools. You may balk at the inflexibility of the toolkit:
perhaps telling a faculty member you need several weeks before you can begin working on a
project feels like a reprimand waiting to happen. You may feel pressures from your
supervisor, time sensitive tasks, and meetings on a short timeframe that are complicated to
coordinate. But this may also beg for a change in mindset: if a project is truly a priority, say,
partnering on an important grant, you can say yes knowing how to shift your other priorities.
As professionals, our time dedicated to our work is important. The point here is not that
everyone’s priorities are the same: the point is that your priorities are under your control and
guidance.

These tools won’t change your working environment, nor can you control what your
colleagues do. But – they will help you establish boundaries, practice saying “no,” and they
will help you think about long-term opportunities and how to achieve them. Your practice will
make it easier to assert your values and priorities.

Takeaways
Academia is full of possibility, so much so that we could spend all our days on projects,
teaching, improving methods and workflows, and more. While much of our work requires us
to adhere to deadlines or be in a specific place at a specific time – on the reference desk, in a
classroom, in our own workspace – a portion of our work has no deadlines, no outside
accountability, and no timeline. For this work we need to rely on other tools to give ourselves
structure and accountability. The Bullet Journal Method, the Weekly Planning Meeting, and
the Semester Plan are three such tools to help us look at our work through the lens of the
day-to-day and the year-to-year, and to see how our days align with our priorities.

Changes in life can require adjustments in thinking about how time is spent. That might be
major family changes, moving, personal health and wellbeing, your needs as a worker or a
caregiver, or any number of big events. At some point, you may reach a point where your
mind overflows with tasks, ideas, and to-do lists – and you wish for a way to organize all the
stuff in your head. I hope you will experiment with one or more of the methods in the
intentionality toolkit I’ve described. If you find a practice that makes your life and work
better, I hope you will share it.

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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Sarah K. Oelker for their assistance with developmental edits
and reviewing the manuscript, Suenita Berube for reviewing the manuscript, and Erin Jerome
for reviewing the manuscript. The author would also like to thank all the reviewers’
enthusiasm and encouragement for the manuscript – it wouldn’t be the same without your
help.

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