I’m a bullet journal drop-out. Here’s what I’m using to organize my 2021.

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It’s January, which means that we’re all resolving to be better versions of ourselves: thinner, kinder, or at least more organized. The promise to Get One’s Shit Together is a familiar one to me. After all, it’s how I started every school year from 2nd grade on. Every year I told myself that this year, maybe, I would buy the right style of notebook, be it a trapper keeper or a five star. This year, perhaps, I would use LABELS and TABS and color-coded means to keep my life in order. This fucking year, I would actually put my god damned homework in the folder of the subject it was assigned, rather than shoving it down into my backpack, only to feel super pissed at myself later when I smushed an open granola bar into it. This year I would not get a D on my notebook check in Geography, this year I would not feel red-faced shame when the teacher chewed out Phil Martens over his overstuffed desk, knowing I was not the messiest in my class if only by virtue of Phil’s presence, this year, this year, life would be different.

The revelation at age thirty-four that I had undiagnosed (and fairly severe) ADHD-I was not, therefore, a complete surprise — in fact, I…