There is a golden rule when it comes to organisation and productivity hacks: You shouldn’t spend more time organising a task than actuallydoingsaid task.

For instance, if it takes you 10 minutes to write your to-do list and five minutes to complete it, you probably didn’t need that list.

The bullet journal defies this.

And yet it’s addictively fun, and currently taking the internet by storm… and I spent a good amount of my Christmas break filling in my diary in preparation for 2018.

I have no regrets.

You see, somewhere in-between consuming my seventh Lindt ball and the second Christmas lunch food coma (which shall heretofore be called afestive afternoon snack) I realised that bullet journalling was what I needed to get my life intip-topp order for 2018.

You see throughout 2017 I had been on the sidelines of this productivity trend, nay movement, no… lifestyle.

There’s an entire Instagram hashtag dedicated to the most perfect drawn-out planner pages, complete with Future Logs, Habit Trackers, and Daily Logs – these terms probably don’t make much sense to you yet, but oh… just wait.

The 'future log' portion of my journal. Image supplied.

YouTubers have also cottoned onto the wave, with videos upon videos of people sharing how they've set up their Bullet Journals.

It's kind of consumed my life, and in my double-digit prawn and oyster infused daze (awful imagery, sorry), I finally made the leap, and you can too.

LISTEN: Monique Bowley shares her 'Tabless Thursday' productivity hack, on Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues after audio.

Firstly... what is it?

Created Ryan Carrol in Brooklyn, originally it way to stream-line your thoughts and action-items into one, fully-customisable notebook, allowing you to use the space as an agenda, diary, budget log, scrap book, wedding /meal/ renovation planner, recipe collector or Sunday sodoku puzzle collector.

You get the jist, it's all up to you.

The diary itself comes mostly blank, with the exception of a Table of Contents and numbered pages - so you can track what goes where.

To those that regard the blank notebook with a little bit of fear and deserved reverence this is a bit intimidating, but there is a method to its madness.

While you can easily convert any notebook into a bullet journal, in the bullet journaling community (it's 100% a thing) notebooks from Leuchtturm1917 are mostly used.

However, be warned: they're definitely on the pricier side, starting at $35. Also, I personally found the pages to be prone to bleeding - not great if you plan on using felt-tip markers.

How do you do it?

Now that you have your notebook, there are a few key components when it comes to Bullet Journaling.

Rapid logging - the foundation of the original bullet journal concept is that you have a dedicated space as a catch-all for your to-dos, reminders and notes - anything and everything goes. The idea is to get it from inside your head to paper.

From this you can assign what needs to be done, what becomes irrelevant, ideas to actualise, and events to note, and there are specific symbols you're asked to follow.

You can view the Bullet Journal website for more information.

While they don't all have to be elaborate masterpieces in Mari Kondo-esque organisation or stunning pieces of illustration, it's definitely part of its appeal.

Despite this, there's a bit of irony in the fact that what once originated as a productivity hack now prides itself on beautifully designed pages that are anything but time-saving.

However, at its core it still remains a 'whatever floats your boat' kind of situation. Use it in the way that will benefit you the most.