What Coaches/Mentors Can Learn from The Bullet Journal Method
Renata coached eleven clients through a scheduling app for sessions, a notes document per client that she updated inconsistently, and her memory for everything said between sessions that felt too minor to write down. She believed she remembered her clients well, since she could recall the broad arc of each person's goals without checking any notes. Then a client asked, three sessions later, whether Renata remembered the specific fear he had mentioned about a career change, and Renata realized she did not, because it had felt too small to note at the time and had simply evaporated. She had run sixty sessions that quarter and could describe each client's general situation, but the small, specific details that actually built trust were gone, and she had no record proving she had ever truly listened.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Writing down the detail before it stops feeling important
A specific fear a client mentions, a phrase they use twice, a small win they almost dismiss: these details feel too minor to write down in the moment and are exactly the ones that evaporate first. A brief note taken immediately after the session preserves what memory alone will not.
Renata trusted her memory to hold the specific fear a client mentioned about a career change, and three sessions later could recall only that something had been said, not what.
Immediately after each session, write one or two short lines capturing the smallest specific detail that stood out, not just the general topic covered.
The pre-session review that makes a client feel remembered
A deliberate review before every session, reading back through that client's own history, is what lets you reference something specific from weeks earlier instead of relying on vague memory. That specificity is often what actually builds a client's trust in the work.
Renata walked into sessions relying on memory of the general arc, so she repeatedly asked clients to re-explain context they had already given her, and more than one client noticed.
Before every session, spend two minutes reading that client's dedicated list from their last two entries before you begin.
A dedicated list for every client, kept completely separate
Mixing client notes together, even briefly, risks confidentiality and makes it far harder to track any one person's actual progress over time. A dedicated list per client keeps their history intact and ready to reference.
Renata once nearly referenced one client's detail while speaking with another because both had been jotted into the same general notebook page during a busy week.
Start a separate dedicated list for each client at your first session together, and log every relevant note there and nowhere else.
What a client's recurring themes reveal about their real work
The topic a client keeps circling back to across many sessions, without ever quite naming it directly, is usually more important than whatever goal they officially hired you to help with. Reading a client's full history rather than only the most recent session lets you notice that pattern and gently name it back to them, which is frequently where the real progress in the coaching relationship actually begins, long after the stated goal has quietly shifted.
Capturing a detail quickly right after a session and keeping each client's list strictly separate can pull against each other on a day with back-to-back sessions. Jot a fast note with the client's name attached immediately, then file it into their dedicated list before your next session begins rather than during the transition itself.
Name one thing, honestly
Which client detail do you remember only vaguely, and what would it mean to that person if you actually recalled it precisely?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Start a separate dedicated list for each client at your first session together, and log every relevant note there and nowhere else.