Bullet Journal Key: Symbols and Signifiers Explained

A bullet journal key is the short legend that explains the symbols you write in front of each entry. With it, a page of brief lines can be read at a glance: what needs doing, what is happening and what is only worth remembering.

The standard set is deliberately small. This guide goes through each mark, the signifiers that sit beside them and how to add color without ending up with a legend too long to remember.

The three basic bullets

Rapid logging means writing entries as short phrases instead of sentences, each starting with a symbol that says what kind of entry it is. The marks come from the Bullet Journal method created by Ryder Carroll, and three of them do most of the work.

Symbol	Entry type	Use it for
•	Task	Anything you need to do: “Email landlord”, “Buy stamps”
○	Event	Anything tied to a date or time: “Team lunch”, “Library books due”
–	Note	Facts, ideas and observations worth keeping: “Printer needs new ink”

The choice of a dot for tasks is practical. A dot is fast to write, and it can be turned into every other task mark without erasing anything.

How a task changes state

A task never stays a dot. When you review a page, each one gets one of four outcomes, and you draw the new mark straight over the old dot.

• X: completed. Cross the dot when the task is done.
• >: migrated. The task is still worth doing, and you have rewritten it in a newer daily or monthly log.
• <: scheduled. The task belongs to a later month, and you have copied it into the future log.
• Struck through: cancelled. The task no longer matters. Draw a line through the whole entry.

The two arrows point the way the task traveled. The right arrow sends it forward to the next page you are working on; the left arrow sends it back toward the front of the notebook, where the future log lives. How to decide between the four outcomes is the subject of the guide to bullet journal migration, and the page the left arrow points to is explained in the future log article.

Events and notes do not change state. An event happened or it did not, and a note simply stays a note.

Signifiers: the star and the exclamation mark

A signifier is a second, smaller mark placed to the left of a bullet. It does not say what an entry is; it adds a quality to it. Two are standard:

• A star (*) marks priority. Put it beside the one or two tasks that matter most that day.
• An exclamation mark (!) marks an idea, usually beside a note you want to return to.

Because signifiers sit in the margin, you can find them by running your eye down the left edge of the page. That only works if they are rare. When half the tasks on a page carry a star, the star tells you nothing.

Adding color coding

Symbols show the type and state of an entry. Color can show something different: the area of life it belongs to. Typical categories are work, home, family and study.

A few guidelines keep color useful:

• Limit the code to three or four colors. More than that is hard to remember and slow to apply.
• Mark entries with a small colored dot or a short underline rather than writing whole lines in color. The page stays readable, and you only need one writing pen.
• Never use color for state. “Done” is already an X, and a second system for the same information is extra work.

If you want the code to look good as well as work, choose the colors together rather than one by one. The article on bullet journal color palettes shows how to pick a small set that reads clearly.

Where to put the key

The key needs to be findable without a search, so it goes at the very front. There are three common spots:

• Page 1. The first right-hand page has nothing facing it and is too small for a spread, which makes it a natural place for a short legend.
• The inside front cover. It keeps page 1 free and is visible as soon as you open the notebook.
• A loose card. A key on an index card can sit beside the page you are writing on and move with you to the next notebook.

Whichever you choose, write it during the first setup, before the index. The order of the opening pages is laid out in how to start a bullet journal.

How to keep a key small

A key is a reference for the first few weeks. After that you should know it by heart, and that is only possible if it is short. Aim for no more than about ten marks in total, colors included.

• Start with the standard set only. Three bullets, four task states, two signifiers.
• Add a mark only after you have missed it. If you wished for a “waiting on someone” symbol several times in one week, add it. If the idea came from a list of 40 symbols, leave it out.
• Give each mark one meaning. A symbol that means “call” on one page and “urgent” on another cannot be trusted.
• Remove what you do not use. When you move to a new notebook, copy over only the marks that appeared on your pages.

Custom marks that tend to last

If you do extend the key, simple shapes that are fast to draw hold up best: a small square for something to buy, an “@” for a person to contact, a small triangle for an appointment with a fixed time. Test each one for a month before writing it into the key in ink.