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To say that 2020 was a tough year for the world would be an understatement. Global stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements have resulted in marked drops in mental health measures.
And with a new year on the horizon, it’s a great time to think about new habits and behaviors to build. And keeping a bullet journal is a cathartic and grounding habit that can powerfully impact your mental clarity and focus during this time of extreme uncertainty and constant change.
If you’re new to the concept of bullet journaling, we highly recommend checking out Ryder Carroll’s simple tutorial of the system. He’s also published an in-depth book on the method if you’re looking to go a little deeper: The Bullet Journal Method.
At its core, bullet journaling is a mindfulness practice disguised as a productivity framework. On the surface, it’s easy to think that it’s all about keeping track of tasks and getting more done each day.
But in reality, it’s about taking that extra moment to document and reflect on the events and emotions in your life. It’s about creating space for real self-reflection, which at the end of the day, is the essential ingredient needed for true personal growth.
Buying Guide: What To Look For In A Bullet Journal
Size: A5
A5 is the standard size that most people think about when they think about a personal journal or notebook. It’s 5 and ⅞ inches by 8 and ¼ inches. Smaller than a sheet of paper. Larger than an index card.
We think A5 is the perfect size for a proper BuJo. It gives you ample amount of space to work with while still maintaining a compact form factor that can fit easily in a purse or backpack.
A5 is the standard size that most people think about when they think about a personal journal or notebook. It’s 5 and ⅞ inches by 8 and ¼ inches. Smaller than a sheet of paper. Larger than an index card.
We think A5 is the perfect size for a proper BuJo. It gives you ample amount of space to work with while still maintaining a compact form factor that can fit easily in a purse or backpack.
Paper Weight: 90+ GSM
Paper quality is the most important thing you should consider when evaluating a bullet journal. If you think about it, most of your experience working with your journal will involve interacting with the pages in one way or another. Writing on them, paging through them, running your finger across them. For you to truly be engaged with something, you want the feeling of using it to be effortless and delightful.
For that reason, we recommend a heavier paper weight of around 90 gsm minimum. 90 gsm is only slightly heavier than the 50 to 80 gsm weights you’ll find in legal pads and composition notebooks. But between 90 and 120 or so gsm, paper begins to feel much more substantial while also dramatically reducing the bleed through and ghosting effects you see at lighter paper stocks.
Ruling: Dot Grid
The original bullet journal method was developed using a dot grid notebook, and we think dot grids are still far superior to the alternatives. They provide more structure than a blank page, making it dramatically easier to keep elements aligned and sized proportionally. They also provide a level of flexibility that lined paper can’t offer without cluttering your page the way lined grid notebooks can.
Binding: Hardbound
Hardbound notebooks refer to notebooks with a traditional binding where pages are glued or sewn together along the binding edge.
Much less popular are spiral bound notebooks, which you might remember from your high school trapper-keeper days. Spiral bound notebooks have the advantage of laying flat and can even be folded back-to-front to show only one sheet in those times when desk space is precious.
That said, spiral bound notebooks tend to be chunkier than hardbound options. Because they’re less popular, they don’t come in as many designs and tend to be made with lower quality materials. Also, hardbound notebooks have come a long way in recent years. Many of the notebooks we’ve reviewed below were designed to open and lay about as flat as a spiral bound notebook might.
The Best Bullet Journals for 2021
The increasing popularity of bullet journaling has given rise to a kind of renaissance in the production of high-quality notebooks. We’ve used and evaluated many notebooks in our day, and here, we’ve collected our absolute favorites.
Rhodia A5 Webnotebook
Rhodia A5 WebnotebookRhodia has long been a dominant name in the premium notebook space, known for its clean, practical design and high-quality paper. The Rhodia A5 Webnotebook, like all of Rhodia’s outstanding notebooks, uses 90 gsm Clairefontaine paper. This is some of the highest quality paper we’ve ever written with.
As discussed above, we think 90 GSM really is the perfect paper weight. It’s thicker than your standard legal pad or composition notebook paper, discouraging most ghosting and bleed through. At the same time, it’s not so thick that it starts to feel like card stock.
The Webnotebook is Rhodia’s most popular notebook, and as such the company has gone to great lengths to provide it in nearly every color under the sun.
The cover is hardcover with a premium-feeling leatherette material. Of all the notebooks on our list, this is probably our favorite to hold in our hands. Everything about it just screams quality.
Other than the paper and the stylish covers, the Webnotebook comes with a pen holder, an elastic strap to hold the book closed, and a simple fabric page marker you can use to highlight where you last left off. It’s also got a handy expandable pocket in the back that you can use to store loose pages.
One complaint we had with the Rhodia is that it is so simple, it leaves off many of the handy convenience elements you’ll find in the other notebooks on this list. Most noticeable is the lack of page numbers, a must for anyone trying to build a traditional bullet journal with a numbered index page.
That said, we kind of like numbering our pages manually. It gives you the freedom to get creative with the ways you represent numbers, making your BuJo feel even more “you.”
A5 Dotted Journal by Scribbles that Matter
A5 Dotted Journal by Scribbles that MatterScribbles that Matter is a relatively new entrant into the journaling space. Newness aside, it’s quickly carved out a space for itself among the upper echelon of bullet journal providers for its whimsical aesthetic and ultra-thick paper stock.
At 100 gsm, the A5 Dotted Journal by Scribbles that Matter is second only to the Lemome in terms of paper thickness. How you feel about this will depend to some extent on preference, but we find the 90 gsm paper quality just as resistant to ghosting and bleeding through in most cases as STM’s 100 gsm pages.
Our favorite “feature” of the Scribbles that Matter is the cute design elements etched into the cover. These little drawings might seem unnecessary at first, but in a pinch, they can really provide that creative spark you need for a productive journaling session.
Of all the notebooks on the list, the Scribbles that Matter Journal is the one most directly geared toward bullet journaling. In addition to having pre-numbered pages, it also comes with BuJo ready key code and index pages help you start organizing your journal right off the bat.
If you’re new to bullet journaling, you really can’t go wrong with the Scribbles that Matter journal, as it makes getting set up easy right off the bat.
Lemome Dotted Bullet Notebook
Lemome Dotted Bullet NotebookThe Lemome Notebook is a particularly unique option on this list.
For starters, its stunning cover is made of eco-friendly natural cork. This cover feels smooth and is produced 100% cruelty-free. Its uniqueness is eye-catching in a way that makes a statement about the owner’s commitment to sustainability. If that sounds like you, this is your BuJo.
But that’s not all that differentiates the Lemome from the rest of the pack. The pages come with an extremely thick 120 gsm paper. The heaviest of any paper stock on this list. These pages are also perforated, allowing for easy removal of one-off pages for archiving purposes.
Lemome is also a fantastic brand that stands behind its product. Customer service is quick to respond and very helpful in resolving any issues with your purchase, such as printing or binding defects.
The pages are not numbered, but we find some twisted, cathartic pleasure in creatively numbering our pages manually. If you’re a fan of efficiency and having page numbers are essential to your workflow, you may want to pass on this one.
Also, perforated pages aren’t for everyone, and if you’re not planning to use them, they can be more trouble than they’re worth. We often found ourselves accidentally part of the perforation simply by applying too much pressure in the wrong direction. We don’t personally have need for removing pages, so we found dealing with them a pain after a while.
The paper stock, is also substantial. We like it, but it’s very thick and might not be for everyone. At 90g, we think the Rhodia provides a good balance of thickness to flexibility, while Lemome’s 120 gsm pages are very close to card stock and might actually be too thick for many journalers.
Leuchtturm1917 Medium A5 Notebook
Leuchtturm1917 Medium A5 NotebookLeuchtturm1917 is another brand that has been making notebooks for as long as notebooks have been a thing. Founded—unsurprisingly—in 1917, Leuchtturm1917 notebooks have long carried a reputation of excruciating details in their execution.
The LT1917 Medium A5 Notebook1 comes with a whopping 249 numbered pages. For those of you steeped in BuJo philosophy, you know pre-numbered pages are a tremendous step forward for anyone looking to create canonical index pages and cross-references across pages.2
Similar to the Rhodia, the LT1917’s cover extends ever so slightly beyond the edge of the paper, providing added protection to the edges of the pages within. Likewise, the LT1917 comes with the essential elastic band, fabric page marker, and inner pocket to carry loose pages. Speaking of which, the LT1917 also provides eight perforated pages for easy removal. This is a feature-rich notebook!
Where the LT1917 falls down sadly is in the category we consider to be most important: the paper quality. 80 gsm paper might only be 10 gsm lighter weight than the 90 gsm paper in the Rhodia that we love so much, but 10 gsm can make a big difference when it comes to ghosting and bleed through.
With this notebook, you’ll need to be careful about which pens you use and take special care not to press to hard else you might find your scribblings appearing through on the other side.
Conclusion
Choosing a bullet journal can be overwhelming. Especially if this is your first time, you’ve likely never spent so much time thinking about paper weight and binding quality. We hope this guide has made it a little easier for you to make your ultimate decision, and we’d love to know what you end up choosing in the comments below!
