• Home
  • Planning
    • Blog post index
    • New to planning? Start here
    • Planning Tips & Inspiration
      • Planning with Highlighters
      • Planner Newbie
      • Planner pens
    • 52 Planning Systems in 52 Weeks
    • Planner Reviews
      • Planner Comparisons
      • Happy Planner (MAMBI)
      • Horizontal Weekly
      • Horizontal 1 Page Weekly + Notes
      • Categories Weekly
      • Hourly Planners
      • Budget Planners
      • Daily Planners
      • Student Planners
      • Discbound Planners
      • Planner Roundups
    • Resources & Tools I Recommend
    • Rachael’s Favorites
    • Bullet Journal
      • Bullet Journal Reviews
      • 160GSM Dot Grid Notebook Reviews
      • Bullet Journal Spreads
      • Bullet Journal Tips
    • Digital Planning
    • Stationery Shopping
    • Recipe Organisation
  • FREE Printables
    • FREE Printables
    • Free Printables Library – Subscribers Login
  • Graphic Design
    • Affinity Publisher
    • Photoshop Tutorials
    • Microsoft Word
    • Microsoft Excel
    • Silhouette Studio
    • Canva
  • Learn
    • ECOURSES
      • Printables in Affinity Publisher
      • How to Make Planner Stickers
      • How to Make Printables
      • Digital planners and notebooks in Microsoft PowerPoint
      • How to Make Labels in Photoshop
      • Printables in Microsoft Excel
      • Printables in Microsoft Word
      • How to Write Product Descriptions
      • Learn How to Make Printables
      • Free Graphic Design Video Tutorials Library
      • Make Patterns in Photoshop
      • Party Printables
      • Ecourse Bundles
    • Ebooks
      • 1200 Blog Post Ideas (Exclusive Download Content)
      • 200 Blog Post Title Prompts (Exclusive Download Content)
      • 54 Mistakes Etsy Sellers Make (And How to Fix Them)
      • 200 Blog Post Title Prompts (For Any Type of Blog)
      • 1200 Blog Post Ideas
    • Blogging & Online Business
  • SHOP
    • My online store
    • My Etsy store
    • Shop my favorite planner supplies on Amazon
    • Planner Supplies (my sister’s shop!)
  • FAQ
    • About
    • Downloading Files
    • How to Open Zipped File Folders
    • Printing Tips
    • What does EDITABLE mean?
    • Printable Planner Stickers
    • Why printables? Do you sell printed versions of your products?
    • What is a Printable? What happens when I purchase a printable from you?
    • I’ve purchased printables from you – how should I set up my planner?
    • Feedback & Testimonials
    • Disclaimer and Privacy Policy
  • Travel
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Japan
    • Europe
    • Itineraries

All About Planners

Printable planners to organize your home, business and life!

June 7, 2019

7 Tips to keep your bullet journal neat

I’m a bit of a perfectionist which is probably one of the reasons I originally avoided bullet journaling for so long. The entire page hand written, ruling things up… can end up being a perfectionists’ nightmare. So here are some things I do to keep my bullet journals neat.

1. Erasable pens

Thank goodness for erasable pens! I shared my favorite erasable pens in this post. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while I’m sure you already know which ones they are…

leuchtturm bullet journal spread weekly horizontal notes top 3 frixion erasable pen color coding colorful ideas inspo

Bullet journaling in the Leuchtturm dot grid notebook

2. Mark it up in the margin

Those erasable pens come in handy when counting out dots (and marking a dot on the page to hold your place). If you get the spacing wrong you can just rub it out and start again. You could also use a pencil but I find black ink from a pen stands out more.

When ruling lines I use a Poppin ruler. It’s an expensive ruler but it’s heavy and thick so is easier to grip and stays in place when ruling lines. Plus the numbers are big and it has both inches and cm.

3. Draft notebook

If you’re a bit of a perfectionist, use a separate cheap dot grid notebook where it doesn’t matter what paper quality, if the pages are yellow instead of white etc. Some cheap dot grid notebooks I recommend for drafting are the Minimalism Art, Scrivwell, Point Journal and Otto Dot Grid Journal. One problem you may run into though is that all dot grid notebooks seem to have a different number of dots across and down, or a slightly different page width etc.

I know one of the main things about bullet journaling is the index so you could write wherever in the notebook. But I prefer to keep things clustered and on consecutive pages. Sticky notes  are helpful for deciding what you’re going to plan on what page.

bullet journaling tips planning planner ideas inspiration sticky notes all about planners how to pre plan the week

Related: Bullet Journal Ideas: 26 Weekly Spread Layouts to Try

4. Pen and Highlighter test

Before I start using any planner or notebook I do a pen, highlighter and stamp swatches test. That way I can check the bleed through and ghosting. Unfortunately most bullet journals have quite thin paper so I tend to use the frixion or ballpoint pens and pastel highlighters.

Related: Pens & Highlighters Smear Testing: Which ones don’t smear 

scribbles that matter pen test review highlighter gel fine tip ballpoint bleed through stamp ghosting a5 bujo notebook pros and cons video

Scribbles That Matter Notebook

rhodia goal book review tombow brush pen testing bleed through ghosting bullet journal supplies tips inspiration

Related: Tombow Brush Pen Testing in 8 Different Bullet Journals

5. Count the dots

After I do a pen test, the very next thing I do is count the number of dots across the page and the number of dots down the page. You’d think the number of dots would be the same for just about every dot grid notebook… but I’m yet to find 2 notebooks that have the exact same number of dots.

I write these numbers on a sticky note and put it at the front of the bullet journal for quick reference.

Or you could create an entire reference page. Here are some ideas of things to add to your list at the front of each dot grid notebook you own:

  • Number of dots vertically if you want to create a 5 day, 1 page horizontal spread
  • As above but for 7 days
  • Number of dots across and down for each row / box for a 1 page monthly calendar
  • As above but for a 2 page monthly calendar
  • Number of dots between each line if ruling up a daily schedule e.g. 7am to 6pm, 7am to 10pm etc.
  • The halfway number of dots if you want to rule a page in half (e.g. for list making)
  • Etc.!

Another helpful tool is the Ink by Jeng stencil, Sunshine Sticker co Journal Guide and the Moxie Dorie Journal Rule. These all help you by counting the spacing for you – all you need to do is line up the stencil and mark when you want to draw the line.

ink by jeng row and column stencil template review favorite functional planning supplies carefully crafted

Read more: The best time saving tool for bullet journaling (Ink by Jeng Row & Column Stencil)

6. Remove the ribbon bookmarks

There have been far too many instances where I’ve drawn a line and its ended up wonky due to the ribbon bookmark below it. Now I remove all the bookmarks before ruling up spreads. By remove I don’t mean rip them out, I just push them out of the notebook. Since I don’t continually use a bullet journal as my one notebook for planning I don’t need to worry about losing my place. But if you do want to keep your place, try sticky notes or a paperclip.

7. Date dot stickers

If you’re creating a monthly calendar, date dot stickers look good and are a huge timesaver.

There are plenty of date dot stickers to choose from these days! My favorite are:

  • Rainbow date dot stickers
  • Prima Planner mini neutral date stickers
  • SRM Press neutral
  • Carpe Diem rainbow
  • Carpe Diem neutral
  • MAMBI Happy planner bujo minimalist stickers which include a few pages of date dots

colorful bujo weekly spread bullet journal blog post planning monday start functional horizontal

Bullet journaling in the Rhodia Goalbook

8. Functional washi tape

Instead of writing out the days of the week, use some Sunshine Sticker co days of the week washi tape.

Sunshine sticker co washi tape weekly spread in the leuchtturm dot grid notebook functional minimalist black and white only quick easy

Weekly spread in the Leuchtturm using Sunshine Sticker Co Washi Tape

Instead of trying to write the dates really small to fit into the boxes, use some numbered washi tape for your calendars and habit trackers.

ink by jeng calendar list washi tape bullet journaling checklist functional favorite bullet journaling planner supplies

More bullet journal

  • 8 Ways to use highlighters for Bullet Journal Spreads
  • Lined, dot grid, graph or blank: what paper type is right for your bullet journal?
  • 7 Bullet Journal Weekly Planner Spreads you probably haven’t thought of

Weekly spreads

  • Bullet journaling with planner stickers in the Happy Notes Book
  • Bullet journaling on black paper with white & gold pens
  • Bullet journaling in the Siwengde notebook (quick rainbow spread)

Found this post helpful? Pin it!

how to get the most out of your bullet journal tips inspiration ideas time saving bujo supplies stencil erasable pens washi tape pen testing all about planners

7 tips to keep your bullet journal neat bujo newbie all about planners how to effectively use your bullet journal

bullet journal tips ideas neat tidy perfectionist erasable pens for bujo notebook shopping bujo life planner addict inspiration

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Posted In: Bullet Journal, Bullet Journal Tips · Tagged: bujo hack, bujo inspiration, bujo life, bujo tips, bullet journal hack, bullet journal ideas, bullet journal tips

Comments

  1. Sara says

    June 8, 2019 at 00:11

    What do your “D-E-I-V-P’s” stand for? Is there a page on your site that talks about this?

    Reply
    • Rachael says

      June 8, 2019 at 11:37

      Hi,

      It’s my blog post workflow:

      D = Draft, E = Edited, I = Images, P = Pinterest V = Video

      Reply
      • Sara says

        June 11, 2019 at 07:00

        Ohhh!!! Okay, thank you!

        Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hello

Welcome to All About Planners! I’m Rachael, a 20-something Australian planner addict. On the blog you’ll find more than 1,000 posts about all things planning including planner reviews, tips, favorite supplies and some of my past weekly spreads.

Subscribe and join 60,000+ others on the quest to find planner peace!

If you have a question or there is a planner you’d like me to review, I can be contacted via [email protected]

Subscribe

free printables library sign up all about planners blog image graphic subscribe

Search

Shop At Etsy

The photos and content on this site are the property of All About Planners. They are not allowed to be used without permission from All About Planners.

Categories

Recent Posts

  • 7 Tips for creating rainbow themed spreads in your planner or bullet journal
  • ZenArt Bullet Journal Notebook review (7′ wide x 10″ high notebook)
  • Using ChatGPT to create a travel itinerary – time saver or waste of time?
  • What dot grid size is best for bullet journaling?
  • The best budgeting sticker books for your planner or bullet journal

Follow Me

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Disclaimer

All About Planners is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Printables

  • Learn How to Make Printables
  • How to Make Planner Stickers
  • Resources & Tools I Recommend

Follow Me

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
Privacy

Copyright © 2023 All About Planners · Theme by 17th Avenue