If you’re new to bullet journaling or looking for a gift for someone that needs some organization in their life but is opposed to using a traditional planner, bullet journaling guide books can be a great resource.

Let’s have a look at one of the lesser known bullet journaling guidebooks: Dot Journaling by Hannah Beilenson.

Topics covered in this book

• Basics (definitions, what is a bujo, how to use a key, index, recommended tools)
• Future spreads (4 different layouts)
• Monthly spreads (4 different layouts)
• Weekly spreads (4 different layouts)
• Daily spreads (5 different layouts)
• Trackers (6 different layouts)
• Lists (6 different layouts)
• Mistakes (how to avoid them & tools to cover them up)
• Design elements (colour theory, titles and lettering, section breaks,
• Practice Page (20 pages of blank, 5mm dot grid)

Price: $29.95 AUD from my sister’s planner supplies website, Carefully Crafted 

The book is 7.5″ (19cm) wide x 9.5″ (24.2cm) high and is 0.75″ (2cm) thick

Let’s take a closer look!

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Here’s a look at some of the pages in the book.

For each of the layout ideas, there is a pre-drawn template for you to experiment with

The section talking about supplies are all the supplies everyone’s seen before. There wasn’t many recommendations for specific brands nor the author’s favorites.

Related post: Peter Pauper Press essentials dot matrix notebook review

Because there is a blank template provided for each of the layouts, about 1/3 of the book is just blank dot grid pages.

The dot grid is 5mm.

Pros of this book

• Sturdy hardcover
• 7.5″ wide x 9.5″ high page size makes it easy to read and clear to see the example design, the pages don’t
• Pages lay flat once you break the spine
• Full colour printing

Cons of this book

• I would’ve preferred an A5 page size as this is the most common size for dot journaling books. Now if I create a spread on the practice pages in this book, I’m going to gave to recalculate all the dot spacing to shrink it down to fit an A5 page size
• Many of the page layout ideas, are ideas I’ve seen done before

Do I recommend this book?

Only if you’ve new to bullet journaling or know someone who you think should give bullet journaling a try. If you’re already bullet journaling, I don’t think you’ll get much out of this book.

You can find all the same info in this book online from blogs, Instagram, YouTube.. for free! Even just looking at Google Images will give you more layout ideas than this book.

I feel like this isn’t going to be a reference book you can keep coming back to for fresh ideas, it’s more of a one time read.

I didn’t get as many ideas from this book as I did from Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide Book and the Hack Your Journal.

Bullet journal page layout ideas

• 12 Planner Layout Ideas for Monthly Habit Tracking in Your Bullet Journal
• 10 Bullet Journal Daily Scheduling Layout Ideas
• Review of the Speedy Stencils by Sunny Streak (plenty of weekly and monthly layout ideas)
• 15 habit tracker tips & ideas to try

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