People are always commenting here on the blog or emailing me asking why I have so many notebooks for bullet journaling. I don’t use them all at the same time! Plus I use them for different things.

If you’ve been bullet journaling for a while you might already be using multiple notebooks and if you’re not, here’s why I think you should!

1. Draft Notebook

This isn’t an ‘official’ planning thing, it’s just something I came up with. I use cheaper notebooks with paper that’s prone to ghosting and bleed through to draw up ideas I may want to use in in the future in my actual bullet journal notebook. It’s an organized ‘reference’ of layout ideas, rather than bits of scrap paper everywhere.

These type of notebooks are good for brain dumping, random lists – anything where you don’t care about being neat and keeping the notebook looking perfect.

Bad ghosting in the Minimalism Art Notebook makes it ideal for this purpose:

How much should you spend?

I’d spend around $10 USD on this notebook.

The paper quality in these notebooks is similar – usually 100 GSM or less. Really the only difference is the page width and cover colors.

My recommendations:

• Minimalism Art
• Otto Dot Journal
• Poluma Dot Grid Notebook
• Artfan Dot Grid Notebook 
• Paper Ideas
• Modena Stationery Dot Grid Notebook (more than $10 but if you’re a fellow Aussie it’s readily available at Officeworks) 

2. Reference Notebook

Use this notebook for all the things you need to keep track of, but you don’t look at everyday such as:

• Master list
• Cleaning checklists
• Password Logs
• Home information
• Etc.

If you like to do 1 page per day bullet journaling (i.e. go through bullet journal notebooks quickly) you might also want to keep things like monthly planning, monthly review, monthly habit tracker and the like in your reference notebook.

Read more: Choosing sections for your planner: what to keep in your weekly planner versus a household binder 

If you don’t want to draw up these spreads or you have messy hand-writing like me, you could resize a printable and add it to your notebook using washi tape.

Related: How to resize any printable for any size bullet journal

How much should you spend?

For this notebook you could use a similar type of notebook to the draft notebook but I’d spend a little bit extra (up to $20 USD) for slightly better paper quality (expect to get around 120 GSM for that price). You might also find you prefer a larger page size for this notebook, which means you may need to spend a bit more.

My recommendations:

Around A5 page size notebooks:

• Scribbles That Matter Notebook
• Little More Notebook (page size is more square than rectangle)
• Jumping Fox Designs Dot Grid Notebook Review
• Clever Fox Dotted Journal Notebook
• Dingbats* Notebook for Bullet Journaling Review (super smooth paper!) – if you want to spend more than $20 USD

Large page size notebooks

• Siwengde Bullet Journal Notebook Review (has lined and dot grid pages)

Clever Fox: One of my top picks with good paper, pretty covers and an affordable price!

Related: Clever Fox Dotted Journal Notebook

3. Your Planner

This is the bullet journal notebook you use for everyday planning – your weekly and monthly spreads, future log etc.

How much should you spend?

Honestly, spend as much as you feel you should spend to get a notebook you’re happy to use for 6 months, a year or however long a bullet journal usually lasts you. So if that means spending more to get a pretty cover, then do it. If you want decent paper (140 GSM or more), then spend the extra for thicker paper.

For a decent bullet journal notebook that ticks all the boxes, expect to spend anywhere between $30 – $50 USD.

If you want to splurge, Archer and Olive have tons of nice covers to choose from, gold edges on the pages and great quality paper

My recommendations:

• Agendio custom dot grid notebook  (not the best paper but it’s fully customisable. If you want other pages like lists, traditional planner pages etc, this is the company to use)
• Buke stationery dot grid notebook (160 GSM)
• Vivid Scribbles Dot Grid Notebook (bleedproof 140GSM paper!)
• Archer and Olive Dot Grid Notebook (160 GSM Paper)
• Inkwell Press (you’ve probably heard of their planner but they do dot grid paper refills if you want to DIY a notebook. Also, it’s Discbound!
• MAMBI Happy Planner Happy Notes Review

More bullet journal tips

• Color coding your planner: how to choose which colors to use 
• 8 Ways to use highlighters for Bullet Journal Spreads
• 10 Bullet Journal Daily Scheduling Layout Ideas

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