Which Notebook to Choose for Your 2022 Bullet Journal
October 19th, 2021
It's time to start thinking about which notebook to use for your 2022 bullet journal. Wow, how fast time has flown. It feels like it was just yesterday that I did my last notebook comparison. I tested an Ink Pot journal, Scribble and Dot, Baron Fig and Maisie Lane. If you'd like to see me test those, you can find the video on my YouTube channel and the blog post here.
This year I tested 5 new notebooks and compared them to an Archer and Olive journal. I reached out to brands that I wanted to try out and 3 of them kindly gifted me their notebook to test. 2 of them I bought myself. Although some of the products were gifted, my opinions are entirely my own.
There's also a video version of this notebook comparison, if you want to see the journals and watch me do the pen tests.
NOTEBOOKS TO CONSIDER
Scroll to the bottom for discount codes! Some links are affiliate links. The cost to you for these products is the same (or discounted with my code), and I earn a small commission that helps to keep my business alive :-)
I currently use a B5 Archer and Olive journal, which i've enjoyed, but for 2022 I'll be returning to the comfort and familiarity of an A5.
Archer and Olive are a popular choice for bullet journallers, you're probably already familiar with the brand. I'll do a run through of the key features of an A5 Archer and Olive journal, and use it as reference for the 5 other journals I will test.
Archer and Olive have a huge selection of front covers to choose from, with many different designs and colours.
My "go-to" notebook for bullet journalling is an A5, hardcover linen notebook, like this one.
The pages are 160gsm and pure white, with 38 dot spaces down and 26 across. My grid spacing ruler is designed for these dimensions, so I can quickly set up rows and columns without having to count up spaces! I have a whole video here, on how to use the ruler if it's something you're interested in.
There are no page numbers. There are 2 page markers, one with an A&O gem on it. There's a pocket at the back to store any stickers or stencils you might use.
I tested the paper with fineliners, a Tombow Fudenosuke pen, a Tombow brush pen, a Pentel Fude Touch, a Gelly Roll, a fountain pen, an Acrylograph paint pen and an Ohuhu paint pen. I also tested how well the pages respond to watercolour.
There was no ghosting or bleeding from the pens I used and no visible feathering from the fountain pen.
The paper also responds well to water. There's hardly any warping or pilling on the page. But like with most journals, you will see warping and pilling if you use too much water.
Finally there's a pen loop on the side to store your favourite pen.
The Ink Pot is a UK based company and I first came across them last year while doing my 2020 notebook comparison video. I had to include a journal from The Ink Pot again this year, because this one is different to any other I've seen before!
This one is called The Tree Hugger and the cover is made from cork. The cork is a sustainable material that has been stripped from trees as they grow. The cork feels robust but soft and luxurious at the same time.
It's an A5 hardcover notebook that comes with a foil design of your choice, and you can also choose the colour of the foil design too. There's a good selection of designs to choose from on the website, and I went for a gold wave.
Aside from the cork, another thing I loved about this journal are the beautiful golden gilded pages. It feels very special and unique, in combination with the cork cover.
The journal is the same dimensions as the Archer and Olive journal and it has 160 pages.
It has an elastic closure to secure the notebook and one page marker.
Inside the notebook, there's a page for you to write your name and contact details if you lose it and then it goes straight into the dot grid pages. There aren't any page numbers and the dots are grey and clearly visible. There are 38 spaces vertically and 25 horizontally. The journal lies flat and has crisp white pages. At the back there is an envelope for paper or stickers
In the pen test, there wasn't any wrinkling or warping from the water and no feathering around the fountain pen. The paper responded in exactly the same way as the Archer and Olive. The notebook feels luxurious and comes at a great price - £18 ($24).
The next notebook I looked at was the Bullet Journal Edition 2 in Blush. This was exciting, going back to the source of bullet journalling. A notebook designed by Ryder Carroll himself.
It's an A5 dotted journal, with a hardcover. The cover is a light pink (blush) with bullet journal written on the front, to serve as a reminder of what bullet journalling represents. The notebook also comes in black, and the plan is to release a different colour each year, to represent a new year.
It's slightly wider than the Archer and Olive and Ink Pot journals.
As you open the notebook, there's a useful grid guide on the left that shows how many spaces you need to count up, to divide the page equally into rows and columns. There's an intentions page, to write up what you want from this notebook. There are 4 index pages, and 4 future log pages. Then you go straight into the blank dot grid pages.
The pages are off-white, feel very soft and are uncoated. This is unlike the Archer and Olive. There are some helpful page markings at the bottom and sides, so you can quickly divide up your pages into halves or thirds. There are 36 dot spaces down and 24 across.
The journal lies flat and there are 206 pages that are 120gsm. It was nice flipping through pages that aren't so thick, yet reassuring that they're potentially thick enough to handle your favourite stationery.
There are 3 page markers and a back pocket. In this pocket, I was pleasantly surprised to find some days of the week/monthly stickers to use as visual reminders in your journal.
There is also a bullet journal pocket book, with a full explanation of the bullet journal method. Perfect for reconnecting when you feel you're losing touch with your bullet journal practice. This information is also in The Bullet Journal Method book by Ryder Carroll, which is definitely worth a read if you haven't already read it.
The pens wrote really smoothly and there was no feathering from the fountain pen. The pages are uncoated (hence the smoothness), so watch out for slightly longer drying times when using fountain pens. I checked for ghosting and bleeding behind the page and found a bit of ghosting through the page. The paper held up pretty well with water, with no significant wrinkling or warping.
This one is also £20 ($28), which is such a good price considering how many helpful tools and resources are included.
Up next we have the dotted Yop and Tom notebook.
In the size comparison, it was slighter wider than the A5 Archer and Olive.
It has a very soft vegan leather cover with different colours to choose from. There's a really lovely gold foil design on the front. Along the spine it says Yop and Tom in script.
The journal comes with a grid guide, showing you how to quickly divide up the page into equally sized sections for columns and rows. This grid guide is one of the easier one's to follow, that I've seen. It's very clearly labelled and shown in the diagram, how to set up your rows and columns. It also shows you what you need to do to create sections with white space too.
There's a key page, to hold your symbols and colour codes. There are 3 index pages and one bookmark.
The pages are pure white. The journal lies flat and there are page numbers in the corner.
Every page has the middle of the page marked off, and the middle is marked off vertically and horizontally on the edges of the page too. Despite being slightly wider than the Archer and Olive, there are 38 spaces down and 26 across, which is the same as the Archer and Olive.
There's a back pocket and a dedicated pen test page. The page responded in the same way as the Archer and Olive pages. No feathering from the fountain pen, hardly any warping from water, no ghosting or bleeding behind the page from any of the pens. This one is priced at £18 ($24).
Next I have an A5 notebook from Paper24. Paper24 is based in the Netherlands and they stock a number of different journalling supplies.
The Paper24 notebooks are A5, hard cover journals, with linen covers. There are 9 different colours to choose from, each with a different foil design. It's very similar in design and style, as the Archer and Olive.
I love that on the first page it says: And so the adventure begins. New notebook, new adventures.
The journal lies flat and has crisp white pages, that are 160gsm. There are 38 spaces down and 26 across, which is the same as Archer and Olive, so i'd be able to use my grid spacing ruler to divide the page up into halves, thirds and quarters.
There are page numbers in the corner of the pages and 2 page markers.
There's a back pocket for extra notes, stickers or stencils.
In the pen test, there were no issues with any of the pens, and there was no warping or pilling from the water. There was no ghosting or bleeding behind the page, from any of the pens. The paper responded in exactly the same way as the Archer and Olive, Inkpot and Yop and Tom.
This notebook comes in at £17 ($23), which is great considering the journal and paper quality are very similar to an Archer and Olive.
The final journal for review is a Nuuna notebook. Nuuna are a German brand and are known for their unique and bold cover designs. There have a ton of funky covers in different colours and styles, so if you're looking for something different this might be for you.
This one is a flexible soft cover, unlike the hardcovers that we've seen so far.
In size, it's bigger than the A5 Archer and Olive all round. This one is made from jeans label material and Nuuna say that just like old jeans, the journal cover develops a special look over time. They also do notebooks in recycled leather, synthetic leather and buckram.
The pages are gilded, and pretty much all of the Nuuna notebooks have page colours that match the front cover.
The paper is 120gsm and appear to be more cream than white. It's uncoated, which again is different to Archer and Olive style journals, and as a result is much softer in touch and easy to flick through.
The journal lies flat and there are no page markers.
The spaces between dots are much smaller than the other journals and there are 56 spaces down and 40 across.
In the pen test, the pens wrote really smoothly on the soft paper. The watercolour however felt like it was going to drip and slide across the page.
I tested out how it would feel to actually write in this notebook, because the spaces between dots is a lot smaller than the other journals. If you have small handwriting you'd probably enjoy writing in this. I felt I needed to leave a space between lines of text otherwise my letters might get a bit cramped and potentially overlap.
I waited longer for the watercolour to dry compared to the other journals. When I eventually tried to turn the page, the watercolour was still very wet and dripped across the page. Pens/paint on uncoated paper tend to take longer to dry, which is something to be aware of if you're not very patient! :)
There was a bit of ghosting, similar to the Bullet Journal Edition 2, and the paint showed up more than in the Bullet Journal Edition 2.
On the whole it still feels like a great notebook for journalling, and something about it, makes me wanna grab a pen and write up lots of thoughts and ideas. It might be because of the flexible softcover and the smooth ivory pages inviting me in. I really liked all of these notebooks and I’m still deciding on which one to go for 2022. I'll let you know which one i decide on over on instagram.
Once you've decided on a notebook, here are some codes that you can use to get an extra discount with some notebook brands. Just enter the code at checkout.
10% OFF ARCHER AND OLIVE (use code RAKSHA10)
10% OFF INK POT JOURNALS (use code RAKSHA10)
10% OFF BULLET JOURNAL (code RAKSHA10)
10% OFF YOP AND TOM (use code RAKSHA10)
15% OFF MAISIE LANE (use code RAKSHA15)
I also have a video on my YouTube channel showing you all of the features and pen tests in these notebooks, so take a look at this if you want to see it all come to life:
With love,
