Start With Three Things

The single biggest reason people abandon a bullet journal is that they buy too much before they have written a single page. They gather a set of 24 brush pens, three rolls of washi tape, a stencil set and a fancy notebook with 160gsm paper, then freeze because every page suddenly feels like a performance. Meanwhile, the method itself — a running list of tasks, notes and events — works perfectly well in a cheap notebook with a biro.

So here is the whole shopping list: a dotted notebook, a fine liner, and a ruler. That is genuinely it. Everything else is decoration, and decoration added on day one tends to get in the way of the habit. Buy the three things, use them for a month, and only then decide what else you actually want. You will make far better choices once you know how you journal, rather than how you imagine you might.

Choosing Your First Dotted Notebook

Dotted paper is the standard for bullet journalling because the faint dots give you structure without the visual noise of lines or squares. You can write a paragraph, draw a grid, or rule a calendar box and it all looks intentional.

• Dot spacing: 5mm is the near-universal standard and the safest choice. Closer dots suit tiny handwriting; wider dots waste space for most people.
• Paper weight: 100gsm is a good starting point. It handles a fine liner and most rollerballs without ghosting badly, and it keeps the notebook slim. Anything under 80gsm will show every stroke through the back of the page.
• Page count: Around 180–200 numbered pages will carry you through roughly six months of daily use. Numbered pages save you a job, because you can index straight away.
• Binding: Lay-flat binding matters more than people expect. If the notebook snaps shut while you are drawing a line, you will stop drawing lines.
• Size: A5 is the sweet spot. A6 fits a pocket but cramps a weekly spread; A4 is lovely on a desk and awkward anywhere else.

Skip the leather cover and the elastic closure for now if they push the price up. You are buying paper, not a lifestyle.

The Fine Liner That Does the Work

One pen, chosen well, will do almost everything. Look for a fine liner with a 0.3mm to 0.5mm tip and water-based pigment ink. That combination gives you crisp writing at small sizes, a line bold enough to head a page, and ink that dries fast enough not to smudge under your hand as you move across the page.

A few practical notes. Water-based ink is far less likely to bleed through thin paper than alcohol-based marker ink, which is why the fine liner earns its place as your everyday tool. Test any new pen on the last page of your notebook before you commit it to a spread — two minutes of testing saves a ruined week. Black is the sensible first colour; you can add a second in a muted tone later if you like the contrast.

If you already own a decent gel pen or rollerball, use that for your first month. The rule is one writing tool, not one specific brand.

A Ruler, and Why It Matters More Than You Think

A ruler is not about neatness. It is about speed. Once you can draw a straight line in three seconds, monthly logs, weekly spreads and habit trackers stop feeling like a craft project and start feeling like a two-minute admin task. That shift is what keeps the habit alive.

Choose a slim metal ruler around 15cm long. It sits flat in the notebook's back pocket, does not flex when you press down, and is short enough to draw a line across an A5 page without poking out sideways. A plastic ruler will do, but it will eventually get inked along one edge and start transferring smudges onto the page.

Trace lightly. Dots are a guide, not a cage, and a pencil-light line reads far better than a heavy one if your ink is dark.

Setting Up Your First Few Pages

Keep the first four pages free. These become your index, and you will thank yourself for leaving the space when you are searching for a note from three months ago.

• Index: Two or three pages. Write the page number and a two-word description each time you start something new.
• Key: Half a page. Define your symbols — a dot for a task, a circle for an event, a dash for a note. Three or four symbols is plenty.
• Future log: Two pages. Divide into months and drop in anything with a date further out than this month.
• Monthly log: One spread per month. A list of dates down one side, a task list down the other.
• Daily entries: Start on the next clean page and just write the date. Do not rule boxes in advance. Let each day take as much or as little room as it needs.

Resist the urge to plan a whole year. Set up one month, see how it feels, and adjust. Your second monthly spread will be noticeably better than your first, and your sixth will be better still.

When to Add Washi Tape and Coloured Pens

Add the extras once your system has survived a full month without you abandoning it. That is the honest threshold. If you have logged tasks, migrated what you did not finish, and still find the notebook useful, then you have earned the fun stuff.

Washi tape is the easiest addition: it is low-tack, so it will not tear thin paper, and a single strip across the edge of a page separates months beautifully without any drawing skill. Coloured pens work best with a purpose rather than a palette — one colour for work, one for personal, one for anything urgent. A highlighter is genuinely useful for marking finished tasks at a glance.

Buy one roll of tape and one extra pen. Use them for a fortnight. If they help you find information faster or make you want to open the notebook, add more. If they mostly slow you down, you have lost very little, and you still have the three things that actually matter.