Notebook & Journal Specs

Before we jump in I want to tell you what the criteria were as I was searching for a notebook as I was on my initial quest to find the perfect notebook for myself.

This all started when I started carrying a notebook with me everywhere about seven months ago. I’ve always carried notebooks but suddenly it had become an everyday necessity. I had developed my own task management and life organizing system over the years, but one day a friend point out that what I was doing was called “bullet journaling,” which sent me down a rabbit hole of discovery. So I started calling my journal a bullet journal (even though I didn’t play by all the rules – see my Hybrid Bullet Journal System here) and continued to use my journal to keep track of my daily tasks, thoughts, interesting tidbits or quotes, and even for taking notes when I listened to a podcast (another obsession of mine) or read a book. The journal I was carrying was just one I already had in my stash and just pulled off the shelf and started using it (the Green Inspired Journal in the photo below also has a full review on the list). Then at the end of May, I made a purchase of a Galen Leather handcrafted notebook cover. By the first of June, the first notebook has been purchased and the pen testing began!

We’re NOT going to discuss my obsession with leather in this post. But let’s just say that it’s real. Just look at this notebook cover. I’m sure you can understand the obsession.

I knew my next journal needed to meet a specific set of requirements to even make it to my shopping cart. Since I was spending my own money on these, I needed to be highly selective in the notebooks I purchased to test. The list of requirements for my perfect notebook are:

SIZE – It needed to be an A5 size to fit the new leather notebook cover.

– It needed to be an A5 size to fit the new leather notebook cover. LINES OR DOTS – I prefer a lined notebook as opposed to a blank sketchbook or dot grid. Although I do love dots in certain circumstances, so dots weren’t completely out of the running if something caught my eye. It’s interesting that I started this search looking exclusively for lines but ended up choosing a dotted notebook as the winner for my own use.

– I prefer a lined notebook as opposed to a blank sketchbook or dot grid. Although I do love dots in certain circumstances, so dots weren’t completely out of the running if something caught my eye. It’s interesting that I started this search looking exclusively for lines but ended up choosing a dotted notebook as the winner for my own use. COVER – A beautiful cover is a bonus. If it’s something that I enjoy holding in my hand for the next several months, it’d have a better chance of being chosen. We’re not talking color here, this is about how it FEELS in my hand, the material from which it’s made and how sturdy the notebook construction might be over the time I use it.

– A beautiful cover is a bonus. If it’s something that I enjoy holding in my hand for the next several months, it’d have a better chance of being chosen. We’re not talking color here, this is about how it FEELS in my hand, the material from which it’s made and how sturdy the notebook construction might be over the time I use it. PAPER – The biggest and most important factor is the paper. High quality, smooth paper that doesn’t show any ghosting or bleeding is essential. I don’t want to be restricted by which pen I use, so the paper needed to deal with any of my most trusted pens (we’ll talk about those in a minute).

So now that the requirements were settled I started searching. I watched review videos on YouTube, I read reviews on individual notebook listings on Amazon, and I even scoured all of the bullet journal guru websites to find out which journal they were using.

What I found was that almost universally everyone was using the Leuchtturm1917 dotted notebook and they loved it beyond measure. In fact, the creator of the Bullet Journal system, Ryder Carroll, even had a special edition version of the Leuchtturm1917 with the Bullet Journal branding on the cover. So I took a closer look at the brand and specs of that notebook. I was skeptical because the paperweight didn’t seem to be good quality at 80 gsm. And seeing pen test results online concerned me because of the ghosting and bleeding. But I decided to give it a try anyway. My full review is below.

That’s where things started going downhill. I trusted the Bullet Journal gurus to tell me the truth. But when I saw the results of my own initial pen tests, I realized that those gurus were probably being paid to say nice things about a notebook that had really bad paper and was overpriced for such poor paper quality.

Then I fell victim to the same notebook “experts” who were raving about UberWorks notebooks. YouTubers and bloggers were so excited about how great these notebooks were, so I jumped on that bandwagon too. My full review of Uber Works is also below.

I kept being disappointed whenever I listened to someone else’s review of a notebook. I was tired of being duped. So I dug in and did what I did best. I researched, tested, evaluated, compared, and bought more notebooks than any one girl could use in a lifetime …. and here we are now.

After a couple unhappy starts to my notebook hunt I decided to get serious about specs. From here on out I was not going to try any notebook that had less than 100 GSM paper. I found several that meet the requirements and started placing orders. What I have for you below is a comprehensive review of all of the notebooks that I have collected, where they came from, how to find them yourself and what details you need to know about their quality and usefulness as a bullet journal, art journal, or writing journal.