The Docsplainer

I have tried nearly every kind of notebook/journal/planner known to womankind since back in 1981 when I first started using the AT-A-GLANCE DayMinders distributed to staff by the mental health center where I worked. I’ve used spiral (lined) notebooks of all sizes, pretty cloth-bound notebooks I used to buy in bookstores, wire-bound and loose-leaf (both sizes) Day-Timer® planners, SELF Journals®, and God knows what all else. I have shelves of them going back 43 years.

And then I discovered the Bullet Journal, affectionately known as the BuJo®. And I was sold. You’d think that would be the end of the story.

But no.

The Bullet Journal people put out a nice special edition Leuchtturm specifically designed to support the Bullet Journal method, and then of course there’s Leuchtturm’s own line. And I have vacillated between the two for years now, re-deciding this nearly every time I need a new notebook–which is several times a year.

This is all by way of saying that this blog is not going to be one long string of ads. And while this post doesn’t have much to do with teaching psychology, the purpose of the blog, I will be talking about journaling in general, and BuJo-ing in particular, in future. So it’s at least semi-relevant!

As I am about to re-make the notebook decision all over again, and as I have never seen the two compared side by side and figure I’m not the only one who might need to see it, here we go….

Paper

The BuJo’s is heavy–almost card stock. Toothy. It absorbs liquid gel ink (which I love) instantly and perfectly, no shadowing, no feathering, no creating blobs on opposite pages. No need to blow on it or leave it open to dry.

Leuchtturm’s standard notebook pages are thinner, smoother, and very wet inks shadow like mad and take what feels to an impatient, ADD-adjacent person like me forever to dry. If you don’t blot it, blow on it, or leave it lying open for a few minutes, you will get mirror images (or at least tiny blots!) on the opposite pages. Unless you use a fast-drying ink like you get, for example, with a Staedtler Fineliner (which I love).

The advantage with the basic Leuchtturm is that you get more pages to a book. I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies and like things to ‘fit’ into my books: A whole summer break, for example. And I don’t like breaking off in the middle of a month to start a new notebook. Leuchtturm’s own notebooks are more likely to accommodate me in this.

Pages

The pages themselves are a bit different.

The special BuJo edition has nice, neat, consistent margins, whereas the standard Leuchtturm’s are a good bit narrower on the inside margin — which means leaving the whole left column of the recto blank for your signifiers if you use the Bullet Journal® method. No big deal, but as I say, for OC and OC-adjacent folk, it can be a constant, daily annoyance.

There are dots in the margins of the BuJo version to help you divide your pages, marking 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 of the page. Handy.

BuJo’s are numbered at the center, with a little dot for you to mark when you’ve finished (indexed, migrated, and reflected) with a page. Leuchtturm’s are in the lower right hand corner, no dot. The center pagination is nice for linking and continuing posts, but one can always make one’s own dots and the ink is light enough to simply write over when you’re linking. Easy peasy. So this, to me, is no deal-breaker.

More useful is the BuJo’s dedicated, pre-printed Intentions page at the beginning of every book, the length and layout of the index pages, and the pre-printed Future Log pages. The standard Leuchtturm indexes by page number, the BuJo by topic. If a topic reappears frequently in your BuJo, there will not be room for all the pages and you will have to re-list your topic further down. And you may run out of room altogether.

Of course, you can re-create all this in your Leuchtturm and even ignore the indexing colums and do it BuJo style, and I do, but. I still like the BuJo better for this.

Extras

BuJo offers an elaborate grid in the inside front cover showing how your pages can be divided, and giving the dot count from top to bottom and left to right. Handy, but I hardly ever remember it is there and so do not use it much. From that standpoint, counting off squares in either book is equally simple (or annoying, depending on your world view).

The BuJo also has a 3rd ribbon marker, which to me is everything. With the standard Leuchtturm, I have only the two, and choose to mark my monthly spread with one, wherever I’m working with the other… which means I’m constantly flipping around looking for my weekly spread. Hate that.

On the other hand, the BuJo edition ships with a page of stickers I never use (except for the one I need for the spine when I’m shelving a finished book) and a little Bullet Journal® guide, which you don’t need after the first one. Wasteful. The standard Leuchtturm comes with half a page of stickers, which I don’t use all of either, but at least it’s half the waste. Offsetting that is the fact that when you order directly from bulletjournal.com, you can direct 1% of your purchase to a non-profit. Currently, supporting mental health and learning are options.

The last 11 sheets in the standard Leuchtturm are perforated for easy tear-out. Not sure why I would want this, but thought I’d mention it. (I did read once, somewhere, that a woman kept a list of her chronically ill child’s conditions and medications on the back page of each notebook, and that in an emergency once she was able to just rip it out and thrust it at the emergency personnel who responded to a crisis. Who in turn thrust it at ED personnel when they arrived at the hospital. So maybe keep your handy reference lists back there?)

Options

The special BuJo edition, as far as I can make out, currently comes in three colors: Black, blue, and this year’s theme color, green.

Leuchtturm’s options in this regard are dizzying. Prices and number of pages vary so if you choose this route pay close attention. Also be careful not to accidentally order lined or blank pages, as I did once.

I tell myself regularly that my BuJo is a tool. It is not a job or a middle-school art project. As such, there is no reason on earth that basic black won’t suffice for every volume. Not to mention, the idea of a little black book appeals to me! And then I’ll have an attack of Girls Just Want to Have Fun-itis (with a tip o’ the hat to Cyndi Lauper) and go all in on a pretty color notebook and a fistful of colored ink pens. I am working this summer in a pretty lilac Leuchtturm, with a violet ink Energel pen (love these!).

General Quality

Both notebooks are lovely. I’ve had others with garbage paper, spines that broke 2 seconds out of the box, but never these. Only complaint I’ve ever had is that the inner edge of the first page of both versions is often partially stuck to the flyleaf, as is the last. Why? Is this A Thing and I just didn’t get the memo?

Price

I once laid out an elaborate table in my BuJo, comparing shipping costs, price per page, overall price, blah, blah, and, while there were differences, when I considered all of the above advantages and disadvantages of each, it was a wash. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It all comes down for me each time as a flip of the mental coin. Sometimes I get one, sometimes the other.

And speaking of tables…

Where to Buy

So did I decide yet? No.

If you buy the BuJo edition, you are supporting a good man who has given much to his followers, a great team, and a good company. (And a cause of your choosing, don’t forget, if you buy direct.) If you buy the standard Leuchtturm A5 dot journal, you’re getting the same high-quality product, just without some of the bells and whistles.

Note: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.