Considerations when buying a Bullet Journal
As the last pages of your bullet journal fill up, it's time to ensure the next bullet journal is already on the shelf. The choices are plentiful. This raises the difficult question: Do I stick with my current format or make some changes?
My first Bullet Journal
I chose my first bullet journal at Thalia because I wanted it to look good and feel high-quality. Since I didn't know what I was going to write about or how my collections would look, I didn't overthink anything, but I chose what I thought looked prettiest. And I was delighted with my selection.
First experiences
In daily use, I realized I needed a pen loop. Some journals already offer this, and I was annoyed that I hadn't paid attention. But after a few weeks of suffering, a friend who had heard about my curses and brought me some glue-in pen loops came to visit. What a blessing!
Fortunately, I chose a hardcover version. It's easy to stow in a backpack without getting bent, and I can write on it without needing an additional pad. I imagine writing with a soft cover without a table would be awkward.
The pages are dotted. I hoped this would give me a lot of design freedom, and I was right. Ruled pages are more convenient for the index, but not essential. However, many journals with dots have corresponding templates on the first few pages. So, it was my choice—lucky me again.
Possible changes
My bullet journal is A5 size. I'm okay with that if I use the full width. As soon as I add indentations to my writing, it gets tight. In a YouTube video, I saw someone who always left a five-centimeter margin to accommodate keywords in the form of hashtags. This allows them to scan and look for the content more quickly. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me.
Conclusion
In summary, my first choice was excellent. The A5 size is optimal, the missing pen loop can be retrofitted, and the existing index on otherwise dotted pages allows me to express my creativity fully.
And a change in size, as I've envisioned in the possible modifications, would mean having different sizes next to each other on a shelf... I find that awful, especially for book series that change publishers and are reissued in a different size or with a different spine. That's why it's the same version.
