Singapore's bullet journalling community has grown from a niche hobby into one of the most active in Southeast Asia - and for good reason. In a city where productivity culture runs deep and stationery appreciation runs deeper, the bullet journal offers something rare: a system that is entirely your own. The notebook you choose to house that system matters more than most guides admit.

📔 What Is a Bullet Journal?

The bullet journal - often abbreviated BuJo - is an analogue organisation method created by designer Ryder Carroll. At its core it is a system of rapid logging: using short bullet points, symbols, and intentional migration to capture tasks, events, and notes in a single notebook. What makes it distinct from a planner is that there is no pre-printed template to conform to. The user builds every page from scratch: daily logs, monthly spreads, habit trackers, project pages, and whatever else serves their particular life.

That blank-page freedom is exactly why notebook choice matters so much. A bullet journal is not occasional note-taking - it is a daily companion that will absorb fountain pen ink, washi tape, watercolour washes, and years of reflection. The notebook has to be up to the task. For the vast majority of dedicated bullet journalists, LEUCHTTURM1917 has become the de facto standard. Its numbered pages, pre-printed index, thread-bound construction, and consistently excellent paper have made it the notebook the community builds around.

But LEUCHTTURM1917 is not a single product. There are multiple sizes, at least two dedicated bullet journal editions, a heavy-paper variant for media-heavy spreads, and ruling options ranging from plain to squared. Understanding what each offers - and which suits the way you actually journal - is the real starting point.

💡 Which LEUCHTTURM1917 Is Right for Your Bullet Journal?

The range can feel overwhelming when you first encounter it. The guidance below cuts through the options most relevant to bullet journalists in Singapore, focusing on the notebooks that actually appear in the community's hands.

⭐ A5 Medium Dotted - the community standard

The LEUCHTTURM1917 A5 Medium in dotted ruling is the notebook most people mean when they say "a LEUCHTTURM for bullet journalling." It measures 145 x 210 mm - the international A5 standard - and contains 249 numbered pages across a thread-bound, hardcover body. The 5 mm dot grid is light enough to disappear once a spread is complete, yet present enough to keep lettering straight and spacing consistent.

In Singapore, A5 suits the typical commuter workflow well. It fits into most laptop bags, the flap-and-elastic closure keeps it secure on the MRT, and the page count provides roughly a full year of moderately active journalling for most people. The pre-printed index, page numbers, and two ribbon bookmarks - features absent from many competitors - make the system's original architecture easier to follow without deviation.

For anyone new to bullet journalling, the A5 Dotted is the safest starting point. It is widely stocked, available in a broad palette of cover colours, and supported by the widest range of tutorial resources in the community, most of which reference A5 page proportions implicitly.

🎯 Bullet Journal Edition 2 - purpose-built for the method

LEUCHTTURM1917 collaborated directly with Ryder Carroll to produce an edition designed specifically around the official Bullet Journal Method. The Bullet Journal Edition 2 includes structural additions that the standard A5 does not have: a dedicated setup guide, pre-formatted daily log pages at the front, a collections key, and an enhanced key legend section. It also ships with a set of dot-grid stencils and a detachable booklet of migration sheets.

Where the standard A5 gives you a blank system to populate however you choose, the Edition 2 provides scaffolding. This makes it particularly valuable for beginners who feel uncertain about translating the method from reading about it to actually practising it, and for experienced journalists who want the method's official architecture embedded directly in their notebook rather than built page by page from memory.

The trade-off is reduced page count for free-form collections, since some pages come pre-dedicated. Journalists who have already developed their own spread designs and conventions tend to find the standard A5 more flexible. Those still building their practice often find Edition 2's structure liberating rather than restrictive.

🌟 120G Edition - for heavy media users

The standard LEUCHTTURM1917 A5 uses 80 gsm paper - a weight that performs well with most ballpoint and rollerball pens, and acceptably with many fine-liner sketching pens. It becomes more challenging when bullet journalists add watercolour washes, alcohol-based markers, or thick gouache to their spreads. The paper can buckle, and heavy wet media may bleed to the reverse side, rendering the facing page unusable.

The 120G Edition addresses this directly. It uses 120 gsm paper - 50 percent heavier than the standard - which handles wet media with considerably more resilience. Watercolour washes sit on the surface rather than soaking through. Alcohol markers shade without the ghosting that frustrates illustrators on standard-weight pages. Fountain pen enthusiasts find that even broad, wet nibs lay down ink cleanly with reduced feathering.

Singapore's humidity is worth noting here. A heavier paper stock is less susceptible to the subtle ambient moisture that can cause lighter pages to ripple over time, particularly in notebooks stored in non-air-conditioned rooms. If you journal in a warm, humid environment - near a window, in a landed property without central cooling, or while commuting in the open air - the 120G Edition's paper holds its form better across a year of use.

🖊️ A6 Pocket - for EDC and travel journalling

The A6 Pocket measures 105 x 148 mm and contains 185 numbered pages. It is not a primary bullet journal for most people - the page area is small enough that full monthly spreads become cramped - but as a secondary or travel journal it is exceptionally capable.

For Singapore's working professionals, the Pocket offers a compelling companion role. It fits in a shirt pocket, slides into the back of a phone case, and can be carried into a client meeting or a hawker centre lunch without the deliberateness of a larger notebook. Many bullet journalists use a Pocket for daily capture and rapid logging during the working day, migrating significant items to their A5 at home in the evening. Others dedicate it to travel - flight times, address lists for overseas trips, restaurant notes from weekend jaunts to Johor or Batam.

The Pocket is also a lower-commitment way to test the bullet journal method before investing in the full A5 experience. Its smaller page count means you complete a notebook within a few months, giving you a concrete sense of what works for your system before you commit to a full-year A5.

🆕 New: The Bullet Journal® Turquoise25 Collection

Released for International Bullet Journal Day, Turquoise25 is the newest colourway of the Original Bullet Journal® - and the first to extend the shade to the matching Drehgriffel Nr. 1 gel pen and Pen Loop. If you are starting a fresh notebook, here is the full Turquoise25 line-up available now in Singapore.

📝 Standard Paper vs 120G: Which Should You Choose?

The decision between 80 gsm standard paper and 120 gsm heavyweight comes down to three factors: your primary writing instrument, the level of decoration in your spreads, and your storage environment. The table below maps the most common Singapore bullet journal use cases to the right choice.

Use Case	Primary Tool	Recommended Paper	Reason
Text-only rapid logging, minimal decoration	Ballpoint, gel pen, fineliner	Standard 80 gsm	Performs excellently; lighter weight is easier to carry daily
Fountain pen journalling, wet nibs	Fountain pen (fine-medium nib)	Standard 80 gsm	80 gsm handles most fountain pens well with minimal feathering
Fountain pen with broad or flex nibs, high-flow inks	Fountain pen (broad/flex nib)	120G Edition	Reduced feathering and bleed-through with higher ink volume
Decorative spreads with watercolour or washes	Watercolour, brush pen	120G Edition	Paper withstands moisture without buckling or bleed-through
Alcohol marker colouring and illustration	Copic, Touchliit, Ohuhu markers	120G Edition	Significantly reduced ghosting and bleed on reverse side
Mixed-use: text plus light washi and sticker decoration	Pen plus tape and stickers	Standard 80 gsm	Washi and stickers add no liquid stress; standard weight is sufficient
Stored in warm, humid, non-air-conditioned environments	Any	120G Edition	Heavier stock resists ambient moisture ripple over time

One nuance worth flagging: many Singapore bullet journalists assume they need the 120G Edition because they use fountain pens. In practice, the standard 80 gsm paper handles the majority of fountain pen setups well - including popular choices like the Pilot Metropolitan, Lamy Safari, and TWSBI Eco with fine or medium nibs. The 120G Edition becomes the clearer choice when nib size moves to broad or above, or when you are using wet, saturated inks with high flow rates.

🗓️ Getting Started: Your First Bullet Journal Setup

Once you have chosen your notebook, setting it up properly at the start ensures the system works as intended. These steps follow the core Bullet Journal Method while reflecting the practical realities of journalling in Singapore.

1. Fill in the index pages. 📌 LEUCHTTURM1917 includes pre-printed index pages at the front. Before you write a single spread, write your start year and any standing collection titles you already know - "Books to Read," "Travel Wishlist," or "Work Projects." Every new spread you create gets added here with its page number the moment you start it.
2. Set up your key. 🔖 The key is a legend of the symbols you will use: bullets for tasks, circles for events, dashes for notes, and whatever custom symbols your system demands. Keep it on the first open page after the index and mark it in your index. Singapore's community commonly adds symbols for "blocked by others" and "to follow up" given the collaborative nature of most professional roles here.
3. Create your first Future Log. 🗓️ The Future Log spans the next six months. Many bullet journalists use a two-page spread divided into a simple grid of six cells, one per month. Write in national holidays - Hari Raya, Deepavali, National Day, Chinese New Year - so they are immediately visible when you plan monthly spreads.
4. Set up your first Monthly Log. 📝 A Monthly Log is a two-page spread: the left page lists every date of the month with its day of the week, the right page holds your monthly task list. Mark your school-holiday periods, major work deadlines, and any family occasions. This becomes your planning anchor for the month.
5. Begin your first Daily Log. ✏️ Write today's date as a header and start logging. Use bullets for tasks, circles for events, dashes for notes. Do not overthink the first page - the system builds momentum through use, not through planning.
6. Prepare for Singapore's working rhythm. 🇸🇬 Singapore's calendar has clusters of public holidays that affect planning significantly. Building a simple key to distinguish "public holiday" from "personal leave" in your Monthly Log prevents the kind of double-booking that trips up new bullet journalists in their first month.
7. Migrate at the end of each month. 🎯 Before starting a new Monthly Log, review all incomplete tasks. Ask of each one: is this still worth doing? If yes, migrate it forward. If no, strike it out. This is the method's most powerful discipline - and the step most beginners skip, to the detriment of their system.

🇸🇬 Supplies Available in Singapore

A bullet journal is, at its simplest, just a notebook and a pen. But Singapore's stationery community has built a rich ecosystem of complementary supplies that many journalists find either practically useful or creatively rewarding. Below are the categories worth knowing about, along with links to relevant collections.

lt1917.com is the authorised distributor of LEUCHTTURM1917 notebooks in Singapore and Malaysia. All products are sourced directly from LEUCHTTURM1917 and shipped within Singapore, with no import or customs duties applicable for local orders.