What is digital bullet journaling? How is it different from regular bullet journaling? And, how can you get started? This post, I will try to answer all these questions and more so that you can decide if digital bullet journaling is right for you.
What is digital bullet journaling?
Digital bullet journaling is where you do bullet journaling in a PDF-based journal, usually on an iPad or tablet. It requires the use of a PDF annotation or note taking app, such as GoodNotes.
In a digital bujo, you can easily erase, copy, paste, and add or remove pages. Usually they also include some hyperlinks between the pages and sections, to make it easier to get to the right page.
Digital bullet journals can come in several different formats. They can have the look and feel of a real paper notebook, or they can be simplified so as to use the maximum area of the screen. They can also be created as a two page spread, or as a single page (which is usually called vertical format).
So who is digital bullet journaling for? Well, if you have tried using a paper digital paper bullet journal and found that you were too afraid of making a mistake on your page and wasting your expensive notebook paper, then digital may be for you. This is because it is so easy to simply erase or clear entire pages if you don’t like how they turned out.
In a digital bullet journal one can also use the typing tool in the PDF app, so that the writing is all very clearly legible (if your own writing is not that clear). However you can also use a stylus or Apple Pencil to write directly on your pages which makes it still have a very natural feel.
Another benefit of using a digital vs a paper bullet journal is that in the digital one you can make use of the search function in your note-taking app. These search tools use OCR (optical character recognition) to view and understand hand-written text. In my experience they are very effective at finding notes I’ve written and forgotten about!
Another great benefit of digital bullet journaling over paper journaling is that you can back up your entire journal or even export single pages. This is really good for at the end of the year when you want to start a new journal; you can just export the entire PDF and save it in your Google Drive or wherever you keep archived documents. This’ll free up space in your iPad, and obviously will not create any additional objects to store in your house, as paper planners would (and do!).
You can also feel safe knowing that your digital journal can’t get access by anyone who may find it lying around on the ground or on a table at your house. If you keep your iPad password protected, then you will be the only person who has access to that journal, which is probably way better security than any paper planner or journal would ever have.
Decorating digitally
Can you use digital stickers in a digital bullet journal? The answer is yes! Of course. You can use the same fun decorative elements in a digital bullet journal as you would in a paper one. This includes stickers, washi tape, markers, highlighters, Dutch doors, bookmarks, clips, etc. Just keep in mind, that the more image-based items to add to your PDF, the larger the overall file size of your journal will become, and this can slow down the loading time for the pages to render in your tablet. Of course, it also depends on how fast your tablet is to begin with. Obviously an older tablet will load pages more slowly than a newer and faster one.
How to get started
In order to get started with a digital bullet journal, first of all you will want to have a tablet such as an iPad, and possibly even an Apple Pencil or other stylus. While you can use a digital bullet journal on a desktop app, most people choose to use it in a tablet-based app. Also, while it probably doesn’t make sense to buy a new iPad just for the sake of getting to bullet journal, if you already have a tablet, it can open up a great new way for you to use something that you already have.
If you’re considering getting a new iPad specifically to use it with a digital bullet journal or digital planner, you might be wondering which size you should get. Well, I have to say that as somebody who uses the smaller size iPad Pro, I have never found the size to be an issue. This is because it’s so easy to zoom in with two fingers on your page and make it as big as you need so that you can write more clearly or write with smaller letters. Then you can simply zoom back out and see the whole page. If you don’t want to be zooming in and out all the time, I recommend using a vertical format digital journal. This format enables you to see an entire page filling up the screen and you may not need to zoom in very much at all.
Where to buy
So where can you buy digital bullet journals? Well as you may have guessed the main place where you’ll find them for sale is on Etsy. Etsy has created a great marketplace for sellers of digital items, and there are quite a few really nice looking digital bullet journals up there.
In my shop, I have several different styles of digital bullet journal that have all been created based on my years of experience as an actual bullet journal user as well as creating digital planners. A key feature of my bullet journals is that they are highly compressed so as to not slow down your iPad.
All of the digital planners in my shop come with free digital stickers in many different styles such as washi tapes, emojis, scripts, etc.They also come with a huge collection of realistic looking linen textured covers in many beautiful colors, as well as foil stamps that you can add to make them look even more realistic.
When to stick with paper
So when she do not use digital journaling? Well, if cost is the main factor for you then you may want to stick with a paper bullet journal, especially if you don’t already own an iPad or tablet.
Secondly, if you are somebody who deeply enjoys the tactile experience of paper planners, pens, ink, etc then you may find that you don’t get quite as exciting of an experience with digital. However if you like the look of all of those creative and artistic journals, but find that you aren’t willing to invest the time or money in acquiring many different art supplies or skills, you may enjoy getting to re-create those looks in digital much more easily.
I hope you enjoyed this post about digital bullet journaling, and if you have any questions you can reach out to me by leaving a comment here, or you can ask the digital bullet journaling community in our Reddit group or in our Facebook group for digital bullet journal beginners.