The beauty of the Bullet Journal system is that you can start at any time of the year. If you had just discovered the method in October, you don’t have to wait until January to start bullet journaling. After all, the Bullet Journal is not an annual planner – and this is why a lot gravitate towards using or adapting the Bullet Journal system.

However, the creator of the Bullet Journal Method, Ryder Carroll, recommends starting a new notebook every year. He says that “no matter where you are in your current BuJo notebook, start a new one.” A few bullet journalists, myself included, were a bit surprised that Ryder recommended it. However, in retrospect, he did have good points on why he thinks you should start a new notebook every year and we’ve added a few of our thoughts too.

Why start a new notebook?

#1 A symbolic fresh start

Sure, a year is “just a number”. Resolutions do not have to be written down only on New Year’s Eve/Day. You don’t have to “wait for next year” to start a new habit or quit a bad habit. You certainly do not need a new bullet journal notebook. However, every time the new year starts, we associate it with a “fresh start”. Ryder says in his book that it’s an “unavoidable cultural milestone” – which is true, we do celebrate New Year’s Day.

It delineates the old from the new, what has been from what could be.

Ryder Carroll

Starting a new notebook at the beginning of the year can also help motivate you. You know how we used to go “back to school shopping”? We didn’t really need new school supplies but it was exciting and it was something that students looked forward to. It is similar to starting a new Bullet Journal notebook in the new year – it makes planning exciting and empowers us to achieve our goals.

#2 More organized

One simple advantage of using a new notebook in the new year is that you can easily find information based on the year. We typically associate events on the year they occur. If you start a new notebook every year, you can easily archive them for reference in the future.

You do not need to fit one year’s worth of collection pages in one bujo notebook. You can have multiple notebooks in one year, of course! The whole point of starting the new year with a new notebook is to be able to easily categorize the notebooks per year.

#3 Less wear and tear for your notebook

The Bullet Journal notebook is also meant to be preserved. Remember the Bullet Journal mantra: “track the past, order the present, design the future”. We keep track of things because we know that we will refer to it in the future.

We use our bullet journal notebook every day so a bit of damage is inevitable. My second bullet journal notebook lasted for 18 months. I used it every day and took it with me wherever I went. At the time, I did not feel the need to migrate to a new notebook in the new year because there were a few pages left. Around the 15th month of using the notebook, I noticed that the spine of the notebook started to crack a little bit.

If you intend to preserve your memories, you need to protect your notebook as well. Using it for a maximum of 12 months will lessen the probability of the notebook getting ruined.

#4 It’s an excuse to try new notebooks

Need I say more?

Kidding aside, when the popularity of the Bullet Journal Method rose, so did the demand for dotted A5 notebooks. Take note: Dotted A5 notebooks are NOT a prerequisite or a required tool for bullet journaling but it has been the best option because of the flexibility that dot grid notebooks offer. A few years ago, there were limited options for dot grid notebooks – it was probably Leuchtturm, Moleskine, and Rhodia that offered these types of grids. Now, there are a lot of options that are cheaper and are of good quality.

Why shouldn’t you start a new notebook at the beginning of the calendar year?

First and foremost, if you have only used a few pages in your bullet journal, you don’t need to start a new notebook. That doesn’t seem practical at all because notebooks (especially if you paid for high quality ones) are relatively expensive.

Secondly, if you are new to the Bullet Journal Method or started bullet journaling during the latter part of the year, I recommend sticking to the same notebook until it almost runs out. Why? It’s because when you’re just getting started, you’re still figuring everything out. It will help if you have months of data to reference to as you go along. Once that notebook starts to run out of pages and it so happens that the new year is right around the corner, then great, you get to start in a new notebook.

Finally, there are some cases where it isn’t practical to start a new notebook as the calendar year starts – “calendar” being the operative word. That’s because some of us have a different definition of a “new year”, like students, for example. For students, maybe it would be better to start a new notebook at the beginning of your academic year or semester. Assigning at least one notebook for each semester or academic year will make it easier to locate information for future reference.

New year, new bullet journal? Starting a new Bullet Journal notebook every year is obviously a personal choice yet every year, a lot ask themselves this question. Just remember that the Bullet Journal is not an annual planner – you are not bound to a specific timeframe; starting a new one in the new year is merely a suggestion.