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You might have to try a few different pens to work with on your Bullet Journal before you find the right one, today I will share which are the best pens for your Bullet Journal.
I’ve been working on my Bullet Journal for a few years and I have tried a few different pens, I love to work on everything on my notebook, from planning to keep a calendar for my appointments to track my new habits, or to check on my mood.
Sometimes I will keep everything on the minimalist style with just one ink color: black.
But most of the times I will allow the creative side of me to come out, and I will work with many colors, textures and designs as many as you can think of. I must try different things and this will help me to keep motivated to keep working on a plan until I achieve its goal.
Nothing better to help me to remember on which page I wrote something, that taking the time to do a doodle relevant from that topic that will help me to remember it and highlight the importance of that task.
Doodling will let your brain remember about something important as our brain loves to remember things we love, making a cute doodle is a way to tell my brain I need to remember that phrase or that task.
Making a doodle on one page will let me to find that page without the need to read everything on every page on my Bullet Journal until I find the page I’m looking for.
Making doodles with just one pen will be like writing everything and not taking the time to do something to highlight that point or task.
This is why I always keep a few different pens with different color ink so I can use any of those pens to help me to work on anything I work on in my Bullet Journal.
Today I will share with you some pens I have been using to work on my Bullet Journal, and which make the work of planning easier and never monotonous at all.
There are all kind pens on the market where you can choose the best pen for you, you might need to try more than one to find the one that works right for you.
Whether you are minimalist and love to keep everything in one color ink, or whether you love to have every color ink that you can find in pens, you might need to get a few pens to try them all.
I did that, and this is what I find on the following pens:
Zebra Sarasa 0.7
1 – This pen is a good one, writing is so easy and you won’t get tired to write full pages in your Bullet Journal, the ink is acid free, the point is 0.7 mm and it has a soft rubber grip which it makes very comfortable to work with it for long time, you won’t get tired of writing, planning and drawing some doodles with this pen.
The color of these pens are vibrant and you can find it in 14 different colors.
You can use these pens for writing, and also these pens will do a great job if you love to sketch or to doodle on your bullet journal or planner.
You won’t find a better price to get some good pens to work with like these!
Get the Zebra Sarasa on Amazon
Gelly Roll
2 – I love to do doodles with the Gelly roll Sakura, it always works 100 % great, and ink comes out perfect which it helps me to keep working on the doodles without paying any attention if the tone of the ink is the same or not, get the Gelly Roll Sakura on Amazon
Bic Gelocity
3 – I’m sure the Bic Gelocity pens will help you to get adding doodles on your bullet journal on every page of it
Easy to work with them, and writing with them is so soft and inks come out with the same tone all the time, you can trust on it while you keep doodling on the paper.
It’s ink drys fast and it covers the paper 100%, the pen body is soft and it’s made in a way that will help you to write with it for hours without getting tired. You can keep using this pen every day or anytime you want to, ink will work great at anytime!
I won’t miss having one of these pens on my desk or a set of it to add anything on my Bullet Journal. You can find the Bic Gelocity on Amazon.
Staedler Ball M
4 – I’m a big fan of the Staedler brand, I don’t miss having one of more of the ink liners at home, I use them often to design the layouts I use daily on my Bullet Journal.
When I was looking for a good Gelly pen to work on the doodles I have to try the ball point pen triplus from Staedtler.
Pros:
- It’s an elegant pen.
- Ink works perfect anytime even when I haven’t written with it for weeks.
- Ink last long time, so you can trust on it.
- It’s elegant and slim design will help you to carry it all the time, it won’t take much room on any bag, pocket or pencil case.
Cons:
- Ink is not 100% same tone when I work with it while doodling on regular paper.
- Ink is hard to work with from this pen,
- Ink goes from regular black to pale gray when I work with it.
I love Staedler brand and I trust on it, but when thinking about doodling on regular paper I won’t pick this pen as my favorite, but I will work with this pen to do some sketches, as the ink is perfect to work with different tones on a drawing.
I won’t give it all the points to this pen to work with it to do doodles, but I will give it all the points to work with this pen to do sketches and ink drawings.
You can find the Staedler Ball M pen on Amazon here.
Staedler – Triplus fineliner
5 – As you known I’m a fan of Steadler brand, so I have to get a set of the Triplus fineliner, I wanted to start drawing colorful mandalas, I tried these fineliners and they didn’t disappoint me at all.
These finelines work great while drawing fine lines and small doodles on regular paper. These fineliners are soft to work with and ink will work great anytime, ink tone will stay the same all the time so your drawing and doodles will be amazing on your Bullet Journal anytime.
The shape of these fineliners is ergonomic triangular barrel, this make perfect to work on them all the time you want to without getting tired of holding the fineliner in your hand while you write or doodle.
The ink in these finelines has low viscosity, which makes it perfect to do lots of doodles on a sheet and you don’t need to wait for the ink to dry before you keep working on the same space on the paper.
These fine lines come with a tip seal to keep the ink fresh, don’t forget to remove the wax from the tip before use.
Stabilo Black
6 – I just bought the Stabilo Black pen last week, and I fell in love with it already.
When you write with it, its ink has the look of a fountain pen ink, it looks liquid and fresh, but it dries fast and it has a steady tone as you work on it.
Writing or doodling with it will not require much work as the ink come fast from the pen, you don’t need to make any pressure on the pen while you work on it.
The design of the pen is modern and eye-catching, the body of the pen is soft and easy to hold, this pen is made thinking on amateur and commercial artists.
As you work with this pen, you can blend the different colors with your finger tips or with a brush, this feature will help you to make art works on your notebook.
You can find these pens in 60 different colors! You can buy a set of the Stabilo pens on Amazon, I’m sure you will love them, as I do now.
Pentel EnerGel Rectractable Liquid Gel Roller.
7 – If you love to write, you will love this pen, its high performance ink technology has the best qualities of liquid gel ink for a smooth writing.
The ink of this pen dries fast, this feature will help any journalist to love to keep this pen on hand any time, but it’s also made thinking on left-hand writers as the ink dries fast, left-handers will have no problem at all about getting messy pages on a journal or planner.
This pen has a 0.5 mm fine point, which will help you to keep a beautiful writing on any paper.
You can find this pen in a package of two. Get today the Pentel EnerGel Pens on amazon!
Fiskars 12-27457097 Gel Pen.
8 – I have a pair of Fiskars scissors for a long time (more than 10 years) and they are good as the day I bought them, I trust on the Fiskars brand as I not only have that pair of scissors, I also have a few more items from this brand as a rotary cutter and the paper trimmer, Fiskars product have never disappointed me at all.
When I saw that Fiskars came up with a set of gel pens I had to get a set and try the pens. Well, I’m happy to say the same high quality Fiskars produce is in all its products, these pens are also of high quality.
Fiskars gel pens have acid free ink, and the ink pigment is fade resistant.
Writing with these pens is smooth and this will help you to keep writing to plan and to draw all the doodles you want to on your notebook or Bullet Journal.
The ink will not bleed through the paper, so if you love to do adult coloring, these pens will be perfect for the job. Same will go if you love to add some doodles or drawings on your Bullet Journal.
If you want to get just one set of gel pens, I will pick the Fiskars pens for sure
You can get the Fiskars gel pens on Amazon.
Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens.
9 – When you look to get a set of gel pens, you might want to get a set from a well known brand, Paper Mate wants to be part of the brands who has some great gel pens to help creative people and artist to keep working at what they love to do with a different medium, the gel pens.
Paper Mate gel pens ink dries 3x faster than other brands, the smooth ink will help you to keep working with these pens while you create the most amazing drawings and layouts on any notebook, and when we talk about Bullet Journal pages, well these gel pens will help you to create amazing ink drawings on it.
Paper Mate gel pens have colorful gel ink, they come with a 0.7mm point, each set comes with 20 pens and you get 14 different color inks.
These pens will feel great in your hand as they come with textured comfort grip that wraps the pen, making the pen so comfortable for you to use it when you write.
I’m sure once you try these pens, they will become your favorites!
Get the Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens on Amazon today!
Pilot G-Tec-C Gel Rolling Ball Pens.
10 – I could not finish this post about the best gel pens for bullet journalism and doodling without talking about the well known brand of pens like Pilot.
This brand is well known for its quality, the same quality you will get when you buy a set of gel pens, these pens quality is clean and they will give you precise lines all the time.
These pens will never smear off, so you can carry them in your bag all the time.
Each pen is designed and made with a textured grip that will help you to work with them for long hours without getting tired of drawing, writing or doodling at all.
These pens have an ultra-fine point of 0.4mm which will work great for great designs or fine drawings.
These set of Pilot gel pens come with 10 pens with 10 different color ink.
Get your own set of the Pilot G-Tec-C Gell Rolling Ball Pens on Amazon Today
Why you should try different pens for your Bullet Journal?
You might want to work with just one brand of pens for your bullet journaling or for your personal planner.
And keeping just one brand of pens is good, and you will get amazing results as you keep working on your Bullet Journal to get your life organized and to achieve your personal and professional goals.
But I can’t keep myself from testing more than one brand of gel pens. And I’m happy I did it, today I have a few sets of different brands of gel pens at home.
By owning more than one set of gel pens, this help me to keep working on designing layouts for my Bullet Journal and I known which set will work better of each layout design.
It’s like an artist work, an artist needs to try watercolor, charcoal and oil paints from time to time.
The same might happen to you, some drawings and some designs for your notebook or for your Bullet Journal will be perfect when you use a set of pens from one brand, but when you think about making a different design for a layout, you might need a different brand of gel pens.
As you evolve and as you get better working hand in hand with your Bullet Journal, you’ll be better setting up your goals for next week, and next month, and next year.
The same way you will evolve as a creative person creating the most amazing layouts for your Bullet Journal, every creative person will need to try different mediums that will help you to known better about your work and to create amazing pages.
I wanted to share this round up from some gel pens I have at home and which I used to design my own layouts for my own Bullet Journal.
How to keep organized your pens collection.
As you keep working on your Bullet Journal to organize your life and do the most for it, you will be getting different pens to try until you find your favorites.
In one moment you will get a full collection of pens on your desk, some days you will love to work with one pen and some days you’ll want to try a different pen from your collection.
It will be easy to get more than one pen, I could say you’ll notice one day, you already have a dozen or more different pens. Your desk might start to look cluttered and the best way to keep a desk organized is to keep all those pens in one place.
I started to keep all the pens in a pencil holder, but later that pencil holder couldn’t hold all the different pens I have, so I came with the idea to get more than one pencil holder on my desk.
One good idea is to get a nice box to keep all those pencil holders in one place, and it will be easier to take the box with all the pencils holders from one place to other, and it will always look well-kept and organized.
How many pens you should get.
This is something every Bullet journalist will ask from time to time, to tell you the truth, I think from my own experience, once you start working on your Bullet journal you might need to try some different pens until you find your favorite to work with for most of the time.
But one is never enough.
Bullet journals are something that besides to help you to keep well organized and besides to help you to achieve any goal in your life, it will also help you to develop your own creativity.
You can become a minimalist bullet journalist and you might love to keep your bullet journal with just one color and you will work with just one kind of pen. And that is OK.
But, you might be tempted to try new things and new mediums of writing and drawing tools, as you keep working on your Bullet Journal, you will find your own style and your own voice.
As the time past, you will end with more that one notebook, and you will see how you have developed your own style and voice, then you will have a full collection of pens to work with.
You will get to known yourself more, and you will get to known when to work with one kind of pen and when to use a different kind of pen.
Closing.
I can’t say this post is done, I will keep trying more pens and I will come back here to add a few more.
I hope this post helps you to find the pen you are looking for to start adding those awesome doodles you will add to your bullet journal.
You can save this PIN into your Pinterest account, so you can find this article again.
Hey there! I’ve really enjoyed reading this blog post as you’ve provided us with tonnes of information. I’m planning to start a journal and I’m actually planning to look for some pens that help me achieve what I’m doing. I’m interested in Staedler Ball M but is it smooth? I mean when you use a brand new pen for the first time, it’s a bit rough for a few hours. Will I be having any issue similar to what I’ve explained?
Thanks in advance and I’m looking forward in hearing from you. Keep up the good work!
Hi AV 2001,
Most of the pens that we all find today in the market are well made, and they will work great from the time you open the package, if you find a pen that doesn’t work good for the first few hours, might be something working wrong with that particular pen.
I have worked with some pens for the last past years, and most of the pens have worked right, until the ink is over.
Staedler products are some of my favorites!
Thank you so much for your article, I really enjoyed it, I have been looking for an effective way to always store information and this your article has really helped me, now I have been making doodle on some pages in my journals so as to be able to remember it without actually reading everything thing and I have gotten some of the tools you describe for us. Thank you so much for this article once again.
Hi Oloyede,
Thanks so much for making the time to read my blog today, I’m happy to know you found this tip helpful, yes the more we all know about how the brain work, many task will become easier for anyone.
To make a doodle related to something we just wrote on a paper or on a page, will be always easier to help us to remember that phrase, that word, or that task we need to work on.
Alejandra.
This is probably the most in depth article i have ever read regarding pens. I guess I have never given it much thought and just picked up the cheapest pen available. But some of the pens and descriptions you have provided have given me a lot more to think about when purchasing a pen to write with, especially for long form writing where fatigue might be a factor. Thanks for the article, its always nice to learn something new that you can apply right away.
Hi Mike,
Thanks so much for making the time to read my blog today.
I’m glad you found my article about what is the best pen to buy for bullet journaling helpful, picking the right pen will help you to keep working when you need to write for some time, you can avoid the fatigue factor and you will notice is easier to finish any task to do related to writing.
Alejandra.
Reading through your article gives me the impression that you’re a creative person (for some reason I associate colors with creativity). Your post caught my attention because I’ve always liked the idea of keeping a planner, and have done so for many years. But in all those years I always stuck to black or blue ink, with an occasional pencil mark.
It’s easy to see how having different colors can focus your attention on certain tasks, especially when they are related, so I’m willing to test the notion; I’m sure I can draw some benefit out of it.
Thanks for your excellent guide
Hi Hugo,
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment.
I’m glad you found my article good and you got inspired to start working with some different color ink on your own planner, I will love if you come back and let me know how did it go.
I thank you!
your post was lovely. I enjoy every single phrase of it. I consider that my style is absolutely not minimalist. I love to be creative and use many colors when I write my bullet journal. I will buy the big gelocity, I love doodles :). I also have a question.
What type of pen you think is best for drawing? Yes, I like to draw with pens
Thanks for your answer beforehand
Hi Fredery,
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment.
It’s always nice to meet another creative person, I’m sure you might have a beautiful Bullet Journal, do you share your pages on your Social Media? I would love to see some of your pages.
I keep all the time a pen in my purse, so I can take notes anywhere I am. this pen is from the Staedler brand, I write down some ideas that comes up to my mind anywhere I’m, when I get home I like to add some color to the notes.
If I had to pick just one pen, I would go with Staedler