I Bought the Wrong Leuchtturm1917 Three Times. The A5 Dotted Journal Fixed It.

In October 2022, I unboxed my first Leuchtturm1917 with the kind of excitement people usually save for new gadgets. The red A6 hardcover. The sewn spine. The little pocket in the back. I remember flipping through the numbered pages and the built-in table of contents, everything just... tidy. I told myself: this is the notebook that fixes my journaling habit.

Three months later, it was in a drawer, a third full, gathering dust. The problem wasn't my motivation. The problem was that I'd bought the wrong notebook for the job—and then did it two more times before I figured out what actually matters.

If you're looking at a Leuchtturm1917 A5 dotted journal or any of their hardcover notebooks, I want to save you that wasted time and money. I'm not an expert. I'm someone who spent about $75—maybe $80, I'm adding shipping on the second one—and six months learning what a 20-minute product check would've told me upfront.

Mistake 1: I Bought the Size I Liked, Not the Size I Needed

The A6 looked perfect. Compact, pocketable, the kind of notebook you're supposed to carry everywhere. I imagined myself journaling between meetings, jotting ideas on trains, all that romantic stuff.

Reality hit fast. An A6 lined page gives you maybe ten to twelve lines, and I write long, rambling entries. Squeezing those thoughts into a tiny page felt like writing on index cards that kept running out of space. My handwriting got smaller. My entries got shorter. My habit died within a month.

What I learned: the A6 and A5 Leuchtturm1917 have the same DNA. Same numbered pages, same index, same durable hardcover. But the page size changes what fits. If your journaling session is more than a few minutes of writing, the A5 is the safer choice. I'd go further and say it's the only real choice for most people who want to journal daily instead of just logging quick notes.

Looking back, I should've started with the A5. At the time, I thought portability mattered more. It didn't. My A5 has been in my work bag for a year now—it takes up about as much room as a paperback. Nobody actually journaling every day needs something that fits in a jeans pocket.

Mistake 2: Lined When I Needed Dotted

My second Leuchtturm1917 was an intentional purchase: A6 dotted. Smarter ruling, same too-small size. The dot grid lived up to the hype—at least for how I use it: drawing boxes, tracking habits, making spreads. But I still couldn't fit my entries comfortably.

Here's what I now tell everyone who asks: the dotted grid is the most flexible option Leuchtturm1917 makes. You can build habit trackers, sketch weekly spreads, add boxes and tables, all without the hard constraint of ruled lines. The A5 dotted journal is their best seller for a reason. It's not a trend—the dot grid is genuinely the most functional ruling for anyone doing planner-style or bullet journaling.

If you're writing nothing but paragraphs, lined is fine. But if there's a chance you'll draw a chart, track a habit, or sketch a layout, dotted wins. I kept that first lined A6 for long-form writing only. Everything else—mood logs, reading lists, meeting notes—now lives in dotted pages.

(Should mention: Leuchtturm1917 also makes plain and ruled variants, plus a larger Master size. I don't have experience with the Master, so I'll leave that to people who do.)

Mistake 3: I Blamed the Notebook for My Pen Problem

This is where I'll get honest, because there's a lot of marketing talk around 'ink-proof' paper. I assumed that meant every pen I owned would glide across the page and leave nothing behind. It didn't.

The low point: a bold-tip permanent marker I used for a habit tracker. It ghosted—visibly. You could read the marks from the back of the page. I also tried a wet fountain pen once, and that wasn't a great pairing either. I'm not a paper chemist, so I can't speak to coatings or how the paper has changed over the years. What I can tell you from a user perspective: with a fine-tip gel pen or a standard rollerball, the paper is clean, crisp, and comfortable. It's when you push into wet, heavy ink territory that you'll run into trouble.

The fix was simple. Pick your pen first, then your notebook. If you're set on a broad nib or heavy marker, get a notebook with thicker paper designed for that. If you're using everyday essentials like a Pilot G2 or a fine rollerball, the Leuchtturm1917 will handle it without complaints. I've also used the brand's own Drehgriffel ballpoint—it pairs naturally with their paper, no ghosting at all.

One more thing that isn't a knock on the notebook: it's a writing journal, not an art pad. If you're planning watercolor washes or heavy ink sketching, look at dedicated mixed-media notebooks. The standard Leuchtturm1917 paper is designed for writing, and that's okay.

The Twist: The Notebook Didn't Make Me Journal Daily

Even with the right size and the right ruling, I still wasn't consistent. This is the part nobody mentions in the reviews.

I spent my first month with the A5 dotted making a Pinterest-perfect journal. I printed out template pages from my wireless printer. Color-coded headers. A habit tracker with neat little boxes. A mood graph. It looked stunning for five days. Then I missed a week, fell behind on the trackers, felt guilty, and stopped opening the notebook entirely.

What finally worked is almost embarrassingly simple. My current system, which has stuck for over a year:

1. Write the date at the top.
2. Add three bullets about what actually happened that day.
3. End with one line: something I'm glad happened or a mistake I don't want to repeat.

Five minutes, maybe eight on a chatty day. The dot grid helps—I draw a simple vertical line to split the bullets from the reflection, no layout required. But the real fix wasn't the notebook. It was lowering the bar for what counts as a journal entry.

So if you're wondering how to journal daily, do not start with a complicated system. Start with three bullets. The Leuchtturm1917's numbered pages and index mean I can find any entry from six months ago by checking my little contents list. That's worth more than any fancy layout.

The Checklist I Use Now

After the third purchase—an A5 lined that was close but still not right—I wrote myself a set of questions. It's become a shared document at work because people keep asking which notebook to order:

• Where will you write? Desk and bag → A5. Pocket-only → A6, but know the tradeoff.
• Will you draw any boxes or charts? Yes or not sure → dotted. Pure paragraphs only → lined.
• What pen will you use daily? Fine-tip gel or rollerball → great. Wet fountain pen or markers → get a different notebook.
• Need it to survive your bag? The hardcover does. The sewn binding lays flat and doesn't crack.
• How long should it last? At five minutes a day, the 251 numbered pages last about nine months. That timing helps me reorder before I run out.

I handed this list to four coworkers in 2024. All four bought A5 dotted journals. Two are journaling daily a month later—they both told me the three-bullet system was the reason, not the notebook. I believe them.

The Bottom Line

According to Leuchtturm1917's product specs (leuchtturm1917.com), the A5 dotted hardcover has 251 numbered pages, a table of contents, and a page marker. Those small details add up over a year of daily use. My total-cost math: about $25 for the notebook, used almost every day for nine months, then archived cleanly. That's roughly a dime a day. I've spent more on apps I abandoned in a week.

If I could go back to 2022 and send one message to my past self, it would be: buy the A5 dotted journal, use the pen you already own, and write three bullets tonight. That's the whole trick. Everything else is just product marketing.

This reflects my experience through 2023–2024. Products and paper specs can change, so I'd recommend verifying the current details on leuchtturm1917.com before you order.