Running a bullet journal on reMarkable works best when you keep the method plain: blank dot grid pages, an index you can tap, and the same short symbols you’d use on paper. You don’t need a planner that pre-prints your whole year. You need a page that stays out of the way and a fast route back to the front of the book, and that’s what this guide sets up, from getting the file onto the tablet to the monthly migration.
We make bullet journal PDFs for reMarkable, so we’ll point out where our file fits. Everything here works with any linked dot grid PDF, though, and most of it works with a plain reMarkable notebook too.
What you need for a bullet journal on reMarkable
The bullet journal method came from Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer who shared it publicly in 2013. The core parts are an index, a future log, monthly logs, and daily logs, plus collections for anything that needs its own page. None of that depends on paper, so the question is just how to give those parts a home on the tablet.
You have two real options. The first is a regular reMarkable notebook with a dot grid template, which costs nothing and works fine until you have 80 pages and no way to jump to last month. The second is a hyperlinked PDF, where the index rows are links. Tap a row and you land on that page, then tap a breadcrumb at the top to get back. If you’re new to the idea, our explainer on what a hyperlinked PDF is covers how those links work.
Links inside PDFs aren’t a hack on reMarkable. The company added internal PDF links in its 2.6 software update, so a linked file opens in the normal document reader with no extra app.
Getting the PDF onto your tablet
Keep a copy of the PDF on your computer first, then pick whichever transfer route you already use. The cable route is the USB web interface. On the tablet, turn it on under Settings, then Storage, plug in the USB cable, and open 10.11.99.1 in a browser on your computer. Drag the PDF into that window and it shows up in your library. If the toggle won’t turn on, try a different cable before you blame the software.
The reMarkable desktop app, the mobile app, and my.remarkable.com in a browser all work too if you already sync through your account. Whichever way you go, upload the file as it is. Some converters offer to “optimize” or “flatten” a PDF, and that’s how people end up with a nice-looking page where none of the links work.
Setting up the first pages
Resist the urge to build the whole year on day one. A blank BuJo grows as you use it, and the index is what keeps it findable. Here’s a simple start that doesn’t take long.
- Future log on pages 1 and 2. Split each page into three boxes for the next six months, and write dated plans in the right box.
- This month on page 3. Write the dates down the left edge with the day letter next to each, and leave the right side for the month’s task list.
- Your first daily log on page 4. Write today’s date at the top and start logging.
- Label the index rows. Go back to the index and write “Future log”, the month name, and today’s date next to rows 1 to 4.
That last step is the one people skip, and it’s the one that makes the file work. An unlabeled row is a page you’ll scroll for later. A labeled row is one tap away. Get in the habit of writing the label the moment you start a new page.
If a spread needs two pages, like a weekly layout drawn across facing pages, just use two numbers in a row and label both. Leave a few empty pages after a collection if you expect it to grow, such as a reading list or a project log. Nothing renumbers when you skip pages, because each link points at a fixed page.
A daily routine that takes a minute
Daily logs are where most of your writing happens, and the method keeps them fast with rapid logging. Each line is a short entry with a symbol in front of it, so you can scan a page without reading every word.
- A dot for a task
- A circle for an event
- A dash for a note
- An X over the dot when a task is done
- A right arrow when you move a task forward, and a left arrow when you push it to the future log
In the morning, tap today’s row on the index, or tap the breadcrumb and then the row. Write as the day goes. At night, mark what’s done, arrow what isn’t, and you’re finished. On a thin pen setting, the symbols stay small, so even a busy day usually fits on one page.
Writing on top of a PDF on reMarkable works the same as writing in a notebook. Your pens, the eraser, undo, and layers all behave the way they do in any other document, because the file is just a PDF with links in it.
Using tags next to the index
The index is your main map, but reMarkable gives you a second one. You can tag individual pages in a notebook or a document. Open the file, tap the Tags icon in the toolbar, and pick or create a tag, as described in reMarkable’s support article on tags. Tagged pages show up in the Tags overview in My files and in Page overview, and since reMarkable OS 3.16 they also appear in search results.
In a bullet journal, tags are good for things that cut across months. Tag every page where you logged a doctor’s visit with “health”, or every page with a book note with “reading”. The index tells you where a page is, and the tags pull related pages together without you building a separate collection for each theme.
Keep the tag list short. Five or six tags you actually use beat thirty you forget about, the same way a bullet journal with a few honest collections beats one with a collection for every passing thought.
Monthly migration, on purpose
At the end of each month, flip back through the daily logs and look at every open task. For each one, decide whether it still matters. If it does, write it into the next month’s task list. If it doesn’t, cross it out. Then set up the new month page and label its index row.
Rewriting by hand is the point here, not a flaw. Copying a task forward costs a few seconds, and that small cost is what makes you drop the tasks you were never going to do. A planner app that rolls everything over for you skips that decision, which is how task lists quietly grow to a hundred items.
Monthly migration is also a good time to check your index. Make sure every page you used this month has a label. Five minutes now saves you from hunting for “that page with the plumber’s number” in six weeks.
Collections worth starting with
Collections are the pages that don’t belong to a single day. They’re also where a bullet journal on reMarkable starts to feel like yours, because you decide what earns a page. Start with two or three and add more only when a topic keeps coming up in your daily logs.
- A habit tracker. Days across the top, habits down the side, one dot per day. The dot grid makes the columns easy to rule by eye.
- A reading list. Books you want to read, then a short line for each one you finish.
- A project page. One page per real project, with next steps you can migrate into daily logs.
Give each collection its own index row with a clear name. “Reading 2026” is easier to find later than “Books”, especially once you’ve started a second file.
When the file fills up
A PDF has a fixed number of pages. Ours has 200 writing pages, which goes a long way if you keep dailies to one page, and less far if you draw a lot of two-page spreads. When you get near the end, start a fresh copy of the same file for the next stretch, and copy your future log across by hand.
reMarkable does let you add pages to a document. In its guide to annotation, the company explains that the Add note page option in document settings inserts a blank page into a PDF. That’s handy for an extra sheet in a collection. We haven’t confirmed how inserted pages interact with a PDF’s internal links, though, so for the main journal we’d stick to the numbered pages and start a new file when you run out.
Keep the finished file. A full year of bullet journaling is worth more than you’d think when you want to know when you started a habit or what you were working on last spring.
reMarkable 2, Paper Pure, and Paper Pro
reMarkable’s tablets use two page sizes, so a good bullet journal PDF comes in two cuts. On our file, the reMarkable 2 and Paper Pure version is 157 by 210 mm, and the Paper Pro version is 180 by 240 mm. Each one is drawn for its screen, so the dots and margins land at native size instead of being shrunk inside a border.
On the Paper Pro, the template itself is black and grey, but you can still write in colour on top of it. Colour is useful for signifiers if you use it sparingly. One colour for events or one for deadlines is plenty. A page with five colours is harder to scan than a page with none.
Mistakes that make people quit
- Drawing elaborate spreads in week one. If a weekly layout takes 30 minutes, you’ll stop drawing it. Start plain and add only what you miss.
- Skipping index labels. Without labels, a linked index is just a list of numbers.
- Running two task lists. If you also keep tasks in a phone app, pick one as the source of truth. Two lists means neither gets trusted.
- Treating it like a planner. Daily logs get filled as the day happens. Dated plans belong in the future log and monthly page, not on daily pages weeks ahead.
If you’re still choosing a page style, our guide to the best page style for bullet journaling compares dotted, lined, blank, and grid pages for BuJo. Using a Supernote instead? Our Supernote bullet journal guide covers the same method on Ratta’s tablets.
Want the file ready to go? Our Bullet Journal for reMarkable is 200 undated dot grid pages with a linked index and breadcrumbs on every page, in cuts for reMarkable 2, Paper Pure, and Paper Pro. It’s a one-time purchase, and every cover is hand-painted by Rabia.
