(gentle jazzy music) - Everyone, it's Amanda,
welcome back to my channel. So today's video is a little
bit of a bitter-sweet one for me to make, I can't
believe it's here already. It's my 2018 Bullet Journal flip-through. So of course, since
the year is wrapping up and coming to a close, so is our 2018 Bullet
Journals, and as per tradition, I wanted to do a year-end flip-through, where I just look through
every single spread in my Bullet Journals, plural because I have two for this year. So I'm gonna flip through it and look back at the spreads, and reflect on
what worked and what didn't. I'm kind of interested and
excited to flip through it because I haven't really
looked back on any of it. And I want to see the evolution of what happened in this year. My experience Bullet Journaling this year was definitely way different
from the year before. This is my second year, Bullet Journaling. So the first year that
I did it I was more so getting the hang of it, but this year I had so much fun with it and I definitely found my own style. And you guys were also along for the ride. When I think back to all of my spreads, I also think about all
of your recreations. And it just makes me so, so happy. So I just wanted to say, off the top, thank you guys so much for being invested in this little book,
/planner, /journal that I do. This year by far, has
been the most insane year. We hit a million subscribers, and I love that we have this
little creative community that doodles together and geeks out about stationary together, and it's just my favorite
thing in the entire world, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a part of my 2018. And I can't wait to see
what 2019 brings us. Speaking of, my 2019 Bullet Journal set-up will be up very soon,
probably in a couple of days from the day that this is being posted. But once it's up, I'll
definitely be sure to link it down below, for any of you guys
who are watching this video in the future, so stay tuned for that. I can't wait to make
some new spreads in 2019. So without further ado, here is one year in my Bullet Journal. Okay, so here are my 2018 Bullet Journals. I always get a lot of questions about what notebooks I used this year, so these are the
Scribbles That Matter PRO, A5 dotted journals,
and I really like them, I just got them in a white, clean color so it's pretty standard. I didn't really have any issues
with the actual notebook. So let's jump right in and look
at the first Bullet Journal. By the way, I am going to
be stopping at some pages and talking about what
worked and what didn't. But I'll also just be flipping through, if there's nothing that I wanna say. Just because if I stopped and talked about every single page, this video would be very long. So I'll try to just stop at the highlights or pages that I think
are really important. (gentle jazzy music) One of the things that
I realized this year, is that I really don't
have any use for an index. As you can see, I made space
for a double-page index spread. And I really only filled in half of it. And even though it is filled in, I also don't really
refer to it that often. So next year I might just
cut down and only do a half. I think that indexes work best for people who use their Bullet Journals
for a wide variety of things. So let's say, as a diary,
or for work and school, as well as a planner, but
for me, I mostly use it as a brainstorming notebook
as well as a planner. And because of that,
I pretty much remember where every single page is going to be. And I don't typically
need to refer to an index to find a page. (gentle jazzy music) As you can see, the last
four months of my future log aren't colored in, and that's
because, at the end of August, is when my Bullet Journal
started running out of pages. So there are just the events
that I needed to write down, from the future, probably
that I wrote down months before hand, so I still
did refer to these events when I was setting up the new ones. The first year I Bullet
Journaled, I was pretty much able to fit the whole
year into one notebook. Although I did have to add a
couple of pages near the end, so it was feeling a little
squishy near the end there. So this year I decided to not
restrict myself to one book. I just made whatever pages I wanted. And then just moved into the second book. And it was a lot more
freeing, so I'll definitely be doing that again for next year. (gentle jazzy music) This, My Year In Polaroids memory spread is actually one of my favorite beginning of the Bullet Journal pages, that I did. It really forced me to make
use of my Polaroid camera which I always seem to forget to use. But because I knew I
wanted to do a Polaroid every single month, it really did force me to take my Polaroid out
to any special events, or when I'm hanging out with my friends. And it's nice to look back
on, every single month. I basically chose a
Polaroid that represented that month the best, so as you can see, June is when I moved into
my brand new apartment. So I have a Polaroid
of my empty place here. (gentle jazzy music) I actually haven't flipped
through this older journal in a while, and I forgot how
much I loved January's theme. It might be be of my
favorites from the year. I just like how simple and clean it is. But it's definitely fun,
I'm actually curious to know what your guy's favorite theme from this entire year was? So maybe you can comment that down below. Okay, so something that
I played around with a lot this year, is the trackers. You'll see that this is common theme throughout the whole year,
but I really experimented with different habit trackers. Because I found that the year before, I was doing just basic graph trackers and it was getting hard
for me to keep up with it, 'cause I was getting a little bored. So I always experimented
with trackers like this. This one was fun because
the different lengths of the fireworks sparklers,
mean different moods. And it was this cycle or pattern. (gentle jazzy music) Wow, I think this might be my favorite weekly spread from this month. It's so simple and clean, but
I just like the way it looks. I might have to recreate
this one again next year, but obviously apply it
to a different theme. (gentle jazzy music) This year I really tried
to have a lot of fun with my Bullet Journal. I think the first year
that I Bullet Journaled, I was mostly trying to
get used to this system and all of the possibilities. Whereas this year, since I
already had the hang of it, I was able to do it a lot
more, and be more creative with it and put my own twist on things. Which I think you guys were
definitely able to tell, and also you guys enjoyed
doodling along with me as well. Really liked implementing
more drawing and letter, and this spread is a
perfect example of this. Basically I was going
to be in New York City for a week or so, and I
asked you guys on Instagram for suggestions of
things that I should do. And this spread was a compilation of a lot of the suggestions that I got. And I think it looks really cute. I also just enjoyed practicing
lettering and doodling. And I really liked how it turned out. So that just goes to
show you to not be afraid to experiment with new things
in your Bullet Journal. (gentle jazzy music) Okay, so February was the first month that I started using
individual habit trackers. And you'll see that I ended up really, really liking this format. And I actually think I did it for the rest of the year, after that. I really liked separating
it out by the actual habit, because then you're able to
see and focus on how you did, on that specific habit for that month. First it was something like this, where it's just a huge mumbo-jumbo. This is more organized, in my opinion. And it helped me to actually want to keep up with my trackers. So you'll definitely be
seeing a lot of these, throughout the rest of my Bullet Journal. And I'll probably end up
doing that again for 2019. (gentle jazzy music) These were fun for me to make, and you guys also liked them, whenever I would post them on Instagram. And I even sometimes would turn them into phone wallpapers for you. I think they're actually on
one of my Instagram Highlights, if you guys are looking
for a new phone wallpaper. (gentle jazzy music) Ooh March, this is a good month. Fun fact, I think this is
actually the most viewed "Plan With Me" video on
my channel, from 2018. So you guys must have
really liked the cactuses. (gentle jazzy music) All right, we've make it to April, which is the first month this year that I played around with collage and using pictures in my Bullet Journal. It definitely adds a little something to your Bullet Journal, especially when you're flipping through. Sometimes if you only use pens and markers to draw and stuff, it can
look a little two dimensional. So throwing in different
Washi Tapes or photos, or different paper
textures in your journal, can give it that quirky, scrapbook feel. (relaxing jazzy music) It would have been fun to
do the different lengths, meaning different moods, I actually don't know
why I didn't do that. You'll see these spreads a lot, throughout my Bullet Journals. This is where I sketch
out my plans for my videos or any thumbnails for my videos. It's almost like a
storyboard for my videos. Another thing that I wanted to mention. So something that didn't
work for me this year was my expense trackers
and budget trackers. I actually think April might
be one of the last months that I started implementing
any sort of budget or expense tracker,
and that's just because when I was writing down
every single expense, like in February's, it
just got a little tedious to write down every single
transaction that I made. So I tried to switch it over
into different categories, and kind of budgeting out
how much I should spend for each category, but
that also didn't work. It was hard for me to come
up with specific numbers. So I kinda gave up
halfway through the year, on some some sort of
budget or expense trackers. So if you guys have
any suggestions on ways that I can change up expense trackers, or budget trackers, I
would love to figure out something that would work
for me, for next year. (gentle jazzy music) More fun. Quote lettering the wallpaper pages. I know some of you guys have
seen a lot of these weekly spreads because I actually did
most of these weekly spreads on my Instagram live
streams, every single Sunday. Which was definitely a fun
thing for me to do this year. It was a new experience,
live streaming every week and having to draw something on spot, and there's no possibility
of editing something out. So sometimes I would mess up, but I would just have to improvise and find ways to fix things. And also encouraged me to
experiment with new things because I would get
suggestions from the chat in live stream, or
sometimes we would come up with ideas together for
quotes or different ideas for the spreads, so that is
definitely one of my highlights from this year, is doing the
weekly spreads on live stream. And I definitely am gonna
keep doing that next year. Whether that's on Instagram
live stream or Twitch, I don't know yet. (gentle jazzy music) Okay, so this is actually something that I wanted to talk about. I get so many comments from you guys asking me how I keep up with my trackers. And you guys always say you find it hard to keep up with all of them. And I just wanted to put it out there that I'm exactly the same way. Sometimes it's hard for me
to keep up with my trackers. As you can see, I gave up
halfway through the month. And that's just due to
maybe being too busy or maybe I'm not feeling
it, and that's totally okay. Don't force yourself to do something just because you wanna fill
up your Bullet Journal. Bullet Journaling is
supposed to be something that makes your life
easier or more productive or maybe just is something for you to do to relieve any stress, so if
a spread is not contributing to your life in any of those aspects, or not adding any positive value. Then maybe it's time for you to reconsider maybe the format of your spreads or whether you do them at
all, and that is totally okay. (gentle jazzy music) (laughs) You can even see
that this expense tracker is completely empty, so apparently I was really not feeling
the trackers for May. (gentle jazzy music) I must have been very stressed this month, because both of these quotes
have to do with stress relief. This one says "inhale
calmness, exhale stress", "live more, worry less", was
May 2018 Amanda, okay. (laughs) It's kinda worrisome. Ooh, okay, so this was the
very first Dutch door style spread that I did in my Bullet Journal. Again 2018 was the year of experimenting in my Bullet Journal. Basically the Dutch
door spread is where you cut the middle page so you have this flap. And it allows you to have
lot more planning space, which is why I love
doing spreads like this for when I have jam packed week. 'Cause I'm basically able
to have half a page per day, whereas with a normal spread, I would only be able to
have a quarter of a page. I have the days of the week here, and then my weekly events on the sidebar, and it's just a really
effective spread in my opinion. (gentle jazzy music) June was a fun month, because
the theme was traveling. And it really correlated
to my actual life, since I was traveling a lot this month. And I was able to implement fun spreads like this packing list over here. As well as this itinerary,
which is where I planned out my LA trip and stuff for VidCon. I also again, took
suggestions from you guys for places that I should
go, when I was in town. (gentle jazzy music) Another Dutch door, this
month was a pretty funky month if I remember correctly, yeah
like here I played around with the layouts and the bags are the actual days of the week. And they switch back and forth. It was my birthday month. Oh wow, it was also when I
moved into my new apartment. So June was definitely a big one for me. Yeah, there's my birthday
spread over here. Speaking of experimenting
with weekly spreads, this week is a good one to show you guys. Basically this was the week
that I was going to be in LA for VidCon, so I knew I wasn't gonna need a lot of individual day planning space. So what I did was have
a master to-do list. And then just a little
sidebar for weekly events. And that way, it was
only a half page spread. I can still outline
places that I have to go for each specific day, and then have my to-do list for that week. (gentle jazzy music) Oh yeah, and I did this
little scrapbook page. Just 'cause VidCon was such
an enjoyable trip for me, so I decided to commemorate the trip. Have my wristbands from
VidCon, different stickers. And this is so cute, so a
viewer actually came up to me and gave this to me, she wrote out my name in calligraphy, and look
how beautiful it is. And I loved meeting every
single one of you at VidCon, it was my favorite part of the trip. So that definitely just brings
back some good memories. Wow, this month was so
funky, look at this, wow. Love that. (gentle jazzy music) I think this might be one
of my favorite overall tracker spreads, it's so
bright and happy and fun. And I love that the mood
tracker is this big sunflower, where the colors differentiate
every single mood. This color palette was
one of my favorites. Another thing that I
liked, that I did in July was do monthly goals. So obviously I had my yearly goals page, at the beginning of the year. Let me see if I can find it for you guys. Yeah, here I had my
yearly goals that I set at the beginning of the year, but they were more broad and long term. And for July, I decided to
set more shorter term goals, very specific, and it's
definitely helpful for me to set more short term goals
at the beginning of the month. Because I feel like you're able
to just see the finish line a bit clearer and actually
take specific steps in order to achieve them. (gentle jazzy music) Ah, this page is falling out. That's kinda sad, think I
tried to glue it back in, but it just didn't work. (gentle jazzy music) So summery. Bring me doctor summer please. (gentle jazzy music) I think we might be nearing the end here. Oh yeah, so here is the spread that I did when I was planning on moving
into the next Bullet Journal, because as you can see, I was running out of
pages, so I just outlined what I wanted to keep and change and add. And I will be doing some
version of this spread again, just to plan out everything before I move into my 2019 journal. All right so I think we've
made it to the very end of this first book, the only thing left is this pen test page. Moving on into this second one. So all of these beginning spreads, you will have seen, if you watched my, "Moving Into My New Bullet Journal" video. I tried to keep the
style pretty consistent with the beginning of the other book, just because I'm perfectionist like that. I must have already
realized that I wasn't using my index very much,
because in the second book, I cut down the index to
only half of a spread. Ooh, and this grid spacing spread, is one of the handiest,
most useful spreads I could have ever come up with. I definitely referred back to this a lot when I was setting up my weekly spreads. Especially if I was
doing it on live stream. It's really helpful, because let's say, I want to split my page in half, instead of sitting there,
counting and dividing. I can see the line, like this
is the halfway mark line. And I can see that in order to do that, it's just 18 grid spaces. I also did the same thing
for splitting the page up into quarters, I did
it vertically as well. I should probably add
in splitting up the page into thirds, 'cause I do split
my page up into thirds a lot. (gentle jazzy music) (laughs) This is kind of embarrassing, I put a "Recipes To Make" spread,
but it's completely blank. Which clearly shows you
that I don't cook a lot. I have nothing else to say on that matter, but needless to say, this won't be making it into my next Bullet Journal. (gentle jazzy music) Ah, this is one of my favorite
mood trackers as well. Well, looking back on all
of these mood trackers that I've done, I think I can easily say that the mood tracker is always my favorite spread to look at. I love the little asteroid belt
thing that I have going on, and I also just like
the space, planet theme. You guys know I love anything
to do with constellations and stars and the galaxy, so
this was right up my alley. (gentle jazzy music) I wanted to point out
these circular spreads. I did find that they're not
my favorite spreads to do. First of all, it's hard
to get things very even, in terms of size of the actual day. And also, there's no way
for me to split things up into events and tasks, which
you guys know I love to do. And that's just because I
wanna be able to pinpoint any meetings or events or
places that I have to be. Because if it's all
mixed up into the tasks, I definitely probably
will forget about it. I still get questions all the time about why I split it up like that, and that is the reason why. And that's also why I don't
like these spreads as much, as cute as they look, it's
hard for me to split it up. I guess I could put a
little line somewhere. (gentle jazzy music) Okay, yay, we made it
to October and I think I take back every other
time that I said favorite in this video, because this really is one of my favorite themes. It's the magic, wizardry,
Harry Potter theme. Another reason why I liked
it, is because it coincided with my New York trip, where
I got to meet a bunch of cast from the new "Fantastic Beasts" movie. I also got to meet J. K. Rowling herself, so it was a very magic-filled month and it related to my Bullet Journal theme, so it was really fun playing around with all of the magic potions and these serif fonts were fun to do, as well as the parchment. And of course, the Harry
Potter font as well. And yes, in case you're wondering, I am a Slytherin. Slytherins represent. (gentle jazzy music) I know a lot of you guys loved when I was doing these
spreads on live stream, because I have a lot of Potter-head fans out there apparently, so little
winks to the Harry Potter franchise, like these footsteps
for the Marauder's Map. It was definitely a fun time. (gentle jazzy music) So we are almost done for
things through the year, we're at November, which is
one of the more recent ones. (gentle jazzy music) More doodle ideas. This one was my Halloween
doodle ideas video. (gentle jazzy music) So there's actually a funny
story behind this weekly spread. I was in Quebec City during this week, so I wasn't able to do a live stream and I also didn't really have much time to sit down and make a weekly spread. But I had so many things
jumbled up in my mind that I knew I had to do a weekly spread. So I worked out this spread and I think this literally took me
less than 10 minutes. Which, looking back on it now,
I'm kinda proud of myself. But I definitely wanna do a video, where I come up with
10 minute spread ideas, or just quick Bullet
Journaling spread ideas that you guys can implement. Because it helps when you
have layouts in your mind that you can pick out from your Rolodex and just put on the page, especially when you're in a rush. (gentle jazzy music) All right, we've made it to the
most recent month, December. The festive, Christmas ornament month. (gentle jazzy music) This month has been a little hectic, as you guys probably know by now. I've been posting a lot of Christmas, AmandaClaus videos, so I had to plan out a bunch of those videos. So you'll see that I have a lot of these brain dump pages this month. All of my Christmas countdown pages, which is making me so
excited for Christmas. These are from my holiday Bullet
Journal spread ideas video. Depending on when this comes out, I might have to blur it out,
because I don't wanna spoil any gifts that I'm giving
to my family. (chuckles) (gentle jazzy music) And I think we're almost at the end here. Yes, this is the end,
this is the final week. There is one more week of
December that I have to do, but obviously, since I wanted
to post this a bit earlier, we haven't done it yet. But yeah, there you go,
that was every single spread I made in my Bullet Journals for 2018. I hope you guys enjoyed
flipping through it with me. I almost feel a little
bit exposed right now, because you guys have
basically taken a peek into my entire life this year. These journals literally outline
my entire 2018 existence. It was very fun to Bullet
Journal this year, I enjoyed it. And thank you guys for
doodling alongside with me. So hope you guys enjoyed
looking back on the memories. I actually really enjoyed
it and I even got some ideas and inspiration for 2019, so I'm excited to get started on that and
share some more with you guys. Whoo, all right everyone, so that was it, those were all of my
Bullet Journal spreads from 2018, I hope you
enjoyed flipping through it, and being nostalgic and looking back on the year with me. I feel like this video was a
good way to wrap up the year in a little bow, and now I
can't wait for a fresh start in 2019, so again, stay tuned for my 2019 Bullet Journal set-up, I'll link it down below, once it's up. Other then that, as
usual, if you're craving some more Bullet Journal inspiration. You can go follow me, over on
my Instagram @amandarachlee, and click that bell button down below so you can be notified
whenever I post a new video. Next year I have a ton of
exciting things planned. I can't wait to share them with you guys. I know I said this already,
at the beginning of the video, but thank you so much for
supporting me this year and being interested
enough to see what I doodle in this little book right here. You guys are seriously the best ever. Don't get emotional Amanda,
not at the end of the video. You made it this far. As usual, keep doodling,
and I will talk to you in my next video, bye everyone. (gentle jazzy music)
