How to Use Your Journal to Create a Bucket List

Bucket lists are great because they give you a list of goals, adventures, and 
accomplishments you would like to achieve in your life, allowing you to visualize them 
and start crossing them off your list at your own pace. Bucket lists can be for shorter 
periods of time, like seasonally or monthly, or they can be of things you want to try in 
your lifetime.

Here are some ways you can use your journal to get started on your bucket list.


Get Ideas From Your Past Journal Entries 

Take a look at some of your recent journal entries, especially those related to dreams, 
goals, or aspirations. Do you notice trends where you keep bringing up one type of 
activity you have never done before? This is a good indication that you have found 
something to add to your bucket list. 

A lot of times, you don’t really know WHAT you want to do, even if you have some 
ideas. This is why it helps to start with a broad list of interests, focusing more on what 
you haven’t done before, or haven’t done in a while. Then you can start going down the 
list and thinking what really caught your eye.


Write a List of What You Have Never Done

Another way to use your journal for creating your bucket list is to spend some time 
making a list of everything you have never done. These items might not all make it to 
the official bucket list, but this is a good place to start. 

Most bucket lists consist of small and big things you have not experienced, for whatever 
reason. This might be a place you have always wanted to visit, never having been on a 
cruise or gone scuba diving, or maybe it’s just getting through a really long book you 
have had your eye on. Not everything has to be big and expensive, either. It can be 
hiking a local trail you are interested in or going to a movie alone if you have never done 
that before.


Make it Monthly, Seasonally, or Annually

Remember that you don’t have to just have one lifetime bucket list. You can also have 
certain things you want to do each season, in a year, or maybe even monthly.

If you are a little overwhelmed by the lifetime bucket list, start with a month. Choose a 
month with interesting activities or events, then make a list of what you want to try or go 
to that month. Then you can start adding to other bucket lists in your journal.






