Ah, summer. Classes are over, the weather is warming up, and the world seems bigger and brighter than usual. But summer will be over before you know it.
I don’t mean to be a party pooper, but it’s true. Those summer days turn into weeks and then months. Soon enough, it will be time for another semester of school.
Whether you are working, interning, taking extra classes, studying abroad or spending the next few months of your year blissfully free of responsibility (lucky you!), it’s all too easy to waste your precious free time by watching Netflix, napping, scrolling through Instagram… you get the point. We’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another.
It’s important to make the most of your summer. But how do you do that?
Last summer, I made a bucket list. I know, I know — people think bucket lists are kind of corny, like something a person going through a mid-life crisis would make. But they can actually be a lot of fun (and don’t need to include your goals for the rest of your life, which is what we typically imagine when we think of bucket lists).
Make a bucket list for just this summer. I promise it’ll be worth it.
The first step is to brainstorm how to spend your time. If you need some inspiration, here are some ideas I came up with:
- Books to read
- Movies and/or TV shows to watch
- Family and friends to spend time with (especially if you haven’t seen them in forever)
- Restaurants, shops, parks, et cetera to visit
- Places or events to volunteer at
- Things to learn (perhaps a free online class on a subject you love and want to know more about)
- Recipes to try
- Crafts to make
- Hikes to go on
- Things to write (maybe Her Campus articles?!)
- Games or sports to play
- Staycations to take
If you need still more help, I recommend exploring Pinterest for help. A simple Google search of terms such as “bucket list,” “summer bucket list” or “college student bucket list” also works!
The second step is totally optional but takes this project to the next level: Decide how to organize your bucket list! I didn’t do this last summer — I just made a massive list of everything I wanted to do — but this time I organized my list into four different categories with five activities each.
With “to read,” “to watch,” “study abroad” and “miscellaneous,” I’m making sure that I manage my time wisely by splitting it between several types of activities I enjoy. As I said before, it’s not absolutely necessary to do this, but it does help to avoid spending all your time doing just one thing when there are many other things you would equally enjoy.
For example, despite spending all semester lamenting how few books I’ve read for fun, I’m very likely to spend my time writing instead because I get distracted. Basically, this helps you to not forget all the other cool things you want to do as well.
(Like Netflix, for instance. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to watch lots of stuff in the summer… my bucket list includes five movies! The idea is to not get completely sidetracked by binge-watching or binge-reading or binge-anything. Moderation, people. It’s so great.)
Here are some possible categories to use on your list:
- Who you want to do things with (family, friends, significant other, just you)
- Places you’ll be (Iowa City, your hometown, wherever you may be vacationing, et cetera)
- Months of the year (June, July, August… duh)
Another idea I had (and hope to try next summer) is to categorize your activities not by type, but by who you want to do them with: Friends, family, significant other, just by yourself and so on.
The next step is to get your hands on a REALLY BIG piece of paper. (I used paper from a roll my family picked up for free from our local newspaper’s office and have used for tons of different craft projects over the years.)
Once you have your paper, write your bucket list on it! I like to use colorful markers and even (semi-successfully) experimented with a banner illustration for the title.
Don’t worry about making it look perfect. As you can see, my writing slants uphill and to the right… and don’t even get me started on how I spaced the letters in the title so that it reads “bucke tlist” instead of “bucket list.” That’s totally OK! That’s what makes it my bucket list, because if it looked flawless my family would probably wonder what kind of demon with perfect handwriting had taken over my body.
The more technologically-inclined Her Campus readers might be tempted to create their bucket list on their computer, tablet or phone, but I so don’t recommend that. I mean, I can’t tell you how to live your life, obviously. It’s just that I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work at all.
I’ve been making summer bucket lists since about 2011 or 2012, but last summer was the first time I wrote my goals on a piece of paper. Up until then, I had always typed my goals into a Word document or blog post. The problem? I’d forget all about it because I didn’t see my list of goals each and every day. If you use a really big piece of paper, you can tack it up on your wall, where you’ll be constantly reminded of your plans. (Plus, you can get super artsy and creative with markers and colored pencils and stuff!)
The final step is to get out there and do the things you wrote on your bucket list. If the end of the summer rolls around and you still haven’t completed everything, that’s OK: Just keep that in mind for next year, and maybe make fewer goals the next time around?
If you’re feeling exceptionally crafty, you could even turn your bucket list into a collage at the end of the summer by attaching photos, ticket stubs, pressed flowers and all sorts of other things you’ve collected over the past few months as a way to remember all the fun you had.
I’m so glad I made a bucket list last year because it was the single biggest factor in making my summer awesome and productive. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this summer has in store for me!
Where will your summer bucket list take you?