52 Ideas for Your Own Mini “Bucket List” Calendar–Make it Your Best Year Yet!

We are busy. I am stating the obvious. There are a lot of things that we all want to do and a lot of things that we have to do. Saying that, it is still extremely important to take care of ourselves—physically, emotionally, socially.

I saw an advertisement for a “Bucket List” calendar. That was my inspiration for this post. Although we have so many obligations, we should take some time out for other activities to make life more enjoyable and meaningful.

Here is a list of assorted ideas to add to your calendar throughout the year. The ideas are not intended to require a lot of time or money, but they should help you add some variety and new experiences to your life in a relatively easy way. This is not at all going to replace any big lifetime goals or big bucket list ideas which you may have and are much more personal. These ideas are just to help add a bit of extra variety to day to day life in what I hope is a doable manner. You can find plenty of other lists or “challenges” on-line to help you reach other personal goals such as decluttering or building muscle strength.

I recommend that you pick a few (or more than a few) different activities to add to your calendar each month. Spread them out. Feel free to repeat or tweak any as you like. This is for you. Some activities are better at certain times of year than others, but you decide. These are simple things that may not just pop into your head when you want to get out of the day-to-day rut. (My goal is to save you a bit of brain energy required to come up with ideas so that you can save the brain energy for trying different ideas.)

In no particular order, here are ideas you can use to create you own mini “bucket list/fun little things to do” calendar. You may do these on your own and/or with others. There are really no rules, just ideas. (Pardon some of the weird spacing between ideas. Not sure why I can’t currently fix it. Another new year challenge, I suppose, is to better understand this editing system!)

1. Attend a local high school performance (band, orchestra, choir, play, musical). You do not have to actually know anyone at the school. You will be amazing by the number of talented teens! Try this each semester.
2. Attend a local high school sporting event. (Same idea as above.)
3. Play a new game. (Board game, card game). Perhaps make a game trade with a friend or make plans with friends to each teach each other a new game. ((My family recently introduced some friends to Monopoly Deal (card game). I highly recommend that game : ).)
4. Plan a foreign country theme night–pick a country or region and then prepare/buy a meal connected to that area, listen to music of the country/region, and then watch a movie either from that country, taking place in the country, or a travel program about that area. (Your local library is a great resource for this activity.)

5. Do the same activity as listed above but by choosing a specific state or city as the inspiration. You can take it in a different direction and have the theme be a decade. For example, put together a popular meal from the 50’s with music and movies from that time period. If you want to be a bit more academic, find a documentary about an event which occurred during that decade.
6. Visit a small local museum. This may be a local historical society or a small museum that is focused on a single item.
7. Plan a tasting night with friends. (Wine, beer, coffee, tea, liquor). Perhaps each person can contribute something for the tasting (or provide the snacks).
8. Attend a local concert to listen to a band or performer you have never heard before. You may find this as part of a summer concert series or perhaps you can enjoy the talents of a solo performer at a local bar.

9. Watch a sunrise.

10. Watch a sunset.

11. Pick up something from a local farmers’ market. Find a new recipe based on that food item.

12. Plan a flower arranging get-together. Pick up bouquets of flowers from the local grocery store—one bunch par person. Have everyone bring a vase or some other container for their final bouquet. (This can be a good way to use the empty spaghetti sauce jar or empty Starbucks frappucino bottle that you still have on hand.) Put all of the flowers out on a table and then let everyone create. I am sure that there are videos available about flower arranging, but you can just “go with the flow” if you prefer.
13. Listen to a podcast you have not heard in the past. Ask for suggestions. I personally recommend “Stuff You Should Know” and “This American Life.”
14. Attend a program at your local library. If you don’t get mailers from the library, you can find schedules on the library website. You will likely find a wide variety of options.

15. Go to a farm where you can “pick your own”–this may be apples, pumpkins, berries, flowers. See what may be close to you.

16. Create a “dinner bar” for dinner one night with family or friends. Set out the main parts, and let everyone assemble their own meal. This idea can work for foods such as pizza, tacos, potatoes, pasta, etc. (It looks fancy, but you probably don’t have to do as much work in the end.) If doing this with a larger group, let everyone bring ingredients to add to the table, and you provide the base (ie pizza crust, baked potatoes, etc)

17. Read a short story.

18. Go to a coffee shop which is new to you. Order something you have never ordered before.

19. Spend time at a local nature center.. Take a walk. Attend a program. Sit and listen to the sounds of the outdoors.

20. Volunteer

21. Pick up something for dinner at your grocery store from the international aisle. Try something new. Something frozen, from a box, or from a jar is perfectly acceptable.

22. Take 20 minutes to sit with a beverage of your choice, listen to instrumental music, look at the outdoors, and relax. If the weather is cold or nasty, sit by a window. If the weather is nice, find a place to sit outdoors.

23. Play a New York Times word game.

24. Take a walk WITHOUT wearing any sort of headset. Just enjoy the walk and your surroundings. (Feel free to bundle up and do this on a colder day. You do not have to wait for “nice” weather.) Granted, if you only want to walk listening to something, I won’t stop you. Walking is always great!

25. Make your own fancy coffee or tea drink. Be your own barista. This may be as basic as adding a different type of milk and some cinnamon and cocoa powder to your drink.

26. Make something in the snow—snowman, snowballs, snow angels. Just go out and play, even if just for a short period. Go ahead and also play in the leaves when that is an option.

27. Look at the sky (day and night). Watch the clouds. Look at the stars.

28. Perform a random act of kindness.

29. When you go grocery shopping, pick up a fruit or vegetable that you have never purchased (until now) and figure out how to eat/prepare it. When doing so, I suggest that you at least pay attention to the sign to identify the item so that you know what to look up if you are not familiar with it. (I did this in the past with rambutans and dragon fruit.)

30. Go to the library and flip through a magazine. Pick one just for fun!

31. Build a house of cards. Or legos. Or blocks.

32. Going out for dinner? Dress up!

33. Color. Draw. Doodle. Go outside and enjoy using sidewalk chalk.

34. Paint something. Anything. Paint paper or an object . Finger painting is fair game here.

35. Learn a few phrases in a foreign language. Perhaps you can practice these phrases when you have your international theme night! (See number 4) If a friend or family member speaks a different language, perhaps ask that person to teach you .

36. Give yourself a foot massage. It may sound weird, but it is worth it. We put our feet through a lot! Take care of them.

37. Do you see a lemonade stand? If so, give them some of your business (while quenching your thirst).

38. Go to the park. Do whatever you want there—play on the swings, get in a good workout, people watch, just get some fresh air. Your choice.

39. Treat your skin with a face mask. You can buy or make this. If you think about what we expose our faces to throughout the day, you will realize that we really should take care of it.

40. Call someone to chat. That is actually a good use of your phone. If you do not have a lot of time, it is fine to start with, “I just have a few minutes, but I thought I would call to say, “Hi” and see how you are doing.” Then you can decide if/when you want to plan for a longer conversation.

41. Make a recipe found on the back of a box.

42. Look up which silly holidays are this week (National ___ Day) , and plan to celebrate at least one of them.

43. Donate blood This may not be “fun” per se, but it can literally save a life.

44. Any local community events taking place? Check one out.

45. Learn a fun way to fold napkins. (Later you can impress your friends and family when you set a table.)
46. The Winter Olympics are coming. Use this as an opportunity to learn about something related to the games—perhaps learn about the history of the Olympics, learn about one of the sports, learn about the geography of the regions or the homelands of the athletes.

47. Have someone make you breakfast in bed. Plan to return the favor.

48. Take yourself on a photo scavenger hunt. Perhaps make a list of random objects to try to capture with a camera. Perhaps take photos of as many different leaves/trees/flowers that you see. Take “artistic” shots of normal everyday objects.

49. When was the last time you did origami? Do it again! Learn a fun way to fold a dollar bill.

50. Play some old fashioned paper and pencil games. Remember hangman, dots and boxes, and the game where you have to make as many words as possible from the letters of a long word? Word search puzzles or Sudoku are other fun options. I was personally a fan of logic puzzle books when I was a kid. I presume that those puzzle books still exist, too.

51. Meditate. Feel free to use an app or on-line program if you find that helpful.

52. Learn a new dance or dance move. Do you know any of the classic dance moves of the ’60s or any of the recent Tik Tok dances? If not, let’s change that!

Hopefully you will find that some (hopefully A LOT) of these ideas can enhance your life in several ways. Use this as just a starting point. All of these suggestions are meant to be easy to do, inexpensive, and require little if any advanced planning. Perhaps incorporating some of these activities into your life will inspire you and give you the momentum to tackle bigger projects and work toward other goals.

Please share your ideas. Together we can help make each other’s lives better!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2026!