How to Plan the Perfect Summer
Hello friends!
It’s officially summer and that means my little organisational brain went into overdrive and I planned out exactly what I want to do and accomplish by the end of the summer! Now that the sun is out, I can come out of my winter hibernation and actually get some shit DONE - and I thought I’d share my bucket book, some of the fun things on my list, and how I intend to make this the best summer ever.
Step One: Make a Bucket List
The very, very, very first step I took before even writing everything down was finding a notebook that I deemed “perfect” enough to become a scrapbook filled with all my summer adventures. I decided that since my bullet journalling days were mostly done with gridded paper, this would be a nice opportunity to dive into the world of dots. To any non-bullet journallers out there, I am aware this sounds ridiculous, but now that I’ve started on the dots front, I see why it’s such a popular choice. The other benefit of doing this in a pseudo-bullet journal style is that I got to play around with making logs for things like books I’ll read and games I’ll play. For anyone else into remembering things like this, this is a fun and creative way to keep all your memories in the same place, anyway, I digress! After playing around with title designs (I guess the artist in me never left), I finally started writing down all the things I wanted to do before the summer is over. My list has everything from tried and true summer things I’ve done before like, “tie dyeing” and “jet skiing” to brand new never been done before things like “visit a new city” and “have a proper high tea”. After adding some final touches with adorable (read: tacky) stickers, I present to you: the bucket book!
Step Two: Research and Plan
Now that my list is all beautifully written up, it's time to actually plan out when these things are going to happen. Since I am bound by the shackles of being a grown up and having to plan things around work, a lot of the activities I want to do are going to have to be done on a weekend, or after work in the evenings. The other spanner in the works is that George, my chief activity-doing partner, gets pretty tired commuting so I gotta make sure my plans fit around his schedule and energy levels too. There would be no point planning an escape room on a Thursday after work when he’s been problem solving all day and would rather just cuddle up and watch Netflix.
So my “research” now comes in the form of “when can we actually do this”, “do I need to book it? And how much is it if I do?”, and “do I need to go out and buy something that I don’t already have?” It also comes in the form of googling all the places I want to go and seeing if I can nab some sweet deals by booking online, in advance, or just because I got lucky that day. My biggest asset at the moment has been subscribing to Time Out’s newsletter for the city I live in and perusing their daily deals in case there is anything that fits my list or even something that sounds neat that I didn’t originally think of! Since it’s July and technically the summer starts in June, I’ve already started doing a couple of things and checking them off my list. I’ve also found some amazing deals and haven’t had to break the bank having a good time.
Step Three: Put it in Your Calendar
The research is now done and I’ve got all my sweet deals, it’s now time to find some friends or family and make the plan official by booking that escape room, buying those flights, and getting things into the calendar. I know it sounds super silly to even have this as a step, but the amount of times I’ve said “oh yeah, let’s do that” or “I’d love to do that” and then never do is regrettable; and I don’t want to miss out on something because I didn’t think to just book it and go. For me, having stuff in my calendar gives it a stronger sense of “we’re going to do this” and I very rarely cancel out on plans that have been added to my iCal.
Step Four: Do Stuff
Now that it’s all research, planned, and in the calendar, there’s nothing left to do but go out and enjoy yourself! There’s nothing else to say for this part, but here’s a cute pic of a spontaneous date night George and I had last Friday and a couple of printed pictures from other adventures!
Bonus Step Five: Physical Memories
This little bonus step is for you fellow sentimental folk out there who want to document their summer in the best way they can. For me, that means each item on my bucket list gets its own page in the bucket-list book (the bucket book!), for photos of the day, ticket stubs, thoughts, and anything else I want to add. For me, this is the easiest way to keep a scrapbook and journal of all the things I’m doing over the summer while I’m doing them, so I’m not left with a huge amount to scrapbook over one weekend once it’s all over. It also feels great to do something and write down my thoughts and stick in the photos as soon as I can because when I look back on it, I can really relive that day!
Let me know if you have any super exciting summer plans and what’s on your summer bucket list. Otherwise, that’s all for today!
Until next time,