how to plan your year

a comprehensive guide to vision boarding

Some light housekeeping first: Submit to 2025 Yearbook Club! It was so fun making this for 2024 I am dying to see what you all have been up to this year. Okay now:

my 2026 dream board!

I am a firm believer in intentions over resolutions. It’s kind of why I started this whole newsletter in the first place. The New Year can feel hopeful, a billowing blank page of possibility, but it can also feel like a reminder of everything we haven’t been able to accomplish. When we do this January becomes this narrow passageway where we have to mold ourselves to exact shapes in order to pass through. I find that when I tell myself I must do something it makes me not want to do it at all, but if I suggest a feeling, if I move towards a destination rather than propel myself at it, I’m much more likely to follow through. Resolutions are restrictive whereas intentions are abundant. I want to add to my life, not take away from it.

Since creating a year in 12 acts I’ve really perfected my formula for vision boarding. I start with the feeling instead of the action, and make sure to leave lots of room for enjoyment over improvement. The internet will tell you that 2026 is time to rebrand, but I say it’s time for a realignment.

Grab your journal, your Pinterest board, and your cozy beverage of choice. Here’s how to plan your year!

Reflect on the past

As tempting as it is to skip from now to later, there’s a lot of musing to be done in the in between. As you start to think about where you want your 2026 to go, it’s important to ask where your 2025 has taken you. What have you discovered about yourself this year? What do you want to hold onto? What do you want to get rid of? As you dive into these journaling prompts try to focus on the positive side. Anything that didn’t come to fruition is just a seed that still needs time to grow.

Open your journal to a blank page and free write a statement on the past year. Don’t think too much going into it, just see what comes to mind. Write until you have nothing else to say and read it back. Are there certain themes you can identify? Wins you forgot to celebrate?

Now that your reflecting brain is warmed up you can do a few of these 2025 reflection prompts.

Journaling Prompts:

1. My year in three words

2. Something that challenged me this year

3. Someone that changed things

4. Four hobbies that made me happy

5. My favorite place I went to

6. I’m grateful to have…

7. I worked hardest at…

8. If me five years ago could see this year they would think…

9. One way I’ve grown

10. Something to bring to 2026

Collect your feelings

Once you’ve done your journaling it’s time for some visualization. Pinterest is my main destination for this kind of thing, but diversifying your sources is key. When you go for inspiration try to find things from the digital world as well as the physical one. A great way to do this is with a collage night, one where you can pour over old magazines with friends and hunt for the perfect phrases. I also recommend taking a turn around the art/photography section of your local bookstore. Search for anything that lights your brain up and treat yourself to it. Old typography books, crafty workbooks, and collections from your favorite impressionist painters are all in play.

Physical Media Suggestions: Old magazines like vintage National Geographic (that link takes you to some vintage editions on Etsy, and you can also shop general magazine ephemera there too!) Inspiration books like Nature Into Art, A Life in Pattern. Crafting books like A Year of Junk Journaling by Martina Calvi, Clay Your Way by Lolita Olympia. Art books like Menu Design in America, Gustav Klimt. The Complete Paintings.

Tackling Pinterest: I’ve always said Pinterest is a vibe machine. It’s very good at taking even the vaguest of ideas and turning it into exactly what you were looking for. When I create my vision boards I like to have a healthy combo of images that I wish I photographed and quotes to live by. Once you pin a few things (tip: search a general phrase and then the word ‘aesthetic’ to get…well aesthetic content) your suggestions should be pretty well calibrated to what you’re looking for. I keep it all in one big board, but you can also add sub-sections to your Pinterest board if you want to create vibes within vibes (i.e. wellness, career, romance, etc).

words on my 2026 dream board

images on my 2026 dream board

Once you’ve adequately filled your board it’s time to start looking for patterns. What’s the link between the images, even the ones you included just because they looked pretty? The feeling I’m chasing is always one of contentment and creativity. I visualize this through open spaces and piles of papers, warm and cozy dinner parties and friends dancing in the grass. The interiors I pin are usually aligned with where I would live in some dream world, and the objects are what I would be doing.

This year there’s more of a focus on writing than ever. I’m working on a book and want to make sure I focus all my efforts on that. I’m also (even more) interested in physical media as of late, and I’d love to spend more time slowing myself down with newspapers, magazines, books, and more.

What are your headlines of the 2026? How would you soundtrack if it were a movie? Get playful and give yourself space to dream.

Curate your vision

Now that everything is organized it’s time to put it somewhere you’ll remember it. If you made a physical vision board you can display it in your room, or even keep it somewhere more secret like taped to the inside of your closet. My sister keeps hers magnetized to her fridge. Anywhere you’re likely to come across it in daily life is a great way to stay inspired. Post it inside your medicine cabinet, tuck it into your bookshelf, just make sure it’s within reach.

With a digital moodboard you can play with size and ratio. When I first started creating my intentions lists I would add a tiny monthly moodboard to my notes app with a to-do-list below. You can also make it wallpaper for your phone, or laptop background, or even take it to somewhere like Notion and paste it alongside a habit tracker if you’re very organized.

I like using apps like Canva, Adobe Express, and Bazaart for digital collaging. For more info on how to collage check out this longer post here.

Optional: Break it down further

So you’ve got one biiig moodboard but what if you had a bunch of mini moodboards? You’ve done the reflecting, the visualizing, the identifying, now you can sift through all of it and create mini springboards to jump off of through the year.

one of my themes for the year

My greatest wish is to be more offline. I work in social media for my day job, I create on social media for fun, and I’m addicted to my little rectangle so when I log off it needs to be very intentional. Recently I’ve been playing around with Brick and it’s been so helpful to set different times when I want to be offline. My main setting is ‘wind down’ which I have turned on for morning and evening so even if my days are full of social media my mornings and evenings are not.

If you’re keen you can create 3-4 of these little mini moodboards to visualize even more specifically. When you manifest you’re supposed to be as specific as possible, so it only stands to reason that vision boarding follows the same rule.

Break it down even further than that?

You can follow keepsake’s monthly intentions where I post themes and prompts on the first of every month :)

Have fun planning your year, and let me know some of your themes in the comments below!

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xo, Julianna