Make bite-sized bucket lists

Sometimes thinking smaller makes big things possible

Last summer, thanks to my podcast co-host Sarah’s nudging, I read Jodi Wellman’s book You Only Die Once. This book is largely about how to enjoy life more, given that it is ultimately limited.

Sometimes, when people get their heads around the idea of finitude, they decide to make grand bucket lists. Wellman is fine with that. She hopes you do take that trip to New Zealand.

The problem is that, in many cases, grand bucket list items won’t happen immediately. You need to save up the money. Or you’re out of PTO, and for all this talk of finitude, the actuarial odds say you won’t die until 20+ years into retirement. So it might not be wise to quit your job just yet.

But that doesn’t let us off the hook for enjoying life now, and making this week, or this month, as fun as it could be.

Hence the “bite-sized bucket list.” Wellman suggests creating lots of little bucket lists with titles like “Things we’ll do in the best July ever.” This suggests some obvious and more accessible ideas, like catching fireflies, or going peach-picking, or tubing down a river, or lighting sparklers. There are lots of other iterations of this concept, like “things we’ll do on the best St. Patrick’s Day ever” or “the top 5 adventures we’ll have before the vernal equinox” or even “6 ways this cross-country flight I’m taking next week is going to be the best long flight I’ve ever taken.”

While bucket lists often involve personal goals, there’s no reason a mini bucket list couldn’t encompass the professional as well. Think “10 ways I’ll make this the best career year of my life,” which might include making one presentation per quarter or initiating 12 mentoring sessions or actually starting that brown bag lunch series you keep talking about.

Again, Wellman writes that ‘If you are also inspired by the good old fashioned Big Bucket List, I am not here to stop you from drafting that size-large list of things to squeeze in before you die.” But even that big list might be most practically experienced through smaller lists. For instance, if you decide you are going to visit the Grand Canyon, you could then make a list of all the ways you’re going to make that an amazing trip, which might include little things like reading a novel at night while you’re there, doing a certain hike your neighbor told you about, or buying a really snazzy t-shirt.

I think this is a fun idea. Longtime readers know I love making seasonal fun lists. What little adventures will make spring feel like spring? In life, the more lists we make, the better. Sometimes in a busy life it’s hard to figure out what we’ll do with our discretionary time, or even what we’d like to spend time on in general. It’s easy to be reactive. But time is, ultimately, limited. I believe we have a lot of time but we don’t have an infinite amount of time. So, if we’re looking to enjoy what time we have on the planet, it’s best to be a little intentional about it.

Bite-sized bucket lists can help make that happen. You could even make a list like “all the ways I’m going to crush this Monday.” I’m willing to bet that if you do make a Monday bucket list, you’ll have a better Monday than you would have otherwise.