Summer is officially here! Well, if you live in the southern hemisphere it is. Of course, as an Australian the first part of summer kicked in at the end of September but now that it’s December, we can finally claim it.

While it’s been a bit of a rainy start to the season, I’m hoping that we’ll get some better weather soon, because I have lots planned, which brings us to the topic of this blog post!

A few months ago I saw some quick videos of people creating their own Summer vacation lists with all the things they wanted to do, kind of like you would do as a kid. The idea was to bring back a bit of the old magic, and I loved the idea. Lists are one of my favourite ways to stay organised and pretend that I’m being productive, so I thought I would get started on mine right away.

This is a super simple task, and your list can be as big or small as you want it to be, but I guarantee that it is fun for all ages!

My list was made with a scrap piece of paper and three different coloured markers that I could use to make it look a little more exciting. You could do this for yourself or round up a couple of friends and sort it out over a couple of drinks!

So, what to include?

I found it was helpful to think of these tasks using the following criteria.

1. Who is involved? Just me or others too?
2. Where will it occur?
3. How much will it cost?
4. How long will it take?

These shouldn’t limit your ideas too much, they are just here to give you a better idea of what it will take to complete them.

For instance, here’s a snippet of some of the things I’m hoping to do:

• paint my room
• get my first three surfing lessons
• learn chess
• finish the draft of my next book
• watch ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
• survive gym PT course

Super random combination, but these are a couple of things I’ve been wanting to do for a while. There are some things like watching Buffy or painting my room which I can easily do alone, and which don’t cost much.

Getting surfing lessons is something that I thought might be fun for my birthday, especially because Aussie’s tend to be pretty beach crazy and I fear I have missed the gene. I’m going to go with my sister, so that will help reduce some costs if we go together, but it will still require a little bit of planning to organise a trip for it. Similarly, chess is something I’ve been interested in for a while but never truly mastered, so I thought I’d spend some more time on it with my mother who was also curious.

Finishing the draft of my book will obviously take time, but it’s not something that I need other people for. Lastly, surviving my gym personal training course will hopefully help me to see some improvements in my body and fitness going forward!

This isn’t everything on the list, but I hope its a good start to get you thinking about some things that you might like to do over your summer (or Christmas!) holidays. I’ve got a few other shows on the list that I want to watch, as well as some of the big books I’ve been trying to get through for months (Middlemarch is a brick!).

For an idea that only takes a few minutes to make, it can be a fun project, because if you’re anything like me you will be super keen to tick everything off. Of course, the list is not set in stone. If for any reason you decide that something isn’t worth your time anymore, or you no longer want to do it, then you can cross it off and move onto the other stuff. The good thing is you can always add more if you find other goals to achieve too.

Ultimately, it’s a fun way to get you more excited about your holidays and all the things you’d like to do. I’ve written my list and it’s currently sitting on the whiteboard in my room, ready to be ticked off as we go! Maybe I’ll recap it in February when I’m back at university to see how much I managed to accomplish.

Until next time, Chris 🙂