Explore digital vision board tips and ideas to help set you up for success and bring your goals to life.
I know, the official start of the new year has technically passed. But there is still time to make goals for the next 365 days! In fact, there is never a bad time to feel motivated, set resolutions, and make a vision board. Whether you’re reading this in December preparing for the new year, or you’re feeling inspired in August, create that board!
For this post, we’re talking digital vision boards – at least for the creation process. While I do love a hands-on, physical copy of something, I appreciate the forgiveness of the digital space, as well as the extensive capabilities it offers.
That being said, here are 6 tips and ideas to help you create not only a visually appealing digital vision board, but one that is actually meaningful and thoughtful.
6 DIGITAL VISION BOARD TIPS & IDEAS
1. REFLECT, EVALUATE, PERSIST
First thing’s first: reflect on your past year(s) to better understand what you’ve been through, where you’re at, and where you want to go in the next phase of your life. To do this, you may consider breaking your life up into categories to help yourself better organize your thoughts. For instance, think about career, health, social, finances – whatever categories make sense for you. Then, within each area, you can ask yourself questions and reflect on your life.
After doing a deep dive there, you can then evaluate what you’re content with, what you are working on, and ultimately, what you want to achieve. In other words, you can determine and create your goals and vision for what’s next.
Then, persist! Work towards your goals, embrace your journey, and grow! On a similar note, you may want to create separate boards for different areas of your life that are a bit more focused.
RELATED: 70 Reflection Questions to Ask Yourself Before the New Year
2. FORM YOUR BOARD AROUND A MISSION OR WORD
To make your digital vision board feel more focused, you might consider using a mission statement or word to create your board around. Perhaps there’s a certain attitude, perspective, set of values, or objective you’re entering the year with. Come up with a mission statement or word to bring this together, that you can then live by throughout the year. Doing this will help you to form a comprehensive and overarching frame of mind based on your hopes, goals, and values for this next phase of your life. Then, with this mission or word, you can find pictures, quotes, icons, etc. to bring it to life. Feel free to make one for the whole year, or also make various boards with different missions/words for the different aspects of your life, such as career and relationships.
RELATED: 9 Ways to Prepare for the New Year: How to Make it Your Best Year Yet
3. FIND AN EASY-TO-USE PLATFORM TO CREATE
There are SO many ways you can create a digital vision board – the way you do it is honestly based on preference! But the nice thing about going digital is that you have a wide array of resources at the tip of your fingers, and they’re often free! One easy way you can go is to use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and simply drag pictures in. PowerPoint particularly has a lot of features you can use to “spice” up your vision board. If you have Pages, I’ve also found that this platform allows you to easily work with photos and text.
But aside from these options, you can use Canva, which is extremely straight forward, has stock photos and graphics you can use, and you can easily add text and even drawings. Pinterest also now has a collage feature where you can select photos from the platform, it automatically smart-cuts pictures for you, and you can easily edit and adjust photos, as well as add text. If you have a tablet, note-taking apps like Goodnotes and Notability also allow you to upload and cut pictures to create collages.
4. BE CREATIVE WITH YOUR CONTENT
Yes, pictures and text are a given. But be creative, take advantage of the digital world, and add everything and anything that is relevant and inspires you! For instance, you can add lyrics to a song, personal photos, your own artwork (in digital form), quotes, the coordinates to a certain place, or even a QR code to a song or website. This board is for YOU, so no one else has to understand it.
And of course, don’t be afraid to embellish with whatever you feel makes it aesthetically pleasing, captures the mood, and sets the vibe for your vision. Really envision what you want your life to look like – consider everything from your actions and circumstances, to tastes, smells, and sounds. I know it sounds silly, but this is you really dialing down on your vision and mission, and there are many ways you can represent these ideas on a (digital) board.
5. MAKE DIFFERENT FORMATS OF YOUR BOARD
To help ensure your board actually has an impact and meaningful purpose throughout the year, you may want to have visual access to it in various places, like your office, laptop, or phone. Since you’re creating a digital vision board, it’s easier to create different versions of it so you can make your board accessible in different places. For instance, you can make a version for your phone home screen, your laptop desktop, and your tablet screen, as well as a printout for your room or office space. Going this extra step will allow you to have a constant reminder of your goals, mission, and vision wherever you may be.
6. REVIEW AND UPDATE!
One of the most important tips on this list is to review and update your board! And luckily this step is fairly easy since you’re working on it digitally. You’ll have your overarching goals and a general vision set for the year. However, a lot can happen in 365 days! Things change, circumstances change, YOU change. Perhaps you end up hitting some of your goals much sooner than anticipated or an unexpected challenge or piece of luck arises – you may want to update your goals and mission to be more relevant as your year goes on. Thus, you may see changes in your board as well. Or, maybe you come across a picture, quotes, or a word that really resonates with you and your visions – pop it in there!
START CREATING!
There is no “right” way to make a vision board. Ultimately, find what works best and consider utilizing these tips and ideas to make your board the most meaningful, effective, and appealing for you. At its core, a vision board is a space and tool to compile your thoughts, brainstorm goals, create intentionally, and prepare for the next phase in your life. So don’t stress! Plus, the beauty of a digital vision board is you can easily edit and update.
