Have Your Best Year Yet With These 2024 Bucket List Ideas

What Is a Bucket List?

What do you want to do with your life? What are your goals, dreams, and aspirations? A bucket list consolidates all of these objectives into one list—outlining all of the things you think are important to achieve, see, and do.

Everyone’s bucket list will be different. Do you want to see the world? Your bucket list might include seeing the pyramids and the Great Barrier Reef. Or perhaps you’re more of a homebody (and you like it that way!). Your bucket list might include writing a book or growing your food from seed. 

Not quite sure what you want to do? From journaling to taking up a new hobby, here’s a little inspiration for things to do in 2024 to help you get started…

Start a Journal

And commit to writing in it daily. One of the best ways to plan for the future is to reflect on your past experiences, so consider journaling your thoughts at the end of each day as part of your 2024 self-care routine. Whether it’s just one sentence a day or an essay, make that space in your day for a little reflection, and you’ll notice a difference.

Take a Road Trip

Pack a travel duffel, grab a road map, load in your friends, escape your hometown, and hit the road in search of adventure. If you don’t want to do a weekend trip or lack the funds for an extravagant cross-country voyage, you don’t have to go far to make new memories. Consider using your house as a base and take consecutive day trips to keep costs under control.

Volunteer

Pay it forward to people or pets who need a bit of extra support in your local area. The last couple of years have been tough for everyone, but some have been hit harder than others. Give your time when you can to help make a difference by volunteering for your favorite organizations.

Go to a Music Festival

A rite of passage for every student, going to a music or dance festival is a must. If you haven’t already experienced festival culture, add this to your 2024 bucket list ideas—and start planning your festival outfits now. And, don’t forget to add a waist pack to your packing list. They’re ideal for keeping valuables close at hand so you can dance without worry. 

Sign Up for International Work Experience

Whether you’re about to graduate or have a few more years of school ahead of you, making plans to gain some valuable work experience in a foreign country is a great way to boost your CV and stand out from the crowd when you apply for jobs. 

Set a Physical Challenge

Climb a mountain or paddle 100 kilometers. Taking on a grueling physical challenge can build your strength of character and boost your confidence, and renew your vigor for life. It will also help you to focus on your health and fitness in 2024 and beyond.

Go Camping

Missing your ride-or-dies? Renew your bond by camping under the stars together. Set up your tents in a scenic spot, build a campfire, and catch up over an endless supply of s’mores. After a night of conversation and laughs, you’ll feel closer than ever before. 

Become a Tourist in Your Own City

You don’t need a big budget to plan a trip in 2024—or 2025, for that matter. If you’re looking for a low cost and sustainable way to travel, look at booking a staycation close to home. You can rent an Airbnb or stay at home and hit up all the museums you’ve never managed to visit. 

Take a Photograph Every Day

Capture a single moment every day for a year and use the images to make a video montage or photo album that you can reflect on in the years to come. When the year is done, you can even stitch all of your pictures into one video that shows all of the wonderful things you did in 2024. 

Help a Friend Realize Their Dreams

Supporting a friend and helping them to achieve something they’ve long dreamed of will cement your friendship and bring you closer together. Whether it’s supporting your friend in training for an ultramarathon or setting up the perfect proposal, your friend will appreciate your role in their success.

Try New Food

Is your dinner routine getting a little dull? Are you tired of the same-old same-old takeout every night? In 2024, expand your palate by trying new foods and cuisines. Maybe each month you try a dish from a new country. By next January, you’re sure to have some brand-new favorites. 

Run a Marathon (Or Half Marathon!)

Or maybe it’s you who is ready to run! It might sound unachievable to you now, but imagine if by the end of 2024 or into 2024, you could say that you have run a marathon, or even a half marathon? Crossing the finish line with one of your best friends would be the icing on the cake.

Be an Extra in a Movie

While becoming an A-lister may be a lofty goal, you don’t need to be a trained actor to appear in a Hollywood blockbuster. You don’t even need to be in Hollywood proper—films shoot all over the world. Sign up with a casting agency and you could find yourself in the background as an A-List actor plays to the camera. 

Build a Treehouse

Treehouses aren’t just for kids. If you’ve got the space, some time, and are willing to get to grips with some basic DIY (maybe draft some family and friends into help), you could spend 2024 building a Pinterest-worthy hideaway in your garden.

Throw a Dart on the Map

And plan a trip to where it lands. If you’ve got a seriously strong sense of wanderlust, let fate take control of where you travel to in 2024. Will you go to Nigeria or Alaska or Finland? Or on a freighter ship to the middle of the sea?

Start an Etsy Store

Creative types should consider starting an Etsy store. Whether you design logos, paint landscapes, or knit baby booties, selling online can be a great way to fund your studies.

Get a Penpal

Resolve to spend less time on social media in 2024 and instead, take up letter writing with friends both near and far. It’s pretty retro, but you’ll find letter writing teaches you to organize your thoughts and construct better sentences. And if you’re not interested in handwriting, there are plenty of ways to find an email pen pal! 

Go to the Opera

Opera is theatrical storytelling at its most vivid, and it’s well worth watching at least once. The vocal range and expression in the singers’ voices make opera the art form that comes closest to conveying pure emotion. If you’re less of an opera fan, try the ballet or a classical music concert. Seeing a different side of the arts will bring new perspectives and inspiration.

Plant a Tree

What better way to mark a fresh start to a year than planting a tree? Give Mother Earth a helping hand and rewild any areas of outside space you might have with saplings and wildflowers.

Learn a New Language

Whether you brush up your middle school Spanish or go hard on Duolingo Chinese, 2024 is a great time to push your brain to new heights. To give yourself a push to continue, plan a 2025 trip to practice the language you’re learning.

Learn to Roller Skate 

We’d all love to cruise down Ocean Drive in Miami on roller skates. Take a step closer to realizing this dream by learning to skate in 2024. Master backward skating and changing direction with style and impress your mates when you hit the streets. Feeling sporty? You can even join a roller derby league. 

March in a Parade

Whether you join a float in your local town parade or head to an event like NYC Pride, being part of a vibrant parade float is a memorable experience that can’t be matched by watching from the sidewalk.

Live More Sustainably

Resolve to make positive changes to your lifestyle that benefit the planet and reduce your impact on the environment. Want to make a difference in your day-to-day? Pick up JanSport’s Restore Pack backpack, which is made from recycled waste fabric and other eco-friendly materials. 

Read a Classic Novel

Expand your understanding of classic literature by reading one that had a profound effect on modern society. Take a look at titles like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and George Orwell’s 1984. Or try a modern classic, like Pachinko by Min Jin Lee or The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Try Something New

Push yourself out of your comfort zone this year and try something totally new you’ve never done before. It could be baking and icing an elaborate cake or cooking a three-course meal, learning to play an instrument or a new language, or something even more daring like taking up aerial yoga. Challenge yourself and you never know what will come from—you may discover hidden talents you never knew you had. 

Are you making plans for 2024? Share your bucket list ideas with us on social using #LifeUnzipped