Bucket list ideas that fit your personality

The best bucket list ideas are the ones that fit the person writing them. Someone who loves adventure needs a different list from someone who loves making things, and both differ from a person who comes alive around people or one who wants calm and new skills. Start from what you already enjoy, mix big dreams with things you could do this year, and give every item a first step.

An example: at 40, Renata copied a list of a hundred bucket list ideas from a travel website into a notebook. Skydiving, swimming with sharks, the pyramids, a marathon. Five years later she had crossed off one item. Then her sister asked a different question: "What have you done in the last few years that you still talk about?" Renata didn't have to think long. A weekend walking a coastal trail. Learning to bake bread in a friend's kitchen. Watching the sun come up from a hill on a camping trip. She started a new list that night, twenty items long, and every one of them sounded like her. One summer she climbed a hill above a lake in the dark with a thermos and the notebook, and ticked off number seven as the sky turned pink.

Where the idea of a bucket list comes from

A bucket list is a list of things you want to do, see or learn in your lifetime. The phrase comes from the old saying "kick the bucket," meaning to die, and it spread widely after a 2007 Hollywood film called The Bucket List. These days many people use it far more lightly, for anything from a trip abroad to learning to bake a pie.

A bucket list is narrower than a set of life goals. Goals are about the life you want to build. A bucket list is about the moments you want to have along the way.

Bucket list ideas, sorted by the kind of person you are

Many of us are pulled toward one group, maybe two. Read all four, and notice which items make you sit up.

If you want adventure

• See the northern lights
• Walk a long-distance trail, even if you do it in sections over a few years
• Sleep under the stars in a desert or on a mountain
• Take a long train journey across a country
• Swim in a clear mountain lake
• Ride in a hot air balloon at sunrise
• Paddle a river by canoe or kayak with a guide
• Spend a week in a country where you don't speak the language
• Take a road trip with no fixed plan
• Stand in the path of a total solar eclipse

If you love making things

• Bake bread from a starter you kept alive yourself
• Build a piece of furniture you'll use every day
• Write a short story and let one person read it
• Knit or sew something you actually wear
• Grow a vegetable garden and cook a whole meal from it
• Throw a bowl on a pottery wheel
• Make a photo book of a single year
• Record a song, even if it's only on your phone
• Paint a picture big enough to hang on the wall

If you come alive around people

• Host a dinner for friends who haven't met each other yet
• Throw a surprise party for someone who deserves one
• Find an old friend you lost touch with and meet in person
• Volunteer somewhere every week for a season
• Sing in a choir or act in a community theater show
• Record an older relative telling the story of their life
• Take a trip with your oldest friends
• Learn a partner dance, like salsa or swing
• Teach someone a skill you're good at

If you like calm and learning a skill

• Learn a language well enough to chat with a stranger
• Learn to play the instrument you've always wanted to play
• Read one classic novel a month for a year
• Spend a weekend alone in a cabin without screens
• Learn to recognize twenty birds by their song
• Watch the sunrise from a place you love
• Sign up for a class in a subject that's new to you
• Learn to cook five dishes from your family's kitchen
• Keep a houseplant alive for ten years

If the making and calm lists pull at you most, you may also find a few ideas in our guide on how to find a hobby.

The items almost everyone writes down

Some ideas turn up on nearly every list online. They're popular for good reasons, but each one fits a certain kind of person.

• Seeing the northern lights is for anyone who loves quiet wonder and doesn't mind the cold.
• Running a marathon suits people who like a plan with a clear finish line.
• Visiting every continent works for travelers who enjoy the planning as much as the going.
• Learning a language rewards patient people who like small daily progress.
• Writing a book comes easier to people who already write in their spare time.
• A big music festival is great if you love crowds and noise.
• A long road trip suits people who are happy to change plans halfway.
• Learning an instrument works if you enjoy practice for its own sake.

If an item is on your list only because it's on everyone's list, ask yourself whether you want it or just like the idea of it. Renata kept the northern lights and crossed out the sharks.

How to write a list you will actually finish

1. Start from what you've loved. Think back over the last few years and write down what you still talk about. Those memories show you what to add.
2. Keep it short at first. Twenty items is plenty. A list of a hundred starts to feel like homework.
3. Mix the sizes. Put a few things you can do this year next to the ones that take five years or more.
4. Give each item a first step. "See the northern lights" becomes "look up winter flights north."
5. Put one item on the calendar today. Pick a date and tell someone.
6. Read the list once a year. Your birthday is a good day for it. Cross out what no longer fits, without guilt, and add what's new.

Six types and the lists they write

People who share a personality type can end up with similar lists. Here are six of the 16 types:

• Vitalizer: fills a list with people: reunions, parties, trips with friends. The risk is planning everything for others and nothing just for themselves.
• Inspector: likes items with a clear finish line, such as every state park or fifty classic novels, and tends to tick them off in order.
• Commander: wants items that are hard. A summit, a long race or something big built with their own hands.
• Diplomat: picks experiences with energy, like festivals, a new city at night or a first surf lesson. They'd rather go than plan.
• Strategist: chooses long, deep items. A language learned properly, a slow trip through one country, a skill that takes years.
• Craftsman: wants to master something practical, like restoring an old bike, building a shed or cooking one dish perfectly.

Many people have items from more than one group. If a list keeps stalling, though, look at whose idea of fun it really holds.

A list for the two of you

Some couples keep a short shared list next to their own. Pick three to five items you both want, and let each person add one the other wouldn't have chosen. Shared items work best when they mix your tastes: a trip with hiking for one and good food for the other, or a class you're both new at. If one of you lives by YOLO and the other likes a plan, let the first pick the item and the second pick the date. There are more shared ideas in our list of fun things to do as a couple.

Summer bucket list ideas for adults and friends

A summer bucket list is a short list for one season, made for the long, light evenings between June and August. Summer activities for adults has a whole one, with ideas for trips, for porch evenings and for friends.

For a weekend in a tent, camping games for adults has games for the fire, and summer party ideas has themes for a party in the yard.

When summer ends, fall activities for adults has a fall bucket list for the cooler months.

For the rest of the year, there are lists in spring activities for adults and winter activities for adults.

Build your list around your own type

A list sounds like you when it starts from what your type enjoys, and that gets much easier to see once you know the type. Take the free personality test, and it will describe your strengths and the spots where you tend to struggle, which makes a good filter for any list. If you plan a shared list with a sister, a friend or a partner, send them the link from your result so they can take the same test. When they finish, your relationship type points out where you two pull the same way and where you want different things, a handy thing to know before you book a trip together.

Questions people ask

Where did the term bucket list come from?

From the saying "kick the bucket," which means to die. The first known use in print is from 2006, in a news item about the film The Bucket List, and the phrase spread after the film came out in 2007.

How many things should be on a bucket list?

There's no rule, but ten to twenty items is easier to act on than a hundred. You can always add more once you start crossing things off.

What are fun summer activities for adults?

Swim somewhere new, cook dinner over an open fire or play cards on a friend's porch until it's dark. Summer activities for adults has a full summer bucket list.

Sources

• The Phrase Finder, "Bucket list": the link to "kick the bucket", the first known use in a news item of 29 June 2006 about the film, and the wide spread after the film came out in December 2007.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.