The List That Makes Your Weekends More Memorable

Noticing time, and hence slowing it down, is why I make seasonal fun lists

Laura Vanderkam
Forge

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I love flowers — who doesn’t? — but the peak blooms in spring are always fleeting. Blink and you might miss them.

So, last year, to make sure I really savored the season, I created what I called a Spring Fun List. This was a list of activities that I could do to celebrate the warming weather and the blossoms.

Nothing was far from my house. Nothing took more than a few hours. But between visiting Holland Ridge Farms in New Jersey, taking 30 pictures of 30 depictions of flowers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and doing a 1000-piece hummingbird puzzle, I created a lot of spring-focused memories. Now when I think of spring 2021, I think of eating a lobster roll from the Cousins Maine Lobster truck while looking at acres of tulips. The season didn’t just disappear into the past like water under a bridge.

This sense of noticing time, and hence slowing it down, is why I make lots of seasonal fun lists: Five a year — for summer, fall, the holidays, winter, and spring. If you’re looking to make your weekends more adventurous, you might try making these lists too. You’ll create memories rooted in specific times, which makes time in general feel more rich and vast.

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Laura Vanderkam
Forge
Writer for

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management books including Off the Clock and 168 Hours. She blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.