101 Things in 1,001 Days

12 May, 2026

The 101 Things in 1,001 Days project began in 2003 and I think I first heard about it a year or two later. My best friend and I used to do this together. We blogged about it, like many others did, sharing each item and the things that we discovered about ourselves because of them. She was always better at making and keeping goals, because she's better at keeping track of them, but I still found value even if I never finished my list.

I forgot all about it for a very long time until about 2 years ago when I rediscovered the site. 1,001 days is about 2.75 years. If you're following and doing the math, that means I've got just a little bit of time left on my challenge.

Once again, I will definitely not finish all items on the list before September when it ends, but once again I am very proud of myself for what I have done and what I have learned about myself along the way. For example, I think I'm getting a better idea of how to set realistic goals for myself. Many were much too ambitious. I tried to make well defined SMART goals and ended up over promising motivation.

My seasonal journal was not part of this project, but I do think it sprung out of it. I started this because I started seasonal patterns and I realized that I wanted a way to document my observations too. I wanted a journal to look back on and see all of the things that I saw each season.

Here are some items from the list that got me more in touch with nature:

1. Take photographs of the same places every month for a year and make a calendar. (Well... I just did one place and I only have one month left to do. I am having many ideas about how to convert this into a calendar and it will be done in time to use as a winter gift.)

2. Leave an inspirational note in a book for a stranger to find. (This one gave me a lot of anxiety but it was an opportunity to scope out a place to leave a book safely. I found many new parks to walk!)

3. Go swimming. (I checked this one off as part of a seasonal bingo project.)
4. For 1 year, send birthday cards to my friends/family. (I am notoriously bad I keeping track of important dates, including birthdays. To keep up with this one was to dive deep and pay attention closely to the changing of time.)
5. Take 5 day trips to new parks/trails. (This one is still in progress because I'm hitting one per season and I didn't start until last year. I've been trying to find gardens and nature conservatories for this one, instead of just everyday parks.)
6. Make soul cakes for Halloween. (I specifically put a few on my list that would make me engage in holidays I don't normally celebrate. I normally celebrate Halloween but I don't usually make food for it so this was a lot of fun.)

7. Celebrate Krampusnacht. (I watched multiple krampus horror movies and made some krampus art. All holiday cards I sent this year were very spooky, I mean normally they are I'll be honest, but I put extra creepy spirit in them.)

8. Go camping alone three times. (I used to go camping alone every summer throughout the whole summer, as a way to escape from everyday life and get some solitude. Now that I live alone I don't really escape anymore so I wanted something to get me back in touch with a younger version of myself. Now because of this I'm getting back into camping in a meaningful way.)
9. Go for a walk every Thursday for 10 consecutive weeks (2024). (This got me back on my walking habit after what felt like years long interruption.)
10. Create a zine every season for a year. (This was my first round of seasonal zines!)
11. Go for a walk Sat/Sun for 10 consecutive weeks (2025). (I believe I specifically did this one during a time when I normally don't get out because it's too hot, as a way to force myself to experience the summer world.)

I think I will probably do this challenge again with more realistic goals once it finishes, although I might wait a few months to start. I've seen other approaches where people categorize their lists and use it to hit existing goals. For this round and previous rounds, I usually just make a whole bunch of new shit up and add to my goal list, but maybe that's part of why I never finish it.

Although it was kind of hard to keep track of, I really loved the goal of taking photos of the same spot every month for a year. I really want to do something like that again in different parks and different places. It was fun to visit and watch everything change throughout the year, and it's even more fun to have 12 photos of the same thing with different colors and shapes and moods defining it.

If you take away nothing else from this post, take that. It would be very cool if other people did that kind of thing as well and found the kind of joy that I found in it.