Living Seasons

I started timing my life through seasons during the pandemic, preferring a 3.5 month structure over 365 days. This page provides a brief overview of some of the practices I've adopted (and some abandoned) while trying to figure out what works for me.

The most wonderful thing I've learned from keeping these exercises is that seasons don't have much to do with the weather or color palette. Previously, my view of "seasons" was very limited to background knowledge and I wasn't often being intentional in my observation of the world.

I now see and understand more about the cycles and patterns throughout the year, and instead of 4 separate seasons, time flows fluidly into the next micro-season from the last, and at all moments we are in a transition period.

On this page:

• Seasonal Observation Projects (2022-2023)

  • Seasons Tracker Spreadsheet

  • Season Craft

  • Season Letter

  • Season Cryptid

  • Seasonal Reflections

• Seasonal Engagement Projects (Fall 2024 - Fall 2025)

  • BINGO

  • are.na channels

  • Obsidian Setup

  • Seasonal Zines

• Seasonal Reflective Projects (Winter 2026 on)

Seasonal Observation Projects (2022-2023)

In 2022 I started a seasonal project where I intentionally tracked my life and reactions to each season and shared my reflections with a handful of friends and family. It was a lot of fun sharing those observations. By watching the movement of seasons, I’ve gained some interesting insights. The project lasted from Winter to Fall and each season ended with a reflection letter and little art project of some kind. I enjoyed it but it was a lot of energy and required me to be in the mood to write, reflect, and be creative within a reasonable time after each season ended.

I’m sure that going forward I’ll still find ways to share the seasons with my people, but it will be more fun to do it DURING the season, not weeks into the next one!

The project had a bunch of different branches, some of which died early year, others continued and will be evolving into something else during the next set of seasons.

Seasons Tracker Spreadsheet

I purchased a habit tracker spreadsheet from youareloved and modified it from a yearly tracker to a seasonal one. Other than the timeline modification and some category updates, I mostly stuck to the rest of the format offered in the original file.

1. 1.

   I grouped yearly goals into a few categories: Reflection & Development, Home & Finances, Learning, Creativity, Social Balance

   • Yearly goals changed throughout the year, so my spreadsheet isn’t entirely dynamic. In retrospect I should have had yearly categories & seasonal goals, rather than expecting myself to benefit from the same goals all year.

   • Some of the goals I found fruitful to track and will continue monitoring in the new year, but keeping 2-3 goals per category was overwhelming: there were too many categories/goals to keep track of. In the future, I’ll limit myself to 5-7 goals total across the categories.

2. 2.

   Each season had a page with areas for:

   • (A) Weekly habits (7-10 habits tracked per week) – in the original template, these are daily, so I did some modification here to account for weeks per season. My weekly habit items were life maintenance tasks that I have difficulty getting to when I’m medium-low energy.

   • (B) Accomplishments (per month, a list of achievements and stuff that made me smile) – in the original template, these are weekly habits. Freewriting area to list stuff.

   • A short (C) checklist to accomplish by the end of the season – in the original template, these were monthly habits. This was put here to remind me to do my budget, reflect ahead of seasonal letters, etc.

   • (D) Yearly goals (per month, check which goals I completed) – this was included in the original template – I updated the category names though

   • (E) Helpful links out to other seasonal review items: Budget tracker which began in August, seasonal review doc where I was keeping notes for my mail project, home maintenance review, etc.

Recommendation and Reflection

If you're interested in this kind of system, I highly recommend downloading a spreadsheet someone else already made and then updating it to your needs, if you don’t have the time or energy to create something from scratch. You're going to need to learn lots about formulas to get what you need so it's nice to have someone do most of the foundational structure for you.

Having this spreadsheet system in 2022 really helped me get my life back on track after suffering severe burnout and depression for a few years. The system relies on myself reviewing the checklist at least once a week and actually doing something on it (or checking it off if you already have). Looking back at 2022, I did at least one thing every week, even during my lowest energy time periods. I'm being vulnerable to share the goals, but in making this page I can see how far I've come. I don't need to remind myself to go grocery shopping anymore, for example.

For the 2023 seasons, I moved my tracking system from only-Google to Notion and seasonal art journal. My Notion setup had several areas for budgeting, season review, tracking goals/habits, etc., and the seasonal art journal was flexible in what it could contain – bullet-journal like pages tracking spend/no-spend days, reminders/aids, mixed media expression of the season, etc.

Though I was formatting and using different tools than I was in 2022, a lot of the foundational logic came from the spreadsheet system. It was interesting seeing how my tracking evolves and builds on itself, though in different formats and paths.

Season Craft

My thought behind a seasonal craft was that I’d send it with my letters at the end of every season with something I made inside. It might be a print showing a picture of something I made (rather than the actual thing), but however it was delivered, it was shared.

At the start of all this, in Winter 2021-22, I sent a mothman postcard.

I started a seasonal art journal so I could continue with trying to express the seasons on the page in different ways. In 2022 I mostly explored through seasonal color palettes via doodles, but I was always frustrated I didn’t have one central location to go and journal about that. I bought a new journal as soon as I had that thought!

My “season craft” turned into more of a general “seasonal creative reflection.” In 2022, I got such good feedback from all my friends who said that my letters and crafts made them think more about the seasons too!

Unfortunately in 2023 I had a bit of a burnout again from doing too much (this can be a pitfall of life tracking), so I stopped sharing my observations of the seasons with people.

Season Letter

I loved the idea of doing a seasonal reflective letter and sending it to a few people in my life. It was a way to get me out of the house (so I can really immerse myself in the world during that season), pay attention to my surroundings, proactively engage in the environment, and find time to reflect on observations in a concrete, meaningful way that could be shared with other people.

I have to admit, I didn’t have high hopes for myself finishing since year-long projects aren’t usually my thing, but I’m proud to say I successfully sent all 4 letters!

Season Cryptid

I had such high hopes for this one, but in the end it wasn’t sustainable with everything else I had going on. The idea was to “adopt” a cryptid every season, go to an East Coast (easy to drive to) cryptozoology museum featuring artifacts from that cryptid, make a craft and otherwise immerse myself in that creature all season. I did really well with winter & spring but once summer came, I was too exhausted to give attention to such things.

• Winter – Mothman, went to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, WV., made mothman papercrafts, watched lots of mothman media. Sent the mothman postcard I shared above.

• Spring – Sasquatch, went to a Cryptozoology Museum in Littleton, NC., got Benny the big Squishmallow sasquatch, watched lots of sasquatch media.

• Summer – Flatwoods Monster, planned a trip but didn’t go, planned art but ran out of energy.

I really enjoyed this idea, though. Who knows when I will randomly need to love on a cryptid all season? Now I have a nice little fallback for that.

Seasonal Reflections

In my season reflection, I listed all the stuff I did or meaningful things that happened, as much as I could recall on the day I’m catching up (I tried to catch up 2-3 times a season to keep it fresh). This is also where I reflected on my thoughts about nature, like how the weather’s been, what the world looks like/color palettes, whatever other seasonal observations I’ve made.

This originally began as a personal note (12/30/22).

Seasonal Engagement Projects (Fall 2024 - Summer 2025)

In 2023, I carried most of the same patterns as above, though I had a hard time sticking to it due to other life stresses. I converted my Notion system into icon-based and checkmark-driven app tracking (I tried a few different apps until I landed on Daylio and Finch), setting up goals that repeated at different intervals and that were easy to change. The spreadsheet and Notion systems were helpful, but way too much effort. If I was going to keep up with it long-term, it needed to have minimal to no setup each month/season/year.

After focusing mostly on observation, I decided I needed to get more into actual engagement. It's one thing to recognize that each season has its own set of holidays, it's another one to force myself to learn about the holidays and in some cases celebrate new ones.

BINGO

Before each season starts I make a bingo page for that season. I started this in Fall 2024 and it's no surprise I got SEVERAL bingos that season (it tends to be my most active/social season anyway). For Winter 24-25, I only got one bingo, but it was wonderful to even get that much, since I tend not to do anything during winter (as my hibernation months). The bingo card not only has me doing more than I might have, but it is also a useful tool to help observe my patterns in energy levels throughout the years.

To create a bingo card, I first draft up a 4x4 square (not 5x5, no free spaces intentionally!). Separately, I make a list of 16 seasonal things encompassing holidays, moods, creativity, education, or seasonal themes. This page is actually quite small (about 4x5 inches) so each of the boxes won't contain the full prompt, but rather a word or two and an image to represent it.

Once I complete each item, I color in the box. If I had just done ANYTHING for Chinese New Year this year, I could have had two bingos! And clearly, I didn't spend much time in the kitchen.

I drop the bingo card into a journal dedicated to that season.

• Each time I finish an item, I color in the bingo square and make an entry in the journal explaining what I did and my thoughts about it. Sometimes I add pictures or artifacts from the experience.

• For fall when I made a bingo, I'd make a post on my Instagram what I did (including photos).

• By the time winter bingo came around, I had deleted my Instagram. The plan was to make a blog post with the same but I did not do that... partially because I forgot to take photos of each activity, not being so "social media minded."

• Sometimes I make a post in the seasonal journal I added to my digital garden to support seasonal reflective practice in a MUCH easier way than coding it manually on my website. You can see entries in the #diary-bingo tag.

now have a physical journal for each season so even if I don't continue this bingo activity I'll have a space for my next round of seasonal reflection!

are.na channels

I keep an are.na channel for each season and have been doing this since 2022. I only add to the seasonal channels during that season, and it includes posts found on are.na that evoke (to me) that season's meaning or mood. Sometimes I add original thoughts/photos, but these mostly encompass what I found from others.

I've found this to be an interesting way to reflect on how images can "feel like seasons" whether they are naturey or not. When I got to a point where I had been doing it for over a year (revisiting the winter album during winter 24-25) it was enlightening to see what felt like winter a year ago, and how much it still did. I had the same feeling into the next seasons so I plan to hold onto this for a while.

Obsidian Setup

To help with my seasonal reflection and keeping track of everything, I kept a base set up each season in Obsidian to support note taking and checklists. (Dec 2024 - Dec 2025) This worked well enough but it wasn't the digital garden tool of my dreams and I wanted more control over everything, so I ended up moving away from Obsidian entirely when I stopped using it for that reason.

There was a folder for each season that begins with the following:

• "This week"

  • I use obsidian's "daily notes" feature for thoughts and feelings type of journaling, but I also keep a file that encompasses notes, bookmarks, or other random stuff I collect each week.

  • The file has all weeks for that season (12 weeks roughly) and provides a good location for me to review for when I write my monthly wrap ups or seasonal zines.

• To do

  • Instead of daily, weekly, or monthly, I kept a seasonal to do list. This is not like the seasons tracker spreadsheet explained below. Instead, I divided my list into home, self, creativity, 101 things (goals list), and seasons.

  • The seasons bucket included stuff like my seasonal zine, bingo, preparing for the next season, setup, etc. All else were normal everyday goals and the things I do to keep my life moving.

• Weeknotes

  • Similar to the "this week" file, but focused entirely on work stuff.

  • I used to keep this in Google drive, but in my journey to de-google, I moved it to Obsidian at the end of winter '25.

  • This is where I did all my complaining and reflecting privately. I usually kept notes once a month.

This lived in my personal/private area (not published to digital garden when I was running it with Obsidian). By the end of the season I end up with a note reviewing each month and another one to help draft my seasonal zine.

Seasonal Zines

One of my 101 Things in 1,001 Days goals is to create a zine each season for a year.

• Winter zine (2024-25)

  • reflection on the season

    • what happened in my life and what I was thinking/feeling all season

    • printed images from my winter are.na channel (read above for more info)

    • winter microseasons in the DC area

    • winter free write / word association

  • quotes and sayings

  • what was in my winter bingo and the bingos I got

  • review of the book Wintering by Katherine May

  • projects/creative things I did during winter

• Spring/Summer zine (2025)

  • I made this so late that I had already lost the joy and feeling of the season - it's alright, but it falls somewhat flat

  • I combined my Spring & Summer zines into a "hot months" zine.

• Fall zine (2025) was skipped due to other stuff going on

• Winter zine (2026) was when I really caught onto some ideas for approaches and this project has blossomed!

Seasonal Reflective Projects (Winter 2026 on)

As the BINGO project comes to an end, I find myself with a bunch of new traditions and activities to do each season without 'challenging' myself into it.

What's next as we move on through the seasons? I'll come back and update once I find out!

For now it seems I am planning more reflective things.

Keep doing what's working:

• Seasonal zines - experiment with media and printing options

• Building and refining the are.na channels which provide an interesting angle of seasonal interpretation/inspiration

• Continue seasonal journals (digital and analog)

Adding a few ideas:

• Start creating and sharing videos of my travels and nature walks showing beautiful things around the country/world

• Learning more about the science behind seasons while I appreciate it LIVE and IN ACTION and sharing what I learn

I don't have the wherewithal to update the entire page for currency but I'm adding what's working, early spring 26:

• using Anytype for note taking and managing all my thoughts, ideas, to do's, etc.

• Using GitHub Pages and Quartz to publish my digital garden

• Using a wiki to collect and organize the stuff I learn

• keeping a bunch of blogs on different topics, including one on seasonal thoughts and reflections

• Keeping seasonal pacing in everything I do

Seasonal BINGO (Fall 2024 - Summer 2025)

The goal was to engage more in seasonal activities and get at least one BINGO (4 activities), and I'm calling it a success for each season. The bingo card not only had me doing more than I might have, but it is also a useful tool to help observe my patterns in energy levels throughout the year.

Highlights

Fall: 4 BINGO wins (completed 13 activities)

• Watched the Terrifier movies and gave myself horrible nightmares for weeks (I still sometimes think of that dismembered girl in bed like an earworm song stuck in my head)

• Recorded lots of videos/took lots of photos of falling leaves

• Went to a pumpkin patch with friends and now a picture of me exists with a backwards baseball cap holding one baby in each arm

• Made pumpkin soup

• Made gluten-free soul cakes (shortbread cookies with cranberry, basically)

Winter: 1 win (completed 8 activities)

• Spent solstice in Phoenix, AZ, with family, and we hung some string lights for festive cheer in the Airbnb

• Wore lots of sweaters! I usually forget because I default to hoodies.

• Watched the New Year's Eve celebrations around the world

Spring: 2 wins (completed 10 activities)

• Had a really lovely spring camping trip among dandelions

• Constructed some new LEGO flowers for my home

• Went to the Japanese Street Festival for food and fun with friends!

• Tried catnip bubbles with Zenny (she didn't really get it)

• Did more gender exploration and shared my thoughts

Summer: 2 wins (completed 10 activities)

• Played with Sculpey to make a little frog on a mushroom (his name is William Fischer Frog)

• Took tons of photos of flowers and trees and learned what they were

• Sat and watched many sunsets, some more gorgeous than others but all a good time

• Went out for ice cream with the family at Outer Banks on our yearly beach trip

All Activities

You'll find a list of the activities I had on my boards here for inspiration, but you can also do a Google search for [season] BINGO and get lots of ideas there. These are in addition to my three placeholder activities (send seasonal mail or postcards, play/be seasonally creative, and read a book related to that season or themes/holidays in it).

Fall Activities

Wear plaid. Carve a Jack-o-Lantern. Go camping. Watch new-to-me spooky movies. Watch the leaves fall. Make pumpkin bread. Make soup. Read ghost stories. Make chili. Go to a pumpkin patch. Go apple picking. Give thanks! Learn about something new about the season. Make soul cakes.

Winter Activities

Set the mood with candles. Celebrate Chinese New Year. Put up string lights. Watch holiday romances. Wear sweaters! Go on a walk in DC. Celebrate New Year's Eve. Do seasonal baking. Celebrate Yule. Build a blanket fort. Make gingerbread cookies. Make and hang paper snowflakes. Have a spa night. Enjoy some hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Spring Activities

Go camping. Take a long walk. Appreciate nature and do something with flowers. Learn about Asian-Pacific Heritage. Go birdwatching. Engage in cherry blossom season. Spring cleaning! Have a picnic. Go to the library. Improve my home care routines. Celebrate Arbor Day. Celebrate PRIDE! Learn about history and experience for Black Americans for Juneteenth. Play with bubbles.

Summer Activities

Go to the beach. Eat a hot dog. Play with sidewalk chalk. Take a nature walk. Watch the sunset. Read some ghost stories. Go see live music. Celebrate a National Day. Go swimming. Eat a whole pizza. Unplug for a full week (except for work). Go exploring. Watch some fireworks. Eat an ice cream cone.

Make your own BINGO cards

Before starting, I did a bit of prep work to figure out how and why. That helps to keep you going with it long-term.

Decide the number of items you want to make a BINGO to decide how big to make your board.

Keep in mind you'll have to complete at least one row to get a BINGO. Don't over-promise yourself to completing 8 activities for a BINGO unless you have that kind of energy level or time. I went low (4x4) because a) my journal is small and b) I am a low energy person.

Also keep in mind that you'll need to find as many unique activities, as you have squares on your board. I liked 4x4 because it eliminated the "free space" option and meant I only had to figure out 16 activities.

Since I got rid of the "free space," I added a few activities that I do throughout the year anyway (sending mail, making art, reading), except the activity required a seasonal edge for me to fulfill it.

Make a goal to complete for each card.

I had a low pressure goal of 1 BINGO per season. My goal was to engage in seasonal activities more often, not force myself to do something every single day. Having this low goal meant I made multiple BINGOs per season and that then made me feel really proud and accomplished! But that was an unintended side effect.

...

I did this next part before each season, but you could do it at the top of the year for all seasons if you wanted to.

Compile a list of activities to fill into the board.

I recommend doing this separately and then adding them to the board, in case you mess up or end up with too many and need to prioritize, but if you want to live dangerously feel free to fill out the board as you go. To find activities, I did Google searches to look at seasonal activities near me, viewed other people's seasonal BINGO cards, and reached into the depths of memory to figure out things I used to do.

My list encompasses holidays, moods, creativity, education, and seasonal themes.

Fill out the card.

My card was actually quite small so instead of the full prompt, each box contains a word or two and an image to represent it. You can do what you want.

Also decorate the page! Get some washi and stickers out!

...

As the seasons progress, do the things! For my small boards, I tried to figure out how to fit an activity into my life once every few weeks. If you have more activities/longer BINGOs, you might want to think about it more frequently than that.

Complete activities and write about them.

Once I completed each item, I colored in the box and added a journal entry about what I did. The journal entry might have photos, souvenirs, or doodles, as well as a description of what I did, how it brought me closer to the season, and how I felt doing it / after doing it.

Fall Syllabus

Term: Late Sept to late Dec

Required Materials: A notebook, pen, and desire to try new things

Description

This syllabus invites you to engage more intentionally with the fall season through seasonal activities, reflective exercises, reading, and simple goals. You’ll explore personal growth through the lens of autumn: letting go, preparing for rest, savoring small experiences, and grounding yourself in the passing of time.

Objectives

• Identify personal seasonal goals and revisit them

• Develop small seasonal rituals

• Complete weekly reflection

• Engage with at least 3 fall activities

• Practice patience, gentleness, and sensory awareness

• Strengthen creative or reflective habits

Lessons

This syllabus has 5 time blocked lessons. Pick at least one activity and reflection to complete from each lesson, or make your own that fall under the lesson themes.

Lesson 1: Settling into the season (September - early October)

Themes: Transition, noticing, shifting routines

• Activities

  • Swap in fall clothing

  • Choose a fall candle to burn during syllabus activities

  • Create seasonal goals (see template)

  • Take a nature walk and notice the transition from summer

• Reflections

  • What do you need this season that you didn't need last season?

  • How can you build rest into your routine?

Lesson 2: Spooky season (October)

Themes: Mystery, introspection, fear

• Activities

  • Explore a local cemetery and photograph the tombstones you like best

  • Read or write a ghost story

  • Learn about spooky folk stories or urban legends from your home area

  • Buy a pumpkin or turnip and carve a face into it

• Reflections

  • What about or in your life right now is a total mystery to you?

  • How do you handle things you can't see or control?

  • What fears can you meet and overcome this season?

Lesson 3: Autumn immersion / embrace the darkness (early to mid November)

Themes: Play, awareness, fun

• Activities

  • Visit the farmers market or a roadside farm stand

  • Try a cozy recipe or seasonal drink

  • Look up a fall seasonal craft and do it, especially if it makes you feel silly

  • Create a fall playlist

• Reflections

  • Which experiences feel most "fall" to you and why?

  • What brings feelings of comfort this season? What brings feelings of obligation?

Lesson 4: Gratitude (late November)

Themes: Gathering, food, appreciation

• Activities

  • Write a list of small gratitude - what are you thankful for?

  • Choose one meal to cook that feels grounding, and eat it without multi tasking.

  • Gather with friends or family for a memory sharing night.

  • Do a postcard exchange with friends or strangers and tell each other one thing that you did that made you proud of yourself this year.

• Reflections

  • What fall activities (in this syllabus or not) feel nourishing?

  • Who showed you kindness this month in a way they may have thought didn't matter?

Lesson 5: Preparing for winter (December)

Themes: Warmth, reflection, ritual

• Activities

  • Refresh your space for winter nesting or build a fort

  • Build a small list with your winter intentions

  • Warm a heating pad and place it on your chest or stomach

  • Find a way to close out your fall rituals or transition them for winter

• Reflections

  • What surprised you this fall?

  • What do you hope to leave behind in fall? What do you hope to carry with you into winter?

  • What did you learn about your energy patterns this fall?

Assignments

This syllabus includes 3 assignments.

• Complete Assignment 1 every week or give yourself a goal to complete X times out of 12-13 (weeks).

• Complete Assignment 2 anytime in Fall.

• Complete Assignment 3 in December.

Assignment 1: Weekly assignment

Choose one:

• Journal for 10 minutes

• Take a seasonal photo

• Do one intentional sensory check-in (see template)

• Read for 20 minutes

Assignment 2: Field experience

Do one meaningful seasonal activity and write or share about it. Examples:

• Apple picking

• Pumpkin patch

• Haunted attraction

• Scenic drive or walk

• Reading spooky stories

Assignment 3: Reflection

Capture your fall experience creatively. Examples:

• Review and reflect on/summarize weekly reflections and write a journal entry on any thoughts or feelings that arise

• Create a collage or scrapbook photos you took all season

• Make a playlist that captures what you listened to or felt all season

• Develop a list of goals for next fall

• Take a selection of your photos from the season and draw/write about them in a zine

Grading

You cannot fail this syllabus. Simply by reading it and considering it, you're already boosting your seasonal connections!

It's recommended that you create your own goals surrounding this syllabus that are in alignment with your energy levels and desire for engagement. Below is a suggested scale for measuring success.

• Participation: 40%

• Reflection: 30%

• Assignment 2: 20%

• Assignment 3: 10%

• Boost in seasonal joy: 10 pts extra credit

Recommendations

Reading

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmere

• The October Country by Ray Bradbury

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Watching

• TED: The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer

Listening

• On Being podcast

• Overthink podcast

Templates

Winter zines (26)

A collection of reflections on my winter season.

Standard issue (new every season):

1. 1.

   Winter, Collected: Quarter size 16 page zine exploring my thoughts throughout the season (the state of the USA, my cat, my digital garden, shows I'm watching, winter social media break).

2. 2.

   Companion - Seasonal Debris: Quarter size 8 page zine collecting creative artifacts from the season (journal pages mostly).

3. 3.

   Zine Therapy: Quarter size 8 page zine discussing my desire to feel less guilty about having low social needs

Winter only:

1. 1.

   Ongoing Creative Projects: Brochure size 1 page zine summarizing the projects I have ongoing in my personal creative life.

2. 2.

   Art & Eat: 8 page minizine about a monthly creative practice I facilitate at work. You can alternatively get this minizine free as a download from the gallery.