How To Make a Digital Vision Board Using Canva

The way you can make sure this year is big for you is to get clear on what your dream year looks like.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Creating a visual representation of your dreams is so important if you want to stay motivated to actually take action and make them a reality.

For the last few years, I’ve created a vision board for what I want my year to look like. For me, creating a yearly vision board rather than a life vision board allows me to hone in on what’s important right now and where I want to be focusing my time and energy.

Rather than thinking of your vision board as your New Years Resolutions, keep them more fluid than that. Think of your digital vision boards as your own personalised inspiration board that’ll remind you of your hopes, dreams and goals for the year ahead.

The best thing about creating a digital version is you can put this vision board everywhere! On the desktop of your computer, as a background on your phone, as an insert in your diary and printed out and stuck on your wall.

But before you jump on Pinterest and find a bunch of pretty pictures… I want you to take 15 minutes or so to just write down at least 10 things you want to happen this year or you’re looking forward to happening this year.

Try and write two or three dreams for the following categories; work, lifestyle, wellness and personal development. This will ensure your vision board is well rounded and covers all areas of your life!

But be aware, this is not a goal-setting exercise so you don’t need to get super specific, just think about what your dream year would look like and jot those things down. It really doesn’t matter if they don’t come true, it’s more about setting an intention and allowing your brain the space to let these things become a reality. 

Now you’re ready to dive into Pinterest and try and find images for each of these dreams. I always think about the vibe and aesthetic that excites and inspires me and try and find images that work well together. But this is your vision board so you can do whatever you like!

Maybe you’ve got a dream this year to go out on your own and start your own business, so maybe an image of someone working from a cafe or a cool co-working space might be the type of image you’d look for. Maybe you’ve got a dream to start a yoga practice so images of someone you’d aspire to doing some cool yoga moves. Maybe you’ve got a trip to Paris planned so you find a shot of someone in front of the Eiffel Tower. Or maybe you’ve got a dream of being less stressed so finding a quote graphic that reminds you to breathe.

Spend some time finding the images that speak to you because these will serve as your inspiration for the whole year. But be warned, finding images on Pinterest can take up a bunch of your time, so do this in your downtime while you’re watching TV or sitting on the train so it doesn’t suck a bunch of “work” time! 

I’d recommend finding at least 20 images. You might not use all of these in your vision board and that’s okay but you want to have options. If you’re someone that wants to make things look perfect, you might find that one image you love just doesn’t fit with the others so you want to make sure you’ve got some choice. 

Next up, we put all the images into Canva.

There are two ways you could do this:

1. Search for Vision Board in the templates and use one of these. This is the easy option so if you want to get it done quickly or you’re not great at playing around with design tools, do that.

2. Create a custom design. For me personally, I like the layered look where images intersect and overlap rather than sit perfectly next to one another. I create a design using custom dimensions 210 mm by 297 mm which then converts perfectly into an A4 size if you print it on your home printer. You can make this whatever size you like!

Now you get to play. Upload all the images to Canva and then just play around dragging them into the board. I play with the sizes and where each image goes which can take a while. It’s a very fiddly task but it’s fun, a great one to do on a Friday afternoon at your desk with a wine or a beer! But eventually, you’ll start to work out what images look best where and you’ll see your digital vision board take shape. 

And that’s the simple way to create a digital vision board. I hope you’ve found this super helpful and it’s inspired you to start thinking about what your dream year looks like.