I hope you’ve seen the list of Bucket List Websites & Apps. I compiled it based on brief studies of each. My hope is to field test some of the more promising ones over the next twelve months. So, since the first of the year I have been checking out the list-making site 43 Things to see if it will work for me. Here’s what I’ve found:
You have to try out one or two sites before you can understand how your mind organizes lists and what works best to motivate you to complete them. I quickly saw with 43 Things that my mind wants to organize my bucket list as more than just a checklist when it’s in active form (as I think these online sites intend our lists to be).
Here’s what I mean: I have a Bucket List. It’s a simple list that I don’t need a site for. I just need a pad of paper. And in simple list form I’ve found I want to have it posted somewhere that I can see and refer to. I don’t need a website for that. A bucket list website should serve other purposes if it is to work well.
As I used 43 Things I found myself wanting a way to organize sub-goals for my items. In other words, there are steps I can be taking now toward accomplishing some of my goals. And I’m more likely to take those if I know I can check them off of my list. So I started adding those to my 43 Things.
And that worked. To a point.
It would be nice if 43 Things had a hierarchical format (ie. if #10 is “Pick Apples,” #10a could be “research local apple orchards” and 10b could be “put orchard trip on calendar” and 10c could be “invite friends to join us.” Then, as I put these phases into action, I could check them off without getting to knock off #10 itself until we actually went apple picking).
I also found myself putting professional goals on my list. After all, there’s room for 43 things and I’m bound to accomplish these goals in a shorter time frame than my bucket list goals. So I’ll be freeing up space if more bucket list ideas come to mind.
Which is really the point: a bucket list spans a lifetime. But what I think 43 Things does most powerfully is motivate us for the short term. So I ended up creating a somewhat different list that contained short-term goals in order to make the best use of 43 Things.
I also found the site simplistic and not necessarily conducive to networking. It doesn’t give users enough control over what other content they view. The front page showed updates and posts by other users that related to only one of my 43 things. And under “Zeitgeist” (presumably trending goals) there were “how to” posts by others on how they accomplished one of their 43 things, but again, I didn’t find those relevant or inspiring (other than knowing people were accomplishing goals and sharing what they learned). I expected more streamlined content of what was current with users under this tab.
Overall I did not find 43 Things intuitive to how I would like to interact with a bucket list website. But as a tool for tracking your goals (particularly short term), it can work. Since this is the first site I’ve tested in depth, I have nothing to compare it to. So while I’m not thrilled with it, I wouldn’t rule it out for your family.
