NATIONAL DAYPOP CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

National Bucket List Day

The life list. The big someday. The thing you're going to do — sometime. National Bucket List Day on April 24 is a nudge to actually write it down, and then actually do something on it.

APR24

Saturday, April 24Every year on April 24

days to go

Roots: Created in 2023 by National Day Calendar and Cindy Rhodes of Bucket List Coach Travel & Tours
Vibe: Intentional
Also on Apr 24: International Sculpture Day · Fashion Revolution Day · Arbor Day
Hashtag: #NationalBucketListDay

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Ways to celebrate

This one is genuinely about you:

📝 Write down 10 things — no editing, no judgment, just get them on paper.
⭐ Pick one you can do this year. Not someday. This year. Put it on the calendar.
📞 Share the list with one person. Accountability multiplies follow-through.
🗓️ Set a date to revisit — October 24 is six months away. Check in with yourself then.
✅ Cross one off. If you've already done something bucket-list-worthy, put it on and strike it out. You earned the line.

Make it your kind of celebration

Family
Family bucket list dinner: everyone writes three things. Share around the table. You'll learn something about every person.
Kids
Kid bucket lists are pure gold. "Swim with a dolphin." "See real snow." "Drive a tractor." Write them down. Help them cross one off.
Couples
Separate lists, then compare. The overlap is your shared plan. The differences are how you each keep yourselves interesting.
Office
Team bucket list exercise: everyone writes one professional goal. Post them anonymously. See what patterns emerge.
School
Classroom list for the year ahead. Kids are startlingly good at this. Post the list. Work toward it.
Community
Neighborhood bucket list — things to do together in your town this year. A block party, a lights tour, a dinner crawl.
Just me
This is your day. Put on music, pour coffee, write 20 things. Pick one. Book it before bedtime.

Plan ahead

National Bucket List Day is observed on April 24 every year. Here is where it lands for the next ten years, handy for planners, marketers and party people.

2026Fri, Apr 24this year

2027Sat, Apr 24

2028Mon, Apr 24

2029Tue, Apr 24

2030Wed, Apr 24

2031Thu, Apr 24

2032Sat, Apr 24

2033Sun, Apr 24

2034Mon, Apr 24

2035Tue, Apr 24

2036Thu, Apr 24

Add to my calendar (repeats yearly)

Fast facts

2007

April 24, 2027

The story

The phrase "bucket list" is so embedded in modern vocabulary that it's easy to forget it's younger than the iPhone.

Read the full story

The term entered popular usage in 2007 with the film The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally-ill men setting out to complete a list of things to do before they "kick the bucket." Screenwriter Justin Zackham had been keeping a list called "Justin's List of Things to Do Before I Kick the Bucket" and that list became the movie's central conceit.

The idea is older than the phrase. The Stoic philosophers wrote about memento mori the practice of remembering you will die, as a way of living better now. Benjamin Franklin kept a list of 13 virtues to cultivate. Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are full of "things I want to do" learn to fly, draw the human heart, build a helicopter.

Writing down your list actually works. Research from Dominican University found people are 42% more likely to achieve goals they write down vs. goals they just think about. Sharing the list with someone pushes that number higher. Revisiting it monthly pushes it higher still.

National Bucket List Day on April 24 isn't about mortality, it's about permission. Permission to have desires bigger than your inbox. Permission to book the thing. Permission to admit you want more out of the next few years than you've been admitting out loud. Take 10 minutes. Write 10 things. Start.

A good list spans all of these. Try to write at least two from each:

Stuck? Six categories with one great item in each to prime the pump: