Creating a yearly travel plan is a fantastic first step towards bringing your travel fantasies to life. Whether you’re dreaming of a mini weekend break or going backpacking for the summer, planning is an essential element to help get your ideas off the ground.

But a travel plan can do more than just ensure you stay on track to meet your objectives. It can also help make the build up to your getaway more enjoyable. And the best thing is, you can write a new one every single year.

Here’s how writing a yearly travel plan will improve your life.

Focus

Even if you have a solid idea of what trips you want to go on across the year, it’s easy to lose sight of the end goal over time. Life happens and months go by in the blink of an eye but you’re no closer to hitting the road than at the beginning of the year. Writing out your travel plans at the beginning of the year will help to stop you from losing focus as the months roll on. Putting something down on paper also makes it feel more real somehow, and having it there in black and white will enable you to be more accountable.

Excitement

We always find that once we’ve created a loose plan of what we want to do and where we want to go, the act of filling in all of the details over the intervening time makes us even more excited for what’s to come.

The closer it gets to vacay day, the more the anticipation builds. But it’s a feeling that can get you through the hard times when it may all seem like a pipe dream rather than a solid plan.

Spending your spare time talking about, thinking about, and fleshing out your plans might get a bit wearing for your nearest and dearest. But let’s face it, the majority of us could do with a little more excitement in our lives!

Motivation

If you’re someone that struggles with motivation, particularly when it comes to saving up for your travels, writing out a yearly plan is a great way to give yourself some encouragement.

Financially speaking, it’s best to work backwards from the final figures. Begin by costing out your travel plans, this will give you a sum total to work towards. Then divide that down into a weekly or monthly saving target to hit.

Breaking it down like this will give you extra impetus to make sure you put that money aside at regular intervals. And the more you see that pot of P’s grow, the more motivated you’ll be to add to it.

Feeling of accomplishment

If you’re a bit of an obsessive planner, then writing a list is more than likely a comforting and enjoyable exercise in itself. But for others, the real pleasure in putting together a yearly plan comes from being able to reflect back on it.

You can treat it like a mini bucket list, and even if you don’t manage to go everywhere, see and do everything you initially wanted to, the feeling of ticking off what you do accomplish will allow you to bask in the warm glow of your achievements.