The Pinterest hack I use when my brain refuses to stay organized

• Identify your goals
• Find visual representations of your goals
• Choose your favorite Pins
• Go to Canva
• Put your vision board where you’ll see it

After the holidays die down, my favorite way to gear up for the new year is with an aesthetic-driven rebrand. I’m not talking about an overhaul of my entire personality, but rather something tangible that outlines the route I want the next 365 days to take. The platform that makes it all possible is also known as the home of inspiration (in my household, at least): Pinterest.

Each January, I use Pinterest to create a set of goals, discover interests, and find motivational quotes that align with how I want to grow as a person. My process encapsulates a famous visualization technique used by high-performance Olympic athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, and countless others to help them accomplish goals that seem far out or even unachievable.

For example, actor and comedian Jim Carrey famously used visualization by writing himself a check for $10 million for a very vague “acting services rendered” while he was struggling financially. Carrey dated it a few years into the future and kept the symbolic paper stowed away in his wallet. Just before his ‘deadline,’ he was informed that he would be earning $10 million for his work in Dumb and Dumber.

As Oprah Winfrey said in her interview with Carrey, “Visualization works if you work hard.” So, over the last five years, I’ve conducted my own visualization efforts to not only mentally rehearse the life I want to live, but also organize my goals and truly get my act together for the new year. Here’s how you can too.

Identify your goals

Within five chosen categories

Goals are intensely personal. As human beings, life is constantly changing, shifting, and sometimes even falling out beneath our feet. While getting promoted at your job might be something you’re keenly focused on right now, someone else is honing in on the quality of their relationships.

Whatever you have your nose against the grindstone for, if you want it, it’s worth chasing. It’s easy to daydream, though, and another thing entirely to put those plans in motion. I implore you to choose some or all of the following categories and come up with a goal or two for each of them:

• Health (mental or physical)
• Career growth
• Education
• Finance
• Relationships
• Travel
• Purchases
• Personal hobbies

You aren’t limited to this list and can add anything that speaks to you.

For each goal or two, I enjoy writing a short paragraph detailing how I’d feel once that particular goal was accomplished. I do so in the present tense, which turns the experience into a meditative journaling exercise. I’ve found that treating the goal as if it were already done helps me grow into the kind of person that would, in fact, have already accomplished such a feat. Emotions have power.

Once you have your categories and respective goals for each written down, you’ve completed step one.

Find visual representations of your goals

Time to make a Pinterest board

Now, it’s time to collect images that embody each goal. Head to Pinterest and create a new board to collect all these pictures — you’ll need a Pinterest account to do so. You can name your board anything you want, but I typically name mine after the year I’m planning for. In that fashion, this year’s board will be “2026 Vision – GENERAL.”

You’ll then need to collect Pins. I do so by taking each of my general goals and typing it into the search bar with the word “aesthetic” tagged onto the end. There are some Pinterest creators with photography skills and visions I’d never be able to create myself, so I trust the experts and their Canon cameras over my mediocre handwork and iPhone 16 Pro.

One of my goals is to run a full marathon this year, so I searched for “running aesthetic” and “racing aesthetic.” I chose a bunch of Pins that resonated and kept going down my list. Don’t worry about choosing too many for each goal — you’ll narrow down your options later. I opt for three-to-five good pins per goal.

If you aren’t sure an image embodies your goal exactly, I suggest pinning it to your board anyway. It may prove useful when you curate your own aesthetic. More on that later.

Choose your favorite Pins

And put them in a more specific board

After you’ve collected all your images, it’s time to pick your favorites. Make a new board, and name it something more specific this time. For example, I called mine “2026 Vision – FINAL.” Now, go through the ‘general’ board and select one or two pins per goal to add to the more specific board.

How do you choose? Since these pins are going to be the materials for the next (and more creative) part, I select Pins that have similar or complementary colors, noisiness, etc. I prefer a more uniform aesthetic, but perfection isn’t the goal — it’s creating something you’ll be willing to look at every single day. What’s the point of mental rehearsal if you aren’t willing to glance at your aspirations over and over again?

Now, it’s time to get those pins off Pinterest and onto your laptop or phone. Go to each Pin in your new board and right-click the images to save them one by one.

The images found on Pinterest are often protected by copyright and should not be reused, shared, or published without the original creator’s permission. When creating a vision board, ensure that any images you save are for personal reference only — not for resale, commercial use, or redistribution — and if you intend to use them beyond that, obtain proper authorization from the copyright owner.

Go to Canva

Build out your dreams

Every year, I take the images I collect from Pinterest and use them to create the vision board of my dreams. To really get the mental rehearsal effect, I create a design that takes up the entirety of my laptop display. That way, I can set it as my wallpaper and see it every time I open my computer.

If you’re a seasoned Canva Pro, my advice is this: go straight to town and make a collage. But if you’re new to Canva, don’t worry — it’s one of the most user-friendly design tools out there. For the sake of simplicity, though, here are some easy steps to follow:

1. Sign in with your email or create an account.
2. Click “Create Design” on the left-hand side.
3. Choose a design size. Canva has suggestions if you don’t know exactly what size you want — I typically go for “Desktop Wallpaper” which is 1920×1080 pixels, making it perfect to both print and set as a digital wallpaper.
4. A blank design will load. Head to the upper right corner to name it.
5. Click “Uploads” in the far left menu. Click the purple “Upload files” button and select all the images you downloaded from Pinterest.

This will give you a blank document to play with. If that’s intimidating, open up the toolbar on the left and browse through some templates. You can search for “collage” or “vision board” for inspiration, or even just drag and drop your images into those pre-made templates. As someone who isn’t the most spatially-inclined, templates are a lifesaver.

You can drag and drop your own uploads into the design, hover over an existing image, and Canva will replace your picture in the exact same frame space as the template’s.

Put your vision board where you’ll see it

Mental rehearsal demands attention

The point of this exercise is to consciously practice mental rehearsal and make it easier to take the action steps needed to achieve your goals. When you print it out or even make it your wallpaper, you’re forced to look at it each day. Mine reminds me why I’m working so hard, and seeing the manifestation of my dreams in front of me only makes me want to chase them more.

So, print your vision board, keep it digital, or even just browse that Pinterest board once in a while to remind yourself what you’re striving for. Happy New Year!