Having enjoyed the benefits of tracking “Twenty-three 23’s in 2023,” “Twenty-four 24’s in 2024,” and “Twenty 25s in 2025” actions in my Bullet Journal collections, I’m back for more in 2026!
This setup and structure are inspired by Jess, aka JashiiCorrin on YouTube, which I wrote about my in my 2023 Review blog, and it’s become a playful way to gamify my annual objectives! Making my leading metrics for the year concrete and fun helps me take action and track data in order to “move the needle” on my lagging metrics and results that follow.
Arranged according to my 8 major focus areas–Read, Write, Create, Serve, Connect, Practice, Sustain, and Adventure–this way I get a somewhat holistic picture of my intentions and goals for the year. I focus setting intentions, taking specific actions I can take to uphold them, then see what results occur. Then I reflect, recommit or change direction, and carry on creating!
Here’s the spread in my Bullet Journal, with a collection for each item to follow:
20 Actions, 26+ Times
Last year I realized that I don’t intend to increase the number of measured actions annually, which would generate “Twenty-five 25s” and escalate each coming year. Instead it seemed prudent to reduce the number of projects tracked in this way and focus in more. Some actions in my eight focus areas I continue to loosely track, but I discovered evaluating some actions numerically, keeping metrics on everything can take the fun out. For example dates, artist dates, and other such adventures are important to me, but sheer quantity is less important than quality.
That said, it has never been a 100 percent, A plus, perfectionistic game, rather an experiment in awareness, an opportunity to check in regularly with my declared priorities.
This year I’m taking action and being accountable to Twenty 26s.
Some of the activities truly do fall about every two weeks, sufficient for 26 within a year’s time, whereas others are meant to occur weekly or even daily (such as yoga practice, meditation, and language practice). Therefore I arrive at my goal of 26 at a different rate for each type of action and for many I have planned to continue well beyond that.
In fact at the time of this writing, I have already reached at least 26 actions in 8 areas already! Each is something that I value and want to nurture, but the precise frequency that supports me best depends on the action.
In future articles, videos, and posts I’ll share my progress and results, though some metrics I may not share in detail for personal or privacy reasons.
What projects, actions, and measures are important to you will probably be different from my priorities, but I hope this sparks ideas and avenues for your own evolving practice.
Twenty 26s Flip-Through
The video below on YouTube is a flip-through of the initial setup of my 2026 Annual Collections Book so far, including my Twenty 26s in 2026 projects and creative challenges planned as well as my Adventures and Future Log.
Just sharing my own process and preferences, what works for you might very well look very different and most certainly will change over time! Brands and items I mention in the video are just what I have access to and currently use, based on personal experience and opinion. This video is not sponsored (none are so far) and I encourage you to use whatever supplies you have at hand and enjoy.
If you enjoy this sort of content, check out my 2025 Annual Book, 2024 Annual Book, 2023 Annual Book and reflections, Word of the Year, and I’ll be back soon with more fun with ballet, mindful movement, creativity, and beyond.
My Twenty 26s
These are the twenty actions I chose, grouped into eight thematic areas (with a lot of overlap) and with a couple bonus spreads and plenty more room in my Annual Book to capture further ideas, research, workshops, collaborations…
Read
1. Books
Fiction Novels such as cozy mysteries and rom-coms, Nonfiction, Personal Growth, Scriptures, Poetry, anything goes! Enjoying reading every day, learning from new perspectives, and diving into favorite topics are my main reading goals, so consistency and value is more important than volume.
Subscribers to my email newsletter are privy to what I’m currently reading, top recommendations, and thoughts about current reads. Goodreads also tracks at least my eBook titles, most of which I borrow from the library using the Libby App.
Write
2. Publish Blog Articles
Like this one! I write about dance, mindful movement, creativity, lifelong learning, coaching, and joyful living. I started blogging in order to share my knowledge, provide references for students and clients, and find my voice.
I continue because it has done all of that and also connects me to a community of likeminded people!
3. Email Newsletters
The best way to keep in touch across the globe! I love sharing my latest creations and offerings and valuable resources from other creators as well in my email newsletter. It’s important to me these days that I own my email list and website, so am less affected when social media goes down or otherwise behaves badly, and this also assures that you never miss out an anything I create or recommend.
Not yet a subscriber to my Email Newsletter? You can join here and let me know if you ever have questions.
4. Poems
My ongoing log (both analog and digital) of “acorns” or nuggets of poems and songs for possible eventual completion helps keep me in practice and creates a bank of material for future use. Short poems may also come through all at once, like the 365 Haiku I wrote in 2021.
5. Letters
Telling loved ones how I feel, pen palling, keeping in touch through “snail mail.” Historically I have good intentions for regular correspondence, sending timely birthday cards, etc., but establishing the habit of writing and sending the post is still a growing edge. Pleased to continue improving my consistency in this area and it is very rewarding, I’ve been receiving some responses and the personally-addressed envelopes in my mailbox make my whole day!
This is also a splendid opportunity to play with my hobby of fountain pens, inks, and stationery.
Create
6. Videos
Ideally I’d like to publish videos at least weekly, and in fact I shared 53 of them in 2025, but 26 is a good minimum. Consistently publishing content on YouTube and for social media develops my body of work, grows my skills, and engages my students and audience. You can view and subscribe to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel here.
7. Choreography
Engaging in movement and artistic research is an ongoing feature of my practice. Like writing acorns or small segments of poems, the daily practice can be small, involving improvising, moving, and brainstorming. In addition to choreography for my classes and larger projects I create other challenges for myself, such as the micro video choreography sketches for the #alphabetsuperset creative challenge that then inspired my Dance Daily December movement advent calendar. All of these become my working drafts – ideas and sequences that may find their way into (or ate least influence and inspire) a video, a class, workshop, collaboration, or other creation.
Serve
8. Teach Classes
Ongoing Mindful Movement classes in Ballet, Barre+, Barre a Terre, and Yoga as well as special workshops and master classes are all a part of my professional service as a teaching artist and educator.
9. Coaching Sessions
Coaching clients, offering sample sessions, and supporting people in taking leaps of faith to create the life of their dreams are integral to the professional service that I provide.
Practice
10. Bullet Journal (BuJo) Spreads
Got a good start on this as the year turned over and I set up my Annual Book spreads including my Future Log, these Twenty 26s and my Seasonal Book, the Monthly and Weekly spreads I created in my Seasonal Books and other special collections, meeting this goal.
Like journaling content? Some of my spreads can be found on Instagram, in videos (in relation to art and creativity), and in blog articles like this one that relate my personal process.
Connect
11. Social Media
Posting, engaging, sharing resources, behind-the-scenes experiences, connecting with my creative community on Instagram and Facebook several times a week as @ablythecoach
Bonus: Creative Challenges
Participating creative challenges hosted by others, such as Alphabet Superset, NaNoWriMo, Inktober, and more provide motivation, community, and structure in which my artist child can play. Hosting my own creative challenges in the areas of dance, yoga, and coaching, is a fun way to connect and support folks on those journeys.
Sustain
12. Financial Fun & Adulting
Weekly check-ins with accounts, bills, budgeting, balancing books, profit, debt, insurance, investment and adulting also need to be regularly updated. Staying real and being on top of this area eases anxiety and helps me focus on what is important.
Practice (more)
13. German/Deutsch
Duolingo helps me continue to build my vocabulary and correct my grammar alongside practicing in teaching and everyday conversation. Being a daily activity, usually two short sessions mornings and evenings, I completed over 26 sessions by the end of January.
Also related to the adulting topic of maintaining my work visa and other living-abroad to-dos.
14. Music
Creating music playlists and practicing playing an instrument or singing are also efforts that contribute to my artistic output and inspiration in other areas.
Then I share the musical selections and playlists in dance classes and use them for choreographic impulse, yoga practice, setting the mood for various other activities, and for celebration of life. As with books and reading, I sometimes share my favorite songs, pieces of music, and playlists including those I create myself in my videos, articles, and email newsletter.
I do enjoy including singing, harmonica, percussion, and other musical creative practices that complement my choreography, dance, and movement education. This is one way that I continually develop rhythm and musicality as I wrote about here and expand my potential artistic expression.
15. Yoga
Short or longer daily yoga practices have been one of my most consistent daily habits since 2019, so this year I completed my 26th practice in January. Here is an article where I wrote about Healthy Habit Building, and I also share about yoga on my YouTube Channel and in-person and online teaching.
16. Meditate
As with Yoga, Meditation is a part of my daily ritual of healthy habits. There are so many benefits and I’ll absolutely continue to practice.
17. Gratitude & Abundance
In my pocket notebook Captain’s Log, and for several years to build my streak I created entries digitally in the Gratitude App, but now I’m on a roll it is analog-only, and I stop as often as I can to be present to the abundance and beauty I enjoy.
18. Physical Therapy
With a Thera Band, Balance Board, Foam Roller, Ball, Pull-Up Bar and more, I do a lot of cross-training in order to be able to continue actively dancing and teaching mindful movement.
19. Daily Logs
Having my pocket notebook on hand at all times allows me to keep ongoing notes throughout the day, my “Captain’s Log,” based on the sort of rapid logging Ryder Carroll describes in the Bullet Journal Method.
Although this collection does not need its own spread in my Annual Book, I
20. Morning Pages
Starting when I did Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, now I write my freewheeling freehand Pages most weekdays as part of my creative morning ritual.
Bonus: Adventure & Celebration
Adventure for me means everything from trying new experiences, taking romantic or artist’s dates, providing nourishment for my soul and creative process.
Travel, Events, Dates & New Experiences are one of my favorite areas in which to set goals and broaden my horizons, connect with loved ones and meet new connections. Trips home to visit my family and on other getaways are in the works for 2024.
Playfully fueling my creative fire, using my art & craft supplies, journaling, coffeeshops, bookstores, museums and galleries, performance and adventures, park time sketching, bird-watching…pretty much anything that inspires me can qualify as an Artist’s Date! Like that of Morning Pages, this concept comes from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
Further Tracking
The Annual Book is also where I record things like a Future Log of coming events, Kan Ban Board of actions to produce content, and other projects that I design and challenges I participate in during the year.
Future Log
What are Your 26s?
If you’ve chosen intentions and objectives or projects for the year, I’d love to hear about them and how it is going! You can start now, or at any time, just by choosing one action you’d like to complete 26 times in the coming period. Build a new habit and see the impact taking one small step (repeatedly) can have!
Questions for Reflection
- What goals and intentions do you have for 2026, the coming quarter, season and month?
- What small actions or habits do you practice regularly in alignment with your intended outcomes?
- How will you reach out to me for support in dancing through your difficulties?
Resources for Further Exploration
- Float in 2025 – Word / Intention of the Year Article
- Leaps & Bounds in 2024 – Reflecting on a Year’s Highs & Lows Article
- Quantum Leaping in 2024 Word / Intention of the Year Article
- Say the Magic Words Article
- Blogging My Purpose – the “Why” behind A Blythe Coach Article
- Why Bother Distinguishing Your Why? Purpose Article
- Goal-Setting for Dancers Article
- Analog Journals for Creativity Article
- Reflective Practice Through Journaling in Dance, Yoga, & Life Article
Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate people dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education