A Breakdown of My 2026 Moodboard

A digital moodboard with a tablet pen

I never quite understood moodboards.

Despite being a creative, I just figured the concept wasn't very useful. A cute, but unproductive, conceptualisation session. In a lot of my creative processes, moodboards have been one of the tools I've put firmly at the back of my mind. I think it was also my own misinformed idea that moodboards had to be physical. I simply don't have the time or tools to make a scrapboard, I told myself.

They started coming back onto my radar last year (wow, 2025 is last year now). My parents have started a business together. In the living room, there's a massive white board of images and phrases. It's cute, in all honesty. I've never felt like moodboards weren't a cute concept. They pictured how they wanted the business to go, their wedding and other things they wanted to aim towards in the future- overseas holidays, peace and financial security for the family.

They came up again when I watched this video by Mia's Digital Diary. In the video, she discussed the concept of an experimental mindset when it came to goal setting. Rather than establishing habits, establish experiments. This mindset is, in theory, quite well suited to those with neurodiverse conditions.

Strangely enough, I was already doing a lot of these things. Last year I've tried various different approaches to self-improvement and dropped many of them, and when I'd try a new one I approached the task with a scientific mindset; establishing the benefits and cons of the previous method, taking in the lessons I learnt in my failed endeavours.

Very few of my approaches stuck long-term, but in the short term I did learn various things about myself. For example, I'm an absolute sucker for extensive note-taking when it comes to self-improving.

This video gave me the kick to try that, going into 2026. Whether that in itself sticks is another story, but I've already set up a Notion for my goals and projects which is already exciting me. While I'm not a fan of it's heavy marketing as an AI tool, it's rather useful when you ignore the AI parts.

One of the things Mia's video mentioned was making a moodboard. I booted up Canva (which I've used occasionally for small picture edits) and I began making my moodboard:

I'll start with the quotes:

• Do It For Your Future Self: I came across something last year, though I don't remember if it was a video or a blog post, that said something to the effect of when you make decisions, you're betting on your future self. You are the result of the decisions you make. Your future self is the same. So you're effectively betting on your future self in the choices you make, both positive and negative. It said to view your future self like your best friend. You wouldn't let down your best friend?

• I was born to tell stories: I wanted some quote that reflected my love of writing. I've always felt that telling stories isn't a want, it's a need. A part of my soul compulsively screaming at me to make things.

• Put your phone down and do anything else: Self-explanatory.

• This was all for you: Aligned with the first quote about loving your future self but a line from the song Nettles by Ethel Cain. It's not my favourite song by Hayden, that would probably go to either Inbred or Ptolemaea, but I've caught myself singing it a lot over the past few weeks.

• The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt (Sylvia Plath): Truthfully, I've only really read The Bell Jar and a portion of her journals, but The Bell Jar is one of my favourite works of fiction. If it wasn't this quote, I would've put the portion of The Bell Jar where Esther takes a bath. That segment genuinely changed my mental health in profound ways.

• You might be the one to takes away the pain and let my mind go quiet: I'm a Sleep Token fan. A big one. Damocles was my favourite song from the new album Even in Arcadia but if I gush about Sleep Token I'll be here for weeks. This was a line from Emergence, their first single from the album. It spoke to me very deeply at the time. Plus, I simply couldn't make a moodboard and not include Sleep Token.

Moving onto the images, which are more closely related to some of the goals I'd like to hit:

• Journal (Top left): I want to start making a commonplace journal. I think my approach would end up being a combination of a commonplace journal and a reading log. I do tend to struggle making dedicated journals (I often end up with a notebook that's a mish-mash of everything) but I think it would be nice, especially to engage with media on a deeper level.

• Annotations (Top middle): Again linked to my interests to read texts deeper. Unfortunately I mostly read on kindle these days. It's simply because my current living arrangement means I don't have space for my own bookshelf (heartbreaking). I don't hate reading on kindle, nor have I been the sort that loves annotating books, but the desire to take in what I read has stuck with me. I think this links into my want to make a dedicated journal.

• Crochet (Top Right): I watched this one brilliant video by Hazel Thayer in which she discussed the failures of quitting social media tips. The summary of it is that things like reading and exercise are cognitive activities, and most of us use social media to unwind. Low-energy activities. Therefore developing hand-eye hobbies that are also low-energy and mindless is better to help break the addiction. I do draw in my spare time, but I definitely draw more to improve (ergo, its a cognitive hobby). I want to try out something like crochet or knitting. Not to become a master, just to give my hands something to do.

• Hair Washing (2nd row): The one place where executive dysfunction likes to screw me up these days is in terms of hygiene. I have wavy hair, and use a spin on the Curly Girl Method (my one exception is I tend to use sulfate shampoos more often for cleansing). But washing myself, though it never fails to make me feel amazing, is so hard to start. I want to be more rigid in terms of when I do my wash days.

• Girl with a fit body/gym outfit (2nd row): I fell off my gym habit last year. I don't even know exactly what caused it, I think I tried swapping to a new gym bag but it was too bulky and it made going to the gym feel strenuous. I want to go back and at least start on just a cardio routine and I aim to be in good shape by October.

• Sketchbook (middle): I know Vash the Stampede is on this notebook, I have still not watched Trigun. But I want to draw more.

• Anatomy (3rd row): Tied into drawing more. I want to be better at my understanding of body anatomy.

• Belt/Boots (3rd row): I want to be better with my sense of style. Buying a pair of nice boots has come up on my radar in recent months.

• Textbooks (3rd Row): I've definitely been interested in autodidactism, and I want to study a subject. I've been most interested in studying politics, economics and religion.

• Lady with soft skin (below textbooks): I want to develop a better sense of self-care, particularly a good facial routine.

• Hello Kitty at the Gym (Bottom left): Again, going to the gym. Maybe I'll invest in myself and get a personal trainer, but I'm not sure since I do struggle with the food side of things.

• Trees (Bottom middle): I want to go glamping. I recently said to my partner that I'm a person that struggles to turn off. When I go on holiday, I want to be a tourist and explore. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but I struggle to relax. I said 'if you stick me in the middle of the woods, maybe I'll relax'. So I want to do that. Maybe in my country, maybe abroad? I want to aim towards that.

• Book and cozy socks (bottom right): Again, self-care. Give myself time to be truly cozy, comfortable and relaxed. I wouldn't say it's due to me being stressed out, but simply because it's nice to curl up with a comfortable outfit, a hot drink and a good book.

  
  

And lastly, under the header, I've added 'Let's Experiment'. That's the theme of this year for myself. Truly allowing myself to experiment and test things.

My failure to keep good habits isn't a failure of me as a person. Rather it's a step in a long process of understanding myself, what works, and trying and failing. In the video by Mia, she said that even if you fail, that's fine, because failure too is a result. It's data to use in the next step.

I think that's a rather brilliant mindset.