Types of Vision Boards: Which One Fits You?

There are six types of vision boards if you sort them by what they're for, and seven formats if you sort them by what you make them on. You need one of each. That's the whole decision.

I've made vision boards since I was a teenager, and I've been building VISIYA, a vision board app for iPhone and iPad, since 2022. Here's what all those boards taught me: the purpose decides what goes on your board, and the format decides whether you'll ever look at it.

Below you'll find a 1-minute quiz, a free printable chart, every format side by side and a straight answer to "vision board or mood board?"

What are the types of vision boards?

By purpose there are six, and by format there are seven. You can mix them any way you like: a goal list board works as a poster on your wall or as a board on your phone.

You've probably seen "the 3 types of vision boards." They come from author Christine Kane, who first wrote about them in 2007 (here's her article): the "I Know Exactly What I Want" board, the "Opening and Allowing" board and the theme board. Here they're the goal list board, the dream board and the themed board. I added three more, because plenty of real boards fit none of Kane's.

Type	Right for you if you…	Start free	With VISIYA Plus
Whole-life board	are making your first board, or resetting once a year	Wheel of Balance Board, Feng Shui Bagua Board	Vision Board For Men, Big Five For Life
Goal list board	already know your goals and want them in one place	This Year I Will	Best Year, Goal Digger
Themed board	are focused on one part of your life right now	Vision Board for Couples, Vision Board for Moms	Fitness Vision Board, Financial Vision Board and more
Dream board	don't know yet what you want	your own board	–
Seasonal board	want a board with an end date, like one summer	The Twelve Holy Nights	Summer Bucket List, the board for the new year
Values board	keep changing your goals and need a direction first	your own board	–

In VISIYA, one board is free for good: your own, or one of the six free templates. Every template is also a free PDF to print, the Plus boards included. They're all on the templates page.

Which type of vision board should you make?

Take the quiz below. It takes about a minute: start with question 1 and keep going until you land on a type.

Question	Yes	No
1. Do you want your board to be finished after a set time, like one summer or the holidays?	Seasonal board	go to 2
2. Do you have a rough idea of what you want?	go to 3	go to 5
3. Is one part of your life taking up most of your attention right now?	Themed board	go to 4
4. Do you have specific goals, with a number or a date?	Goal list board	Whole-life board
5. Do your goals keep changing?	Values board	Dream board

Now the format. Go down the list and take the first line that sounds like you:

Which one sounds like you?	Your format
You want to see your board every day without having to remember to look	Phone
Your goals will change over the year	Corkboard
You don't want anyone else to see it	Notebook
You love crafting, or you're making it with friends	Poster board
You want to start today	A printed Letter-size template

Both halves fit on one page: Which Vision Board Is Right for You? (PDF), US Letter, free, no email. It also names the free template to start each type with.

The 6 types of vision boards by purpose

Each type fits a different season of life. For each one: who it's for, what goes on it and which template to start with.

1. The whole-life board

This is the board to start with, and the one to redo once a year. You go through every area of your life, from health and money to friendships, and you'll see pretty quickly which one needs you most.

• What goes on it: a few pictures per area and one sentence in your own words.
• Start free: the Wheel of Balance Board, with eight areas, or the Feng Shui Bagua Board, with nine. My feng shui vision board guide explains how the Bagua map works.
• With Plus: Vision Board For Men, Big Five For Life.

If you've never made a board, start here. After that, once a year is plenty. I make my yearly board around my birthday instead of on January 1.

2. The goal list board

For when you already know what you want. Kane calls it the "I Know Exactly What I Want" board.

• What goes on it: your goals, each with a picture and, ideally, a number or a date: a 10K in the spring, $5,000 in an emergency fund, a long weekend in Charleston. For more, see these vision board goal examples.
• Start free: This Year I Will.
• With Plus: Best Year, Goal Digger, Try-Do-Learn-Create.

Before a goal goes on, ask whose goal it is. The ones that really belong to your mom, your partner or your Instagram feed rarely happen.

3. The themed board

One part of your life, one board. It's for the stretch when one thing crowds out everything else: your relationship, money, your health, your job.

• What goes on it: only that area, in more detail: places, numbers, habits.
• Start free: Vision Board for Couples or Vision Board for Moms.
• With Plus: Fitness Vision Board, Financial Vision Board, Career Vision Board, Travel Bucket List, Glow Up and Our Dream Wedding, among others.

When you're stuck in one area, a board of its own does more than one square out of eight on a big board.

4. The dream board

A dream board is for when you honestly don't know what you want, say after a breakup, a loss or a big move. Kane's name for it is the "Opening and Allowing" board.

• What goes on it: pictures that pull you in, no areas, no reasons needed. When the board is full, look for what the pictures have in common.
• Start free: your own board, one page for pictures, notes and links, with no areas set for you. Lots of people collect pictures first with a vision board on Pinterest.

There's no pressure on a dream board. It often turns into a goal list board a few months later.

5. The seasonal board

A board with an end date: one summer, the stretch between Christmas and early January, or a project with a deadline.

• What goes on it: a handful of wishes you can actually do in that time, one picture each.
• Start free: The Twelve Holy Nights, a German custom for the nights between Christmas and January 6. Many people in the US know it as the 13 wishes ritual.
• With Plus: Summer Bucket List and a board for the new year; see the 2027 vision board page.

This is my favorite type for actually checking things off. My summer list had six wishes, one picture each, and by the end of August I'd checked off all six. If I don't plan something, it doesn't happen. An end date makes me plan.

6. The values board

For when your goals change every few weeks. Your values go on the board in place of goals, each one written as a full sentence.

• What goes on it: five or six values. "Honesty" becomes "I say what I think, even when it's awkward."
• Start free: your own board.

I once skipped a New Year's board on purpose and wrote down six values instead, each as a sentence. Finding them took months, and a few turned out to be borrowed from my family or my job. The goals that fit your values can come later, often on a goal list board.

What kind of board is best for a vision board?

The best board is the one you'll look at most. A board in a drawer does nothing for you, however pretty it is.

Format	Cost	Time	Easy to change?	Best for
Poster board, collage	low	2–3 hours	no	a ritual, a night with friends, one fixed picture of the year
Letter-size sheet from a template	free	30 min	reprint it	starting fast, your desk, travel
Corkboard	medium	1–2 hours	yes	goals that change during the year
Notebook, vision journal	low	20 min	add a page	private goals, people who like to write
Phone: app, widget, lock screen	free; widget and wallpaper with Plus	10–20 min	yes	busy days; you see your goals many times a day
Tablet or computer	free	30–60 min	yes	designing big, printing later
Unconventional: a chat with yourself, a playlist, a voice memo	free	5 min	yes	people who think in words or music

Corkboard, foam board or poster board? Cork if your board will change, because you just re-pin the pictures. Foam board or poster board for a collage you want to keep exactly as it is; foam board won't curl or sag on the wall. The full shopping list is on the physical vision board supplies page.

Paper or digital? Both work, and you can have both: the collage from your craft night on the wall and a photo of it on your phone. For the full comparison, read digital vision boards and the apps to make them.

Your phone is where you'll see your board most often. Here's how to make a vision board on your phone and put it on your home screen. VISIYA runs on iPhone and iPad. The widget is part of VISIYA Plus and cycles through all your pictures. Without Plus, it shows just the first picture. The lock screen wallpaper is part of Plus too.

The unconventional ones count too. A text thread with yourself where you send pictures and lines you want to remember. A playlist of songs for your year. A voice memo you play in the morning. A folder of screenshots on your phone does the job as well as a $50 craft night.

What's the difference between a vision board and a mood board?

A mood board captures a look, and a vision board holds what you want in your life. With a mood board, you're asking how something should look or feel. With a vision board, you're asking what you want to do, have or become.

	Mood board	Dream board	Vision board
What it collects	colors, textures, a feeling	pictures that pull you in	your wishes and goals
What it's for	a project: a room, a wedding, an outfit, a brand	figuring out what you want	working toward it
Do you check things off?	no	rarely	yes, one wish at a time

I make an app for each: VISIYA for vision boards and Aethel for mood boards. In VISIYA, you tap "Mark as fulfilled" on any item, and the board shows how many wishes have come true so far, like "12/22 fulfilled." A mood board doesn't need that. It's finished when the look feels right.

So if you're planning a project with a certain look, make a mood board. If you want something in your life to change, make a vision board.

Which vision board do I use myself?

A yearly board in VISIYA that I make fresh around my birthday, and often a short seasonal list next to it.

I make one board per year of my life, named by age: 34, then 35. Before I start the new one, I go through the old one. On my board for 34, 12 of 22 wishes came true. That's about half, which is usual for me.

Every year gets a motto, sometimes a color, sometimes a sentence. For 35 it's "Radical visibility."

How I review the year and plan the next board is in my guide to the yearly vision board. What the research says about vision boards, and what it doesn't, is in my post on whether vision boards work.

Can you have more than one vision board?

Yes. My advice is one main board plus one seasonal board at most. Every extra board adds more pictures, and the wishes that matter get lost.

The same board on paper and on your phone counts as one: the collage on the wall and a photo of it on your phone.

In VISIYA, one board is free for good. A second board needs VISIYA Plus, and so does starting a new board each year while keeping the old ones. On the free plan, you rename your board and fill it again. If a friend invites you to her board, joining is free; on the free plan, it counts as your one board.

For building any type step by step, my guide on how to make a vision board walks you through it. To see finished boards you can copy, browse these vision board examples.

Start with the type the quiz gave you, in the format you can set up today.