If you aren’t already doing this, please for the love of all things sacred, get to it! I unfortunately forgot to do this last year, which meant I had no letter to read before writing this one. That’s the only letter I’ve skipped in the past five years of doing it. There is something magical, humbling and also very emotional in reading things past me hoped and wished for and seeing how I was feeling.

In practice, I take out an A4-sized letter paper, address it to myself and start with a recap of the past year. I fill out both sides, the end being dedicated to dreams and wishes and musings about what I would like the beginning year to look like. Then I slide the letter into an envelope that I glue down in my journal. That way, I never lose them.

• Finish prepping all of my journals and other systems for the year

As a devoted journaling girlie of many, many years, it is simply not a new year until my journals are in order. Currently, this looks like getting spreads ready in my yearly collections bullet journal, picking out a new colour of pen for my 5-year journal and updating my calendar. This year, my bujo spreads include a space to track kilometres run, a savings tracker, a goals page and one of my favourites: 20 things to do 26 times in 2026.

This year, a new addition to my system is a digital data collection process. I’ve been fascinated with the idea of collecting random data about my life for some time now, and this upcoming year I decided to make it happen. Now I have a whole spreadsheet ecosystem; one for my books, one for my budget and one that holds everything else from my moods to the amount of pastries consumed.

• Clean the house and eat something nice

This one feels pretty self-explanatory. Feels good to wake up to a fresh year in a home that’s free from the messes that normally plague it, and having eaten something delicious the night before.

• Clarify and write down my goals

I usually brainstorm my goals throughout December, but the final choice gets made on New Year’s Eve when I write them down in my journal. I’ve been notoriously bad at completing yearly goals, so this time I broke them down into the four quarters of the year to make it more manageable. Not that I won’t have to train for a half-marathon in August, starting well… Yesterday, but at least it only haunts me from one section of my goals page!

• Burn manifestations on the balcony

A new addition to the list, just to add some woo-woo shit into my life. I have never been a particularly spiritual person, but things haven’t really been going my way lately, so what would it hurt to try something new? I’d very much like for the universe to prove me wrong, just once. And somehow fire seems like the appropriate method for the new year, even though it isn’t my preferred element. Soaking pieces of paper with my manifestations written on them in the bathroom sink just doesn’t feel like it would hit the same…

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And here they were, my list of non-revolutionary things that you can also try if you haven’t yet or are bored with your own routines.

May 2026 bring us all the things we spend tonight wishing for.

– All my love, Ansku

PS: I’m leaving the partying for other people tonight. But I did put on my fancy pyjamas!