Vision boards are meant to be a tool to focus on what’s important in your life – focus on your family, business goals, or living a carefree lifestyle. How you create your vision board or what it looks like aesthetically doesn’t have any bearing on how well it will work.

If you have the Martha Stewart crafty gene in you, make your vision board as pretty as can be. Add pieces of fabric, paint an abstract background with your favorite colors, or dig out your long lost scrapbook supplies and utilize those beautiful printed papers and fun stickers.

However, if you don’t have a crafty gene nor have the desire to develop a crafty side – or if you’re male and want a more masculine look – have no fear: you can still make a no-frills vision board that suits your style and that will work!

1. Cork vision board. 

Buy an inexpensive cork board and use thumbtacks to attach your photos. Using tacks makes it especially easy to move your photos around or to take some off after you’ve reached your goals.

2. Vision books. 

If you have multiple goals for different parts of your life, then creating a vision book keeps all those goals on separate pages but still compact in the same book. A simple journal or a larger scrapbook serves the purpose. However, make a concerted effort to look at your book every day or find a unique way to keep your vision book where you can see it often instead of closed up on your bookshelf.

3. Digital vision boards. 

For those who can whiz around the internet at the speed of light, digital vision boards are time savers. Search for a free template or use Canva’s grid template. Simply upload your photos and quotes to your chosen template and save. Save it as your wallpaper on your computer and phone. Go one step further and get it professionally printed on photo paper at your local photo shop.

4. Hang a single photo. 

In a 60 Minutes interview, Beyoncé said that she hung a photo of an Academy Award near her treadmill where she saw it every day, just to keep that goal at the back of her mind. She reached that goal in 2013 when she received the Oscar for her song from the James Bond movie, Skyfall.

5. Write a vision statement. 

For those who are born wordsmiths, forget about the pretty pictures and write out your goals instead. However, write it as a letter to yourself, 10 years into the future. Describe what you’re doing and where you’re living, among other things, as if you’ve been living that life for 10 years and are giving an update to your long lost friend. That’s exactly what Luvvie Ajayi did as a training exercise for her job. She went from being laid off from the job she loved to being a NY Times Bestselling Author! You can read Luvvie’s story here.

So much time is spent describing traditional vision boards but as you can see, creating a non-traditional vision board or writing a vision statement is just as powerful. The most important point is voicing your goals and taking action to achieve those goals. How you package up your vision is completely arbitrary.