The Pen of a Ready Writer

I hereby issue you a challenge: Take a moment and write down where you see your life in 5 years. What do you think you will accomplish in the next 5 years? What major life events do you think will happen in the next 5 years? Will you still be living where you are? Will you still be working on the same things? There's no pressure to be right. Usually when I do this, I seal my imaginations in an envelope and open it in 5 years. And it rarely matches reality. At first, that embarrassed me.  I thought either I should be embarrassed for guessing wrong, or I should be embarrassed for not achieving my intended purpose. But now I realize that it is just fun. It's fun to see how your ideas change and how life changes in unexpected ways. It's fun to see what was important to you 5 years ago. It is such a neat little self-study, and it's totally worth it. So, go ahead. Write a real life imagination of where you think you will be in five years...

Map of Pelestia and surrounding countries I started a three-ring binder for this. I have tabs and dividers. I am building a world. I've built little worlds before for stories, but none of them needed very much building.  This one is bigger and the world plays into my story in a vital way.  So I am drawing maps and naming rulers and playing around with economies and politics and religious views and weaponry and technology and many other facets. And I would like your advice:     How do you build a world?     Do you have any checklists that you use?