4 Reflection Questions for a Brighter Year-End Review (Notion Template Included)

The gist: Don't be so excited to start the new year that you don't take what you need to from the current one with a year-end review. Here are 4 personal reflection questions (plus 2 bonuses) for a New Year's Life Review in Work Brighter style.

Let's be real: 2020 was pretty much a pile of poo.

A pile of poo that's been set on fire and dropped on your doorstep steaming.

(I've never known that to happen but it's in a lot of TV shows and movies, so. )

But here's the thing: we can't just forget about everything that happened and move on for 2021.

Moving on without some end of year reflection first would be like stamping out the feces fire but then not even cleaning it up.

Just...leaving it steaming and stinking up your front porch and your shoe and the bottom of your pants.

Ick, I've had enough of that metaphor.

My point is, it's a missed opportunity to rush into 2021 without reflecting and reviewing on this mess that has been 2020.

Be Kind, Rewind

In the Work Brighter-verse, we have our own spin on the old Blockbuster reminder: be kind to yourself, rewind yourself. 

Rewind your day before the next one.

Rewind your weeks and months before a new one.

Rewind your year before moving on from it.

And to me, the harder a time period was, the more important it is to do a personal review. Because having some distance from the experiences can give you a new perspective on them.

Like, when I'm talking about mental health and self-care, you might've noticed I talked about 2017 a lot. That's because 2017 was a really hard year for me, but I've now learned so much from it because of the time spent looking back.

I'm trying to make the same thing happen with 2020.

You know I'm not about toxic positivity BS and saying stuff like "everything's okay as long as you learned a lesson."

Maybe thing's aren't okay.

And being able to say "I learned a lesson from this" won't cancel everything out.

But it can still make things feel about 2% less crappy, and that's still something when the crappiness level's off the charts.

So here are 4 simple, brighter reflection questions for rewinding your year with a year-end review.

(What you see me walking through here is a Notion template that you can download for yourself, and you can also grab rewind templates for your day, week, and month in the Work Brighter With Notion template bundle.)

Step 1: Identify the Year's Yays

A whole year is hard to get through (especially this one). But you did it! 

You did accomplish a lot this year, even if it doesn't feel like it.

You're here, and that's enough.

What's more, I bet you made progress on a lot of things, even if you're not as far as you thought you'd be.

So for the first step of your end of year review, I want you to celebrate.

Think of all the projects you finished. Think of all the projects you're closer to finishing. Think of the problems solved. The relationships nurtured. The laughs and smiles shared.

Don't leave them behind to forget about.

Name them. Celebrate them!

No matter how small they feel.

Look at them as proof of how much progress you made this year.

And yes, surviving a pandemic is a yay, so put it on the list.

Step 1, Part 2: Dig Deeper

Part 2 of this question is to dig deeper into what these accomplishments mean and how you can take that into account in the future.

What can you do to keep up momentum?

To lean into and double down on your wins?

To nurture the seeds that you've planted?

They say you're better off optimizing your strengths than correcting your weaknesses, right?

To me, that means learning from your wins might be more important than learning from your losses, so don't skip this step.

Step 2: Recognize the Rough Spots

In any given year, it's a given that not everything will go as planned.

And 2020...I know I'm starting to sound redundant now, but THAT SHIT WAS HARD.

Focusing on your wins doesn't mean you need to be in denial about your losses.

Like I said before, no room for toxic positivity here.

Acknowledging weak or rough spots in your year can be really freeing once you've had some distance from them.

Step 2, Part 2: Dig Deeper

Not only can it just feel really restraining to continue pretending everything's fine, but not examining your failures or mistakes means you'll never learn from them.

So depending on what they are, there's a chance of getting stuck in a repetitive cycle with them.

So real quick, we're going to acknowledge them. what lessons there might have been in them, and then say "thank you, next."

Step 3: Grin About Growth

(Yes, annual reviews are objectively better when they contain alliteration. Thanks so much for asking!)

Now it's time to look at the ways you've grown and learned this year.

Because between the wins and the losses, and the moments in between them both, you grew so much this year.

You grew every day.

Growth isn't always linear, and it isn't always vertical.

Maybe one branch of your "life plant" didn't grow taller, but a new one sprouted and another had a new leaf bloom.

(Can you tell I got into houseplants during the pandemic?)

So now I want you to take things from the first two steps, and write down how you grew from them. That might be new skills learned, new habits built, and more.

Some people say that hard things are what make you strong, but I've been trying to reframe that for myself.

There's a fantastic Twitter thread from Sam Dylan Finch about neurodiversity and mental illness and how it's not the hard things that make you strong, it's actually you and the coping mechanisms that you developed in response to those things that make you strong, and you deserve credit for that.

So while we're not just talking about your neurodivergence or mental illness here specifically (although feel free to include anything related to it!), that mindset is a valuable one to hold whenever we're talking about growth.

Step 4: Start to Look Forward

Alright! Now that we've spent some time looking backwards, it's time to turn back around and face front.

This step is not the time for full-on, full-out annual planning (try the Work Brighter Practical Planning process for that), but it's getting that process started.

I want you to start thinking about the big picture you want to paint next year.

Consider yourself Bob Ross and 2021 is little happy trees.

What goals do you want to reach?

What habits and routines do you want to have?

What kind of person do you want to be?

How do you want to spend your time?

What kind of work do you want to do?

Which relationships do you want to nurture?

This is all info that's helpful to think about before you actually dive into your yearly plan.

That way, when you get into actual planning, you know your vision for it.

And if you liked this post, you'll also love  

• How I Work Brighter with Notion
• Why Notion is Better Than LEGOs
• 12 Remote Work Habits to Work Brighter, Not Just Smarter

And be sure to check out our Notion resource hub for all our free tutorials and templates!

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