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 a few bonuses) for a New Year's Life Review in Work Brighter style.
By the end of the year, most of us feel one of two ways:
Excited and motivated for the new year, and ready to skip right ahead to January 1 and our new year's goals
Exhausted, overwhelmed, and burnt out, wanting to hibernate until January 1 and let it pass as slowly as possible, not even thinking about the new year.
In either scenario, a year-end personal reflection tends to be the last thing we're in the mood for.
But skipping a year-end review can be a big missed opportunity to get well-needed perspective on the past 12 months.
Luckily, you don't need to spend a ton of time on it.
While a lot of annual reflection workbooks or journals go super in-depth, I get that not everyone has the time, energy, or interest in spending hours looking back on the year.
So today we're talking about the most basic steps to go through to reflect on your year.
(If you do want to go further in-depth, we also have prompts and advice for that in our post on creative reflection prompts and inside the free template that goes along with this post, but they're totally optional!)
Why bother with a year-end reflection?
In the Work Brighter-verse, we have our own meaning for the old Blockbuster reminder: “be kind, rewind.”
I want it to remind you that looking back and reflecting is an act of self-kindness.
In my opinion, the harder a time period was, the more important and helpful it can be to reflect on it once it's over. Having that distance from difficult experiences can give you a new perspective on them, and it tends to be a gentler, more compassionate one.
Now let’s get into the bare minimum steps to gain that needed perspective.
All you need is a place to write your answers, any helpful references like your camera roll or journal, and 15-30 minutes.
(What you see me walking through here is a Notion reflection worksheet that you can download for yourself.)
Grab a notebook or document to write your answers in, and let's get started.
If you kept any logs of your year, like a stream of consciousness journal, gratitude journal, planner, or habit tracker, you can grab that to help you get a better picture of the year.
Free Notion Annual Review Template
If you want to conduct your year-end review in Notion, duplicate this free Notion template with the personal reflection questions and journal prompts from this post all set up for you already!
Reflection step 1: identify the year's yays 
First things first, you want to think about the best parts of the year so far.
It’s so easy to feel like we did nothing or accomplished nothing, when that’s hardly ever the case.
At the very least, you made it through another few months. And I bet you also made at least some progress on your goals, did some cool things, went to some cool places, met some interesting people, or learned interesting things.
And even if it’s not as much as you wanted, it’s worth celebrating.
So ****I want you to take a few minutes to celebrate some “yay”-worthy moments from the year.
Think about things like:
- Projects you finished
- Projects you made progress on
- Problems in your life that you solved
- Important relationships that you nurtured
- Things that made you laugh or smile
- New daily habits built or bad habits broken
No matter how small they feel, they’re proof you’ve made progress, and are worth celebrating.
If you do want to go a little deeper than a 15-minute reflection, you can also take a few extra minutes to dig deeper into the year’s highlights. For example, you could ask yourself things like why they made you feel good or what you can learn from your yays.
Reflection step 2: recognize the rough spots
Now that you’re in a good mood from step 1, step 2 is a good time to think about the lower moments of the year. For me at least, it becomes less of a bummer.
Acknowledging things that didn’t go well or that you struggled with can actually be really freeing, once you've had some distance from them. Again, it’s a gift of perspective.
So take a few minutes to list out what sucked about this year, so it's not stuck in your head anymore.
Not only can it help you let go of any baggage around those rough spots, but it can help you learn from your harder experiences before moving on from them.
And again, if you want to dig deeper and spend more time on this, you can. For example, you can brainstorm specific lessons you want to take away from the year’s struggles, or what you can do (if anything) to better prevent or manage similar ones in the future.
Just make sure to approach the process with curiosity, not criticism.
Reflection step 3: grin about growth
Now that you’ve gone over individual moments and experiences from the year, it’s time to look for some common patterns and themes…and good things they say about you.
This isn’t about toxic positivity or making things up.
It’s just about seeking out the good when it’s so easy to notice the bad.
For example, even if the year sucked, and you spent practically the whole time flaring up and burning out, you could say things like, “I managed the best I could given where my health is,” or “I took my health as seriously as it deserves.”
You might also think about new skills learned, new habits built, new perspectives gained, maladaptive coping mechanisms replaced with adaptive ones, and more.
Sure, sometimes it can be hard to come up with something that feels both true and authentic, but that challenge is where the benefit is. Consider it practicing positive self-talk for the year ahead.
Reflection step 4: face the future
Now that we've spent some time looking backwards, it's time to turn around and face forward again.
This step is not the time for full-on, all-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 so that you have a starting point for filling in the details later.
Some things you can consider are:
- What goals do you want to reach?
- What new 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 planning.
That way, once you get into actual planning, you know your vision for it. You have an idea of what you’re planning for.
Going beyond the basics
Like I said earlier, the previous 4 steps are the bare minimum parts of a simple, basic reflection.
But sometimes it feels good to go into more detail or get a little more creative with your annual review.
So here are a few other prompts you can add to your personal year-end review:
- What words or themes could sum up your year?
- Which area of your life grew the most this year?
- Which relationships were you most grateful for?
- Which activities that you do felt the most nurturing?
- Where did your energy go?
- What were your favorite movies, books, TV shows, and other media this year?
We also have a whole list of creative annual reflection exercises to use in addition to or instead of these journaling prompts.
Be kind, rewind
Taking time to reflect like this is what "be kind, rewind" is all about.
It doesn’t need to be complicated or time-consuming.
Just 15 minutes and 4 steps can help you close out the year with clarity and self-kindness.
Free Notion Annual Review Template
If you want to conduct your year-end review in Notion, duplicate this free Notion template with the personal reflection questions and prompts from this post all set up for you already!
