How to Review Your Year

There are still a few weeks left in 2021, but I find that for me mid-December is a great time to both lock in my misogi event for next year and also review the past twelve months. The latter is a practice I learned from the stoic Seneca. He famously put each day up for review before going to bed each night. And while I do that as well (but not every night), these annual reviews really give me some great perspective on what I have—or haven’t—accomplished over the past year.

How I Do It

There are really only a few criteria to which I adhere when reviewing my year. It’s a simple process with profound results. Here are the questions I ask myself:

  1. Did I meet the goals I set?
  2. Did I work hard enough at being happy?
  3. Was my level of service to others high enough?
  4. Was I fulfilled creatively?
  5. If the answer to any of the above was no, was I prepared enough?
  6. How can I apply what I’ve learned here to next year to be even better?

That’s it, six questions. But it’s easy to see how an hour or more could be spent answering them. You’re looking thoughtfully at an entire year after all. Putting each day up for review as Seneca did could cut time off of the annual review, but it’s still good to take a look at the macro after examining the micro everyday.

I can’t tell you how effective this has been for me over the past few years. It’s such a helpful way to see where you’ve been and to better navigate where you’re headed.

More discussion on annual reviews