I don’t know about you but I’ve been planning 2023 a bit earlier this year. I’m a big goal-setter as most of you know! For me, I have big plans and with my 30th birthday less than a month away, I want to feel prepared before the year actually starts. With that being said, it’s important for me to look back properly and reflect. Here’s the five-step process I use for how to review your year.
STEP 1: WHAT WENT WELL?
Some people will say to answer a set of questions but for me, I just jot down what went well. It will include highlights from the entire year, big wins, what I enjoyed, my favourite moments, and all of the best bits. It can be tricky to do this in one go so I tend to break it down into months. I try to review the month anyway so I have a document to refer back to. Going back through your social media and camera roll is a great way to remember what happened too!
STEP 2: WHAT DIDN’T GO SO WELL?
I don’t like to dwell too much on this section but it’s important to create balance. Jotting down any challenges, low points, and fears means you can see what didn’t work for you. However, to counteract all the negativity, I like to put what I learned or what it taught me next to it. This often leads to goals for the following year so I can fix any mistakes I made.
STEP 3: THE WHEEL OF LIFE
This is an exercise I try to do once a quarter as it shows me where I need to switch my focus too. You basically list the main areas of your life and rank them out of ten. For me, it’s work/career, blogs/social media (sometimes separate each blog), friends, family, health/wellness, finances, fun, and personal development. Try to pick eight to ten categories that are most important to you. If you’ve just moved into a new home, you might have home on there. If you’re not a content creator, you won’t have blog/social media on there!
STEP 4: HIGHLIGHT POTENTIAL 2023 FOCUSES
Whilst this blog post isn’t about planning for the New Year, you can start to look at common themes. Highlight what comes up often or categorise items. You could colour-code your wheel of life and use those colours throughout your review. Jot down any common themes or areas you’d like to focus on in 2023.
STEP 5: LOOK INTO HABITS AND ROUTINES
I’m very big on habits, whether they’re daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Maybe there’s a daily habit you want to incorporate next year and now is the time to think about how you’ll track it and when you’ll do it. Habit stacking can be a great way to achieve this. You basically add a habit on to a task you already do. Maybe you want to improve your skincare routine. Add it on to the time after you’ve brushed your teeth.
I’m also very big on routines but they do need to be reviewed often. Morning and evening routines can be adapted for the seasons and you can also implement a weekly reset or a monthly one (there’ll be blog posts on both of these very soon).
As I said at the beginning, this review is a very simple way of doing things. You can always expand on these sections but for me, I like to spend more time planning the future rather than looking back. I’d say it can take up to an hour to review your year if you sit down and do it in one go. I’d recommend getting super cosy one evening!
Did you enjoy how to review your year? If you’d like to see more planning and organisation blog posts, leave me a comment below!
