Doing a year end review and plan is a great way to set yourself up for the new year. By doing a review, you gain clarity and gratitude. By doing a year plan, you start yourself out with a guide to the things you want to accomplish in the new year.
Most people avoid this task because they think it takes a lot of time – and if you are doing this at the end of the calendar year, who has time? But the following actionable framework can get you there in 2 hours or less, giving you the benefits of the exercise.
This Can Be Done At Any Point In The Year
Doing things for the “new year” is merely obeying the whims of long dead men who decided to set up the calendar the way it stands now.
You can choose to humor it, or do this process at any point in the rest of the year.
How To Do This In 2 Hours Or Less
The framework I am presenting is broad in scope. In order to do this in 2 hours or less, pick the areas that matter to you.
Do not try to do all of the areas. It will take you much longer than 2 hours, and not all areas will apply to you or have equal importance. Limit what you are considering to get it done quickly.
Prep Work: Choose Your Areas of Focus
Here is a list of areas to consider in your review and plan. Do not do all of them. Pick the top five that matter to you.
One thing to note: they do not have to be the same for the review and the plan. If you focused on your education last year but you graduated, review that area but pick another area to focus on for the future.
- Adventure
- Career
- Children
- Community
- Creativity
- Education
- Family
- Friendship
- Health
- Living space
- Mental health
- Money
- Parenting
- Relationship (main)
- Self-care
- Side hustles
- Spirituality
- Travel
Step 1: Gather Your Data
In order to do an effective review, you are going to want to rely on more than your memory. Gather the things that will help you figure out what you did in relation to the areas you picked.
- Calendars
- Journals
- Photos
- Statements
- Status reports
- Task list managers
- Other trackers (like book trackers/Good Reads, movie trackers/Letterboxd etc). These could be apps or lists you have created
Do not waste your time pulling data for areas that don’t matter to you. If money isn’t on your list, don’t waste time pulling bank and credit card statements.
Step 2: Review Last Year
Make sure you write these things down. Just working through the questions mentally will not give you the same benefit. Aim for quick answers, not essays.
- Do a general overview: note your best/worst days; note transitions in your life (births/deaths/core family and living situation changes); what made you happy/sad; what do you regret doing/not doing
- Celebrate your wins: List the top 3-5 achievements for each of your areas. Ask “What surprised me about what I accomplished?”
- Spot patterns and lessons: Identify recurring habits – both helpful and not. Do a two column table for each area: What worked vs What Didn’t Work.
- Identify your growth: ideally this would be quantified (books read, days exercised, miles run, revenue increased).
- What made you crazy? Look at the friction points in your life and brainstorm things that could make it better.
Step 3: Plan Next Year
Next up is looking ahead. Do not overwhelm yourself by setting up major goals in every area you have selected. Write these answers down, being as brief as possible.
- What do you want to accomplish and why? Use the “why” to evaluate if the goal is your own and is truly important to you. List out any projects that you want to do, as well as ones that contribute to the goal but aren’t fully fleshed out.
- What skills do you need? Sometimes goals need us to have foundational knowledge. List out what you need and how you might get those skills (”Google” is fine).
- What support do you need? Sometimes we need a cheerleader, sometimes an accountability partner, and sometimes changes (childcare if you are going back to school).
- What do you need to do more/less of to reach this goal? Aim for things you can quantify. (Losing weight: eat 3 servings of vegetables per day, only eat sugar one day per week)
- What is your time frame? You don’t want to start 5 major projects all in January. Figure out what can be spaced throughout the year so that you have time and energy to deal with them.
- What small thing can you do right now to move forward? Even if it is big thing like making a plan for your goal, or a small thing like taking your credit card out of your wallet.
Step 4: Make It Actionable
This step is important because it makes the items in Step 3 tangible. A plan is only a dream until you start to work it.
- Break your goal into actionable steps. These are things you can accomplish in a short amount of time. Think “brainstorm chapters” rather than “write book”
- Break those actionable steps down. Even if you think they are small enough, see if you can go smaller. Like “start new document” and “write 3 bullet points” to break down “brainstorm chapters”
- Figure out what you are going to do in your first month. Pick one project and schedule those tasks so that they can be done. Put these goals/projects/actions in with whatever you use to track your daily stuff. You don’t want to forget about this, and the best way is to make it visible to yourself regularly.
- Review. At the end of the month (or week) review what your progress is. If you haven’t made progress, ask why. If you have, celebrate!
In Conclusion
Doing this year end review and plan is a good exercise. It allows you to see what you’ve done, which may not be something you have considered in this hustling world. It also gives you direction for where you are going. And if you decide two months later that you don’t like that direction, do the exercise again and move forward with confidence!
Bonus
If you want a free printable version of the plan, please check it out in my shop.
