The MOST productive thing I do every year
It's like my Youtube Rewind but much better
Every year, I write a document that does these things:
Reflect on my experience
Plan for the next year
I’ll share the prompts/questions I put in this document and share some of my responses as many of these can be very personal.
Reflection
I will write everything I’m grateful for including experiences, people, and things.
Grateful for the plants I have in my apartment, my paddleboard that gave me fun memories on Lake Union, my 2-month trip in Europe, my volleyball league that helped me get back into playing again, and of course all the people that are in my life :)
I will also put literally everything I did in the year. At the end of the year, you realize how quickly it went by. However, doing this makes you realize all of the things that you’ve done. From the little boba hangouts to the big trips with friends.
The next thing is the most difficult, which is writing down every challenge you faced.
Some of these things are hard to write down because it’s like reliving a part of your life that was damaging. Take your time when writing these down. Write down the challenges that you were able to overcome which can be empowering and write down the challenges that you currently are still facing.
It seems dumb to write it all down, but when you look back and read these you will realize the amount of growth you did in a year. When you realize all the progress you’ve made it will make you feel good.
Next, I’ll write all the stuff I discovered/started using:
BeReal
Spikeball community in Seattle
Jim Rohn - It’s all risky
Next, I have the life lessons I learned that year:
Genuine love for yourself will help you get through a lot of challenges
Be thoughtful about where you spend your energy
Keep close to the people who continuously learn to navigate your boundaries
Don’t take it personally
Last, I have a list of random questions I like to ask. Here are some of those questions:
If you had to teach one thing you learned this year (that would improve one quality of life) what would that be?
What kept you up at night with excitement this year? Was it worth it? Would you want to do more of it?
When you felt at peace this year, what were you doing?'
What new habits did you create in 2022? Which ones would you want to keep?
Plan
The second part of this is all having to do with the future. First, I’ll write the stuff I want to work on divided into these categories:
Personal (health and relationships)
Professional (career)
Side hustles
Next, I put this goal-setting framework.
Big goals
Checkpoint goals
Daily systems
Anti-goals
Next, I write about the kind of person I want to be. Here are some of the ones I wrote:
I want to be the person that shows up for himself and for others
I want to be the person that makes his affection obvious
I want to be the person who makes an effort
I want to be the person who is willing to sit down and talk through shit, even when it’s uncomfortable or hard
Next, I write down the habits I want to have which I have translated into tracking in my daily journal:
Read
Creating content
Walking
Workout - cardio
Workout - strength
Taking multivitamins
Physical therapy
Lastly, I have my bucket list which some I make as unrealistic as I can:
Get 100k on TikTok and LinkedIn
Help 100 students land internships or jobs
Go Axe Throwing
Meet 100 people
Travel to Japan and South Korea
Write 12 newsletters, going to try to do once a month. Already failed January oops, but I’ll make it up by writing two for February.
Take a hike in the Cascade Mountains
And that’s it!
Let me know if you want a template of exactly what I wrote. However, I suggest that you just create your own review. You get to put what you want to reflect on what you want to think of for the future. It takes time to write all these down, but I hope this will inspire you to write yours. You don’t have to use all the prompts/questions I put in, just put what you feel comfortable doing. It’ll be fun to look back on :)