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Personal Annual Review

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.

This template can be reused each year, but it is a LIVING document. Add to it. Change the structure. Play with it. The original inspiration behind this template comes from David Perell & Tiago Forte's Annual Review Workshop

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Principles

Keep these principles in mind as you complete your review to ensure that you get the most out of it.

1 - Intuition over Analysis

Not everything can be formalized into an analyzable form (and even if it could, it might take a wicked long time — see principles 2 and 3). A lot of what we know is internalized in "gut feelings" or "intuition". Use this to your advantage! It has developed over your life time. Your intuition can help guide your next year into alignment with who you are and who you want to be.

2 - The 80/20 Rule

Most data in life is power law distributed; this means that a relatively small proportion of factors produce a large proportion of the effect (e.g. 20% of the input produces 80% of the output). Be judicious in the work you do throughout the annual review to make sure you are extracting the most value for yourself. Don't let the review take more from you than you get see principle 4).

3 - Completion over Perfection

Don't let yourself get hung up on making everything perfect. You might see fancy annual reviews that look amazing with photos, videos, etc. Yours does not need to look like that! Especially if you have not set up the right habits to make the creation of such a review easy, you will end up spending a lot more effort than value you get (see principles 2 and 4).

4 - The Annual Review is a Tool

If something in this review does not resonate with you at this point in time, skip it! If you think it needs to be changed, change it! Don't fall into the trap of thinking you need to complete everything in some very structured or specific way. Tools are meant to be used for a purpose — make sure you are accomplishing that goal.

Getting Prepared

Some preparation is in order to ensure the process works for you!

[ ] Goal setting: Decide right now what your intention is for this review (see principle 4)

[ ] Time box: Decide right now how much time you will spend on the review. Adapt the idea of progressive overload here: if you have never done an annual review before, limit to a small amount of time for the review. Using some form of social pressure here (e.g. "I will release my annual review to Twitter, Facebook, or a close friend, etc. by X date" may help you stick to this)

[ ] Commit: Set aside blocks of time to complete this process in 3 sessions (roughly one dedicated to each chunk). You don't necessarily have to schedule the same amount of time for each one. Play with how much you give to each section and customize to your needs for this year.

[ ] Make a note with a brainstorm of ideas for this year — this will be helpful as you go through the process. Make sure it is easily accessible during every stage of the review process so you don't lose a great idea!

0 | Preparation

Take notes with “Ideas for this year” to capture any ideas, projects, or goals that come up during this process, to get them off your mind

What area(s) of your life do you most want to focus on for this review?

Where do you want to gain more clarity, creative inspiration, or freedom?

How do you want to feel at the end of it?

Set a deadline to publish or share your Annual Review

1 | Remember

The purpose of this section is a backwards look at highlights / lowlights of the previous year.

Favorites

What was your favorite music playlist?

Who was your favorite artist?

What was your favorite song?

What was your favorite concert?

What were your favorite photos?

What were your favorite videos?

What was your favorite movie?

What were your favorite articles?

What was your favorite travel?

What was your favorite experience?

What was your favorite speaking, teaching, awards, or recognition?

What were your favorite memories?

What was your favorite restaurant?

What was your favorite meal?

What was your favorite first meeting?

Learning

What books impacted your thinking most?

What did you learn about yourself?

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned this year?

What was your favorite learning?

People

Who surprised you the most this year?

Who were new friends you enjoyed getting to know better?

What friendships stand out to you the most this year?

What compliment would you liked to have received? Given?

What were your favorite conversations?

Who were the most influential people in your life last year?

General

What is something you did for the first time?

What was your most loving service?

What misunderstanding did you correct?

What was the most surprising event this year?

What was the most intense moment?

What were the biggest risks you took?

Which aspect of last year was most challenging?

Which aspect of last year was the most easeful?

Where did you invest your time last year?

Where would you have liked to invest more?

What gave you the most energy this year?

What drained you the most this year?

List your 3 top wins for the year

How would you characterize the year?

What word would you use to summarize the year?

What were your disappointments from the year?

What questions do you keep thinking about?

Review previous year goals – write a short phrase describing the outcome of each

What stories from last year are you letting go of?

What else do you need to do or say to be complete with this year?

2 | Create

What area(s) of your life do you want to transform this year? Where are your biggest growth edges?

What are the big questions you are holding for this year?

What advice would you like to give yourself?

Review Annual Review from a year ago – is there anything you want to bring forward?

What about your work are you most committed to changing and improving?

Review your “areas of responsibility” – in which areas would you like to raise the standard and what is one project that would do so?

What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that?

What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore?

Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving?

What do you think your biggest risk will be?

What are you looking forward to learning?

What one word or phrase would you like to have as your theme this year?

What are you planning to do to improve your financial results?

3 | Prioritize

We can only get so much done. Keep two rules in mind here:

80/20 rule

5/25 rule (list top 25 goals, eliminate all but top 5) These aren't hard and fast numbers, but they help you focus on the important.

Review last year's Life Goals and write goals to focus on this year (don’t forget to revisit the note you created earlier with “Ideas for this year")

What tensions, conflicts, or tradeoffs are there between goals?

What assumptions are creating tensions, conflicts, or tradeoffs?

Which of these goals align most closely with me?

What are the "must achieve" from this list?

4 | Distill

Now that we have a better idea of what we actually want to do — let's create clarity by identifying tools that will help us achieve these goals.

What are your immediate next steps to achieve these goals?

What new habits can you cultivate that will help you to achieve these goals?

What bad habits can you eliminate that will help you to achieve your goals?

Review last year’s Daily Routines and write next year's

What would you like to be your biggest win? What would make this year your best year ever?

What objective(s) for the next quarter would help you achieve these goals?

[Optional] | Long Term

This is an optional section (still WIP) - sourced this list from Taylor Pearson.

What opportunities are in my inbox or calendar right now?

3 years from now where will I have to be in order to be satisfied with my progress?

Am I working with the smartest people I know in a space I am excited about?

What advice do you think your 80 yr old self would give you?

Is there anything I want to do but feel unqualified to do?

What can I be the best in the world at in 5 years?

What would you do tomorrow if you knew you couldn’t fail?

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