Year In Review

As the year quickly winds down, I do several things in my personal journals to memorialize the year.  I’ve been doing this for a while now and it’s usually fun to go back and see what’s changed or not changed over the years.

Here’s the format I’m currently using:

• List 25 Accomplishments from last year
• Choose my top five accomplishments
• List three ways I have grown over the last year
• What didn’t I do that I wanted to do or should have done
• What I need to change
• Contemplations & prayers as the New Year begins
• Goal ideas for the New Year

Understandably, this can take a while to work through.  I find it satisfying for several reasons and worth the work:

• It reminds me that I did in fact accomplish a lot despite all that remains undone
• I review it frequently for encouragement and as a reminder of what needs change
• It helps me prioritize my time better

I also write a long entry in my journal that I title “The Year In Review”.  It’s different than the 25 Accomplishments – those are the things I got done during the year, big and small.  The year in review is more of a recording and rant, bringing closure to the year.  It’s a letter to myself – what went right, what went wrong, people I interacted with (good and bad), and it becomes a recording of my life in hindsight.  Those can be painful to reread later, but they are cathartic and clear my mind for the days to come.

Do I finish this all by New Year’s Eve?  Sometimes, but usually not.  I like to do the accomplishments by then, as it’s a good way to start the New Year.  The Year In Review sometimes doesn’t get done until later in January.  I keep notes as to what I’d like to put into it, which makes it easier to put together when I finally have time.

Here are some examples from last year:

Accomplishments From Last Year (2011) – parts of this post were excerpted from there

2011 Blog In Review – my public “Year In Review”