Tag: Monthly reflection

Yearly Review

Yearly review means taking a moment to tap yourself on the back for the achievements and success you had in the previous 365 days. This article gives you 8 steps to achieve this process.

Each year since 1997, Jeff Bezos publishes an annual letter to shareholders. There, he outlines the achievements of the year and sets the stage for the upcoming year. This is moment of celebration and a moment of focus. Each year since 2009, Bill and Melinda Gates publish their annual letter of their foundation. There, they outline their achievements as a family, as philanthropists, and as professionals. How do you celebrate your success over time? Are you ready to start an yearly review process?

The process of reviewing your year at a macro level comes on top of the First Things First process and the Monthly Reflection processes. As you work on and complete your goals you will change. Also, as you change some of the things that meant the world to you last year may no longer be relevant. This is why you take some time each year (it does not have to be Jan 1st, the actual timing is up to you) and evaluate everything you have done. Gratitude is a big part of this exercise. Yes, you have only yourself to thank for all the hard work that you’ve put and all the long hours. But can you honestly say that you did not have some luck here and some luck there? Can you diminish the help that you’ve got from other people, circumstances, and fate in general?

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Monthly Reflection

Monthly reflection means scheduling time every month to review your principles and map them to the achieved goals to make sure you are on the right path.

You’ve defined your short-term goals and you’ve started putting them on your calendar. You feel that you are progressing toward your goals. But how can you be sure? You need a mechanism to pause, get out of the trenches, and see the big picture. This is called a monthly reflection.

It is easy to get lost in being productive for the sake of being productive. Once you make productivity a personal habit and you start ticking the most important tasks (MITs) on your lists, then it becomes very fulfilling. You’ve also added a progress bar and you know how you are progressing toward your mid-term and long-term goals. But are they still the right goals? Do they still make sense? Doing a monthly reflection will help.

In this article I cover the process of monthly reflection, where you take a step back to see the big picture again. You take a look the the goal in the distance in front of you and you take a look at the trail that you have left behind you. Also, you consult your map (roadmap or plan) to make sure that you are on the right track and that the track is still right for you. The process takes only about an hour a month but the benefits are invaluable.

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