How to Conduct a Personal Annual Review

An annual review gives you space to look back at the last 365 days: what went well, what was difficult, and how you spent your time. Rather than moving straight into another year, you can acknowledge your successes, learn from setbacks, and ask whether your choices reflect the life you want.

James Clear, productivity expert and author of Atomic Habits, published annual reviews from 2013 through 2019. He described the exercise as a way to examine his actions over the previous 12 months and question whether his decisions were helping him live as he intended.

This guide takes you through six areas of life, with examples and questions to help you turn reflection into plans. You can also use the annual review Todoist template to record your answers.

What an annual review can offer

Looking honestly at your year takes time, patience, and a willingness to face uncomfortable questions. That can feel demanding during an already hectic holiday season, but it creates an opportunity to uncover lessons you might otherwise miss.

Make room for deliberate reflection

A year contains 8,760 hours, yet focused reflection often receives very few of them. Because it rarely feels urgent, it slips behind everyday demands, leaving familiar habits and automatic reactions in charge.

Setting aside a few hours can interrupt that pattern. An insight might prompt you to pursue more satisfying work or reconnect with someone important. Reflection gives you a chance to change direction instead of repeating the same routines.

Recognize what you accomplished

Missed opportunities and mistakes can overshadow achievements. Even after reaching a goal, we often turn immediately toward the next one. Hedonic adaptation is a cognitive bias that keeps us pursuing the next thing.

Use your review to recognize successes of every size, including those you planned and those you never anticipated. Looking back deliberately may reveal more progress than you remember.

Find possibilities for improvement

Fear of discovering a wasted year can lead to regret or avoidance. Neither helps you understand what happened. Instead, examine the evidence with curiosity rather than judgment, asking why things unfolded as they did and what you could change.

Reviewing several areas together can reveal connections that are hard to see day to day. Poor sleep may have stalled a side project; digital distractions may have crowded out family time. The aim is to understand these patterns, not criticize yourself.

Build ambitious, realistic goals

Stretch goals can be worthwhile, but they need a realistic starting point. If you completed 50 workouts this year, aiming to double that total is ambitious. Expecting an immediate 365-day workout streak is probably less realistic. Reviewing your actual results helps you choose targets that challenge you without ignoring your circumstances.

Prepare for your review

There is no required format. You could revisit your original goals individually, work month by month through journals and photos, or examine recorded data if you follow the quantified self approach.

Other reviewers offer useful examples:

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, productivity expert and Founder of Ness Labs, explores highlights, challenges, major life changes, and lessons.
Technologist Justin Duke organizes his review into areas such as Personal, Professional, and Content, with subsections covering health, side projects, books, and music. He finishes with five goals for the following year.
Writer and entrepreneur David Perell’s year-end review examines highlights and progress toward goals, assigning each goal a letter grade. It also includes future goals, opportunities to improve, reasons to celebrate, and unresolved questions.

The approach below organizes reflection by the parts of life that matter to you. It provides a broad view, from your career and exercise habits to your relationships.

Gather evidence and reserve time

Memory is imperfect, so use the records available to you rather than relying on recollection alone. Missing information need not stop your review. Note what you wish you had recorded and consider a system for next year. For instance, if you cannot remember which books you read, you could begin logging them in Goodreads. You do not need to track everything—just the areas you want to revisit.

Reserve time near the end of the year or early in the next one. Give every area some attention, but spend longer on your current and upcoming priorities. Different seasons may call for emphasizing family over productivity, or finances over recreation.

Write as you reflect, using a journal, loose paper, or a Google Doc. In the Todoist template, you can put answers in each task’s comments section.

Work

Look beyond deadlines and daily responsibilities to consider the work itself. Did your job or career move forward, or did it feel stagnant?

Identify fulfilling projects. List assignments that challenged and energized you, including work outside your main role, such as onboarding someone or serving on a committee. Find recurring themes, then note actions and obstacles involved in doing more of that work next year.
Examine professional difficulties. Record anything that made work harder, undermined your happiness, or blocked a career goal, from a strained relationship to excessive busywork. Explore ways to reduce or remove these problems, including a different job or career path.
Review your development. Identify skills you gained and opportunities that stretched your abilities. If little changed, decide whether that stability suits you or whether you want something new.

Questions to explore:

When did I feel I was working in my zone of genius?
Which professional skills and capabilities did I develop?
Which work relationships influenced my year?
What work makes me proudest?
How did I help my colleagues?
What lessons came from my mistakes at work?
Did I achieve a workable balance between my job and personal life?

Productivity

Completing more tasks faster is not an end in itself. Consider what effective use of your attention makes possible, whether that means time with loved ones or progress on a personal project. Examine both daily habits and year-long results: were you moving toward meaningful goals or getting sidetracked?

Use your task history, including Todoist records, and time-tracking tools such as RescueTime. Browser history, Screen Time on your mobile device, and viewing histories on services such as Netflix and YouTube can help you understand digital distractions.

Compare daily intentions with results. Review available to-do lists, old or recent. What did you plan, and what did you finish? Consider whether your daily structure supports your priorities. If not, explore a productivity method that suits you, such as time blocking, pomodoro, or GTD.
Assess meaningful output. List important personal and professional accomplishments: projects launched at work, effort invested in a side project, community organizing, or other work you value.
Evaluate online habits. Entertainment can help you unwind, but it can also displace activities that matter. If your internet use feels excessive, consider what you would rather do with some of that time. The alternative need not be more work; it could be baking with your children, cooking at home, or developing a comic book.

In Todoist, view completed tasks within your projects to see what you finished across different areas and review your daily and weekly productivity.

Questions to explore:

How much do I actually complete in a typical day?
How pleased am I with this year’s accomplishments?
What prevented me from doing as much as I hoped?
Which conditions help me be most productive, and how can I create them more often?
Which conditions undermine my productivity, and how can I avoid them?
Is my relationship with technology and social media healthy?

Health

Review your physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. Consider how food, movement, sleep, and self-care affected your energy and mood.

Review activity and recovery. Look at your workouts, including periods when you did little exercise. Recognize personal records and progress, whether you tried Yoga or began walking several times a week. Look for patterns, such as reduced activity during stressful months or more movement in spring and summer, and use them to shape next year’s goals. Consider injuries, whether you allowed enough recovery time, and whether your sleep left you rested.
Examine nutrition. Think about whether your eating habits helped you feel well. Include caffeine and alcohol consumption, identify nutritious foods you want more of, and note changes you would like to make.
Reflect on mental health. Consider how you handled stress, sadness, anxiety, or anger, including helpful and counterproductive responses. Record practices you want to begin or continue, such as journaling, meditation, therapy, or exercise.

Questions to explore:

Did my health improve, worsen, or remain much the same?
How did stressful or difficult periods affect my health?
Did I give eating well, exercise, and sleep enough attention?
How did I practice self-care, and could I make more room for it?
Did I devote enough time to religious or spiritual development?
Which activities depleted my energy?
Which activities restored it?

Finances

Money supports needs, wants, experiences, security, and flexibility. Assess the year as a whole, including progress toward major goals such as reducing credit card debt or saving to start a small business. Consider whether you stayed within your budget or exceeded your limits.

Review financial records using tools such as YNAB or Personal Capital, and check whether your investments increased or decreased in value.

Trace your spending. Examine categories such as bills, food, clothing, entertainment, child care, and home expenses. Identify the largest categories and consider whether to adjust or redirect spending.
Total earnings, spending, savings, and debt. Include income from every source. Compare the figures with your financial goals, then record possibilities for earning more, saving more, or spending less where needed.
Consider what your money enabled. Note the important things your income supported this year and how you want to use it next year.

Questions to explore:

Am I happy with my earnings, spending, and savings?
Which major financial goals did I reach or miss?
Which habits helped or hindered my finances?
Does the way I use my income support my other life goals?
How much did I contribute to causes I value, and am I satisfied with that amount?
What single action could most improve my financial success next year?

Relationships

Reflect on the people who shaped your year: partners, children, parents, siblings, friends, and others. Recall meaningful conversations, both comforting and difficult, and memorable shared experiences, from Zoom birthdays to socially distanced walks. Did you make enough room for the people you love? If connection or community was missing, consider how to build it.

Identify your most important relationships. Write down the people whose presence you value, including those with whom things are not always easy. Consider time spent together, favorite memories, lessons, and ways to improve the quantity or quality of your time next year. For strained relationships, think about what repair would require and whether you want to pursue it.
Review the support you offered. Relationships involve giving as well as receiving. Note how you helped others and where you fell short. Consider ways to show care, such as thoughtful messages or making time to talk despite busy schedules.
Assess your sense of connection. Do you feel supported? If you want new relationships, record or research ways to make friends, date, or develop community.

Questions to explore:

Which relationships energized me?
Which relationships left me drained?
Did I spend enough time with those I love?
What took priority over my relationships, and was that tradeoff worthwhile?
What particular relationship challenges did I face?
Which moments with friends and family stand out most?
Whom would I like to grow closer to next year?
What new connections would I like to make?

Learning

Consider where curiosity led you, whether through school, online courses, podcasts, or books. Include what you discovered about yourself: personal insight matters alongside formal knowledge.

List new knowledge and abilities. What do you understand or know how to do now that you did not before? Record milestones, from building a personal website to mastering scalloped potatoes. Identify books and articles that changed your thinking or deepened an interest, then list subjects and skills you want to pursue next year.
Identify effective learning conditions. Consider how and when you learned best, whether in a structured course or one-to-one with a mentor. Use those observations when planning future learning.
Capture personal lessons. Write down the most important things experience taught you about relationships, work, productivity, or other areas. Which experiences shaped you or changed your perspective?

Questions to explore:

Which competing demands limited my learning?
What lesson had the greatest personal impact?
When and how did I learn most effectively?
Which skill deserves my attention next year?
How have I changed since last year?

Use reflection to move forward

If you have a quiet day or two around the turn of the year, use it to examine these areas before rushing into new plans. Question and investigate rather than dwelling on disappointments. A difficult year or unmet goals do not erase what you accomplished.

The purpose is to better understand yourself and what you want, then approach the next year with renewed direction. The annual review Todoist template can help you work through the prompts.