Closing Time: The Best 11 Questions for an Effective Year-End Review (Part 3)
Dec 26, 2023Episode 42
Laurie Reynoldson
One of the best ways to set yourself up for your best year yet is to spend some time completing a comprehensive year-end review! In this 3-episode series, Laurie walks you through her proven year-end review. If you are looking to make 2024 your best year yet, you don't want to miss the Closing Time series.
One of the best ways to set yourself up for your best year yet is to spend some time completing a comprehensive year-end review! In this 3-episode series, Laurie walks you through her proven year-end review. If you are looking to make 2024 your best year yet, you don't want to miss the Closing Time series.
Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm Laurie Reynoldson, former award-winning attorney turned high performance coach for midlife women. I designed this podcast is your go-to place for weekly midlife inspiration, where I'll be providing step-by-step actionable coaching and introducing you to some incredible women who are absolutely crushing it at the midlife game. Well, either friend, welcome back to the third and final episode in the short series called closing time. Just like closing time at a bar or a restaurant. Before you leave for the night, you have to add up the receipts and clean up. Restock and get everything set up for the next day. Well, it's time to close out 2023 and set ourselves up for an incredible year in 2024. This series is full of actionable coaching tips. So you're going to want to make sure to download this episode because it's one that you want to come back to and listen to it again. And again. In this third episode, I'm walking you through step by step on how to complete a comprehensive year end review. To be the most impactful. The episodes are meant to go in order. So, if you haven't listened to episodes one and two. Pause this episode, go listen to them by clicking the links in the show notes, and then come back. To this episode three. I know I've said it before, but I am a big fan of an end of year review. Just like in business, you can't learn from or build on what you don't measure. And don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that you need a spreadsheet and you certainly don't need to dial down to the key performance indicators, unless data is your thing. Then by all means, get excited about the KPIs, but. The year-end review on a personal standpoint. Is your opportunity to look back and figure out. What was good this year? Where is there room for improvement and I'm not talking about. Success versus failure. But. Where are the lessons? That we can learn from And carry into the following year. So what does a year-end review look like? I'm not going to lie. You're going to need to set aside a couple of hours to complete this exercise. Because what we're going to do is You're going to take out your phone and your calendar. Your calendar could be on your phone. Maybe you have a paper planner. Maybe you even have the best life daily planner and habit tracker. Whatever you have kept. Track of your appointments for the last year. I want you to make sure that you have that with you along with your phone. And then you're also going to want to grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen. Or if you'd like a worksheet, I made you a copy of the exact worksheet I use to complete my year end review each year. Just go ahead and click on the link below in the show notes and print out the worksheet. Grab your phone and your calendar. And then we'll get started. Actually. Let me back up. In this part of the year in review, you're going to look through every photo on your phone. You're going to review every calendar entry. Because guaranteed, there is so much that you have forgotten. I listened to an interesting. Package on. Time on NPR a couple of years ago. The doctor who was being interviewed, talked about how, when we get older, We tend to fall into a routine with what we do during our day, how we spend our weeks.'cause we, we go to the same places, you know, we go to the same restaurants, we do the same things. So our. Life year to year. It doesn't really change much because we're not Doing different things. We're not Meeting new people. Because of that. Oftentimes we forget about what we've done, where we've gone, who we've spent time with. And he used the example of. Your first year in college and you probably have very vivid. Memories of the classes you went to because the campus was new. You met all sorts of new people. You were having all sorts of new experiences. So you remember a lot about your first year. You also remember a lot about your senior year or your last year in college, because then you're making big life decisions you're interviewing for jobs. Maybe you're moving to different cities. Maybe you're traveling. But your starting to have different experiences. Which is why the time. Spent during your second and third year in college. You don't oftentimes have real distinct memories unless say you studied abroad for one of those years, but there was something different that made those years memorable to you. Same thing with Y. This year and review is so important. Because there is so much that we have done. That we have forgotten about. So. We're going to start by going through. Our phone and our calendar. We're going to look at every photo that we have taken for the last year. We're going to review our calendar. Go day by day. To review. All of the meetings. We've had all of the appointments. We've had the places that we have gone. And while we're going through those photos and the calendar, we're going to answer several questions. If you have a copy of the best life, daily planner and happy Drucker, you'll recognize some of these questions. In fact, they're the same questions that are part of a quarterly review. Um, speaking of the best life daily platter and habit tracker they're on sale right now for just$10. So, what you get for$10 is an entire quarter full of scientifically proven systems to help you create your best life. One of those systems is a quarterly review. While. a year end review is incredibly impactful at helping you plan out the year to come. A quarterly review allows you to recalibrate. Or move in a different direction in real time. So you don't have to wait till the end of the year. You can actually react and recalibrate every 90 days. If you need to. So they're just 10 bucks. If you want to order yours, there's a clickable link in the show notes, and I would be happy to send you a copy for you to start 2024 with. Okay. So you'll want to have these questions handy when you're looking through your photos and your calendar For the prior year. When you find a moment, an event, a meeting or an appointment that fits into one of these categories. Or answers one of the questions, be sure to write it down. Okay last disclaimer, normally I wouldn't say that there's a right or a wrong way to do something, but to do this exercise correctly. You'll need to set aside at least an hour. It will probably take you. At least two hours to really go through everything. Think about how it made you feel. Whether you want more or less of it in 2024. So I'll just say that if you're going to do this exercise, give yourself the gift of doing it correctly. A lot enough time. And if you get started and you've got to go do something else. Then promise yourself, you will come back and finish the exercise because. It is one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for a good year in 2024. All right. Here are the questions. Number one. What have you done this year that has brought you the most joy? Or created positive feelings and memories. And when you're. Thinking about this question. I want you to think about what were you doing? Who were you with? These are the kinds of experiences that if you could wave a magic wand, you would want to have more. Similar experiences like these in the next year. Number two. What were your biggest wins? What did you accomplish? What did you achieve? Now, these can be big wins that anyone would recognize, like you got a new job or you. PR in a running race and you qualified for the Boston marathon. They could also be things that no one else notices that only matter to you. Like you finally got your sleeping check or you swapped the afternoon diet Coke for water. You were mindful about counting to five or 10 before you reactively responded to your kids or your spouse or your coworkers? these are big wins. That you feel like you've accomplished something. You feel like you've achieved something. Number three. What have you done that has caused you the most stress or negative feelings? Again, I want you to take a look at what were you doing? Who were you with? And try and recognize the difference between stress because something was new. Or hard. And stress that relates to feelings of frustration or anxiety because of people or situations that you were in. Number four. What haven't you finished? Number five. Finish the sentence. I am most proud of. Maybe you are proud that you worked out consistently. Even if the number on the scale hasn't moved, you can be proud that you splurged for the first class airline tickets, even if you haven't planned any other part of the vacation. But I am most proud of blank. Number six. If you could go back, what would you do differently? Maybe it's a work project that turned out differently than you expected. So maybe you would want to change your approach moving forward. Maybe you had a particularly prickly conversation with your mother-in-law at one of the holidays. Maybe next time. You want to call an Uber? Instead of driving home after a night out with friends. But if you could go back. What would you do differently? Number seven. What are the biggest lessons learned? I'll leave it up to you. These could be either the most important lessons you've learned. Or they could be. Uh, things that just didn't turn out like you had hoped or planned. But what are the biggest lessons you learned? Number eight. What are the new habits that are serving me? Could be you've started going on a daily walk. Could be you've started listening to a meditation during the day. Maybe you have started writing out Mondays to do lists before you leave the office on Friday so that you have a clear head to enjoy the weekend. But you likely started new some new habit or a new habit could be. But you likely started. Some new habits that are serving you this past year that you plan to carry into the following year. similarly, number nine. What new habits do you want to focus on in the next 12 months? These, these could be the, some of the same habits that you started last year that were serving you in 2023 that you want to carry forward. In 2024. Could also be something that you started at one point in 2023, and then you fell off, like maybe you started meal planning at some point and, and. Things got crazy during the year. And you stopped doing that. Maybe you'd like to get back into doing that. And then here are the last two questions. Number 10. What do you want more of in the next 12 months? And then number 11, what do you want less of in the next 12 months? And rounding out. The year-end review. What is one decision? You could make. Or one action you could take that would have the biggest impact on your life in the coming year. You'll notice on the worksheet. If you're using the worksheet that there's more room for you to answer this one. And it's because it's a big one. This is one that you should spend some time on, really, really think about it. It could be starting or stopping something. I would pay special attention to anything that scares you. So if it's something that is, that feels like a calling or a nudge or this truth that, you know, deep down, but you don't necessarily want to admit to other people. That's probably worth acknowledging that could be the one decision or the one action that would have the biggest impact on your life going forward. And then once you identify that one decision. Once you identify the one action. I want you to go a little deeper. Why is this one decision or action? So important. How will it impact your life? What are you going to do to hold yourself accountable? For making that decision or taking that action. And that's it. Those are the questions at this point. Pause this episode. Spend the time to go through every photo. In your phone Spend the time to review every appointment and meeting that you had in your calendar And then when you have completed Looking through your photos and your calendar And answering the questions that come back and listen to the end of the episode Congratulations. You've completed your year. End review. Are you amazed by everything you've done in 2023. Are you surprised by how many things that you'd forgotten? Are you so excited to keep the moment and going into the new year? Not everyone would spend their time off doing something as good for them as you just did Spending time reflecting back on the past year Laying the foundation for an incredible year ahead So well done my friend At this point you're probably wondering about next steps In next week's episode of the school of midlife podcast so the very first episode of 2024. I'll explain how to put your year-end review to work in creating an actionable plan for your best life yet In 2024. And if i were you i take the rest of the week off Enjoy the week enjoy some relaxing time do things that you don't normally have time to do that you really love because You've earned it You know i'd probably also go order myself a copy of the best life daily planner and habit tracker so i'd have it to get started For the first week in january but other than that i'd take the rest of the week off i mean that's at least that's what i'm planning to do Thank you so much for being here it has been an incredible year i'm so grateful that you have spent it with me at the school of midlife And i will see you right back here next tuesday when the school of midlife is back in session Until then Have a happy new year Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the School of Midlife podcast. I'd love it if you would take a moment and leave me a five star review so that we can spread the word to other mid-life women. Then join my mailing list. The link is in the show notes. And if you're ready to make midlife your best life, you can also find out more about how to work with me in the show notes. I'll see you right back here next week when the School of Midlife is back in session.