The Annual Review
A guide to reflecting on the last 12 months.
Hey everyone,
I hope you're all having an enjoyable Christmas break! Just a quick note before we get into this week’s post - If you’re working or studying from home you might want to check out my latest YouTube video - In this I share my best advice for working at home during a pandemic.
Thank you for your continued support!
This year has been interesting to say the least, but I'm not going to dwell on that too much. What I want to talk about today is something that I started a year ago which has proven to be one of the best decisions I've ever made and that is, The Annual Review.
My intentions today are to show you the benefits of an annual review by taking a look at the one I did in 2019. I think everyone should do annual reviews of some sort - It's a good way to reflect each year and it gives you a basis on how to start the new year, as well as something to look back on in the future.
If you like looking back on your Snapchat memories, your old journal entries or pictures, chances are you'll probably like looking back on an annual review.
Section 1: Gratitude
I wrote about Gratitude back in May (check it out here) and how it is one of the doors to finding happiness. With the negativity surrounding this year, I think it's important to start out with the postives, the things we are grateful for.
I broke this down into 5 sections:
People - In 2019 I listed 41 people who played a significant role in my year, each followed by a couple of sentences about why I'm grateful for them. Looking back now it's nice to see how people who I'm no longer in contact with had such an impact on me. Some people on the list have passed away now, so it's nice to have a positive reminder about what they meant to me. Without the list of people, I would not have remembered everyone either - one of the beauties of documenting your life.
Experiences - Here I wrote about my experience living in Birmingham, the countries I visited and other memorable times with friends and family.
Accomplishments - I graduated Biomedical Science in 2019, I got an interview for Medicine (which I'm not studying) and I started building a reading habit - to name a few! It's important to celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how big or small. Looking back now, some of the things on that list seemed impossible.
Things - Something I got into last year was minimalism. Now I try not to buy too many things. When we buy new things, the feeling of novelty quickly wears off and they don't seem as good once we get them. I think looking at the things you have can help you appreciate what you have a little more, and it can help ward off the desire to buy more (which saves money!). A couple of things from my list were my snake plant, my Sony WH-1000XM Headphones (probably my best purchase to date) and my Yoga mat.
Game changers - This can be anything. A mentor, a mindset, a physical object, an app. Just something that has changed the game for you.
Section 2: Discovery
This was my list from 2019. These were things that I discovered that year. Pretty self explanatory I guess but in 10 years I'm sure it'll be cool to look back on where my blogging discovery started out.
Section 3: Wisdom
This isn't the whole list, but anything that seems like good life advice goes into this section. These might not make sense to you but they do to me - Looking back now is a nice refresher on how to carry myself for the new year. We're very forgetful creatures, so writing down the important lessons in life is... important.
Section 4: Planning
This section is my personal favourite. It's a big list of things to focus on in the next year split into broad categories that apply to you.
Right now, as I'm doing my 2020 review I'm ticking off the things I worked on this year and it feels amazing. It's like a 12 month to-do list. It's also interesting to see the things you wanted to work on but never got round to - those things carry on into the next year or get removed.
I like this system of filtering out the things that are and are not worth doing.
Seeing Blogging and YouTube videos on that list makes me happy. I feel like I did my 21-year-old-self proud.
Section 5: The fun stuff
I am a big dreamer, so this section is the most fun to fill out for me. Also yes, I think I know the medical specialty I want to go into. When I'm 30/40/50, I'd love to look back on what I set out to do in my twenties.
Section 6: Reflection
The picture above is what I wrote in December 2019. I think that one question is beautifully simple and a good place to start.
This section didn't get finished last year and I only ended up answering this one question, but I had so many more lined up.
Below I've listed a giant list of reflective questions that you might want to ask yourself after the year has ended. If you're not into the stuff above, just simply answering a few of these questions is a brilliant way to reflect on the past 12 months.
But yeah, that's basically it. That is my annual review. I will be doing this every December from now on wards as a reflective exercise. I think it's a great way to start each new year. By reflecting on the last one and planning for the next.
I used my favourite note taking app Notion to do my annual review. If you want to use my template which includes everything I talked about in this post, click here and add it to your own Notion account.
Questions for reflection:
What made you most happy? How can you do this more?
Biggest thing you are GLAD you did?
Biggest risk you took? (was it worth it?)
Best memories?
Regrets?
Most loving service you did?
Role models you met?
Who inspired you?
Unfinished business from 2020?
What would make 2021 amazing? Which habits facilitate this?
Bad habits to remove? How?
Advice to give yourself?
Plans to improve finance?
What you want to learn in 2021?
An undeveloped talent willing to explore?
New life goals & projects?
Write a personal narrative vision - A detailed paragraph describing what kind of person you want to be.
Review your daily routine from this year and write next year's plan.
List of things I want to buy.
Biggest stress/concern at the moment.
What I learnt about myself.
If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. I appreciate it more than I can put into words :)
(Note: If you enjoy this email, please consider forwarding it to someone who would get a lot out of it. If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive it each Sunday evening. It’s free.)
✏️Insights of the week:
💬QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
👁️INSIGHT: I’ve been doing Yoga every day recently and it’s really showing results. I ache less and feel more mobile. It’s also increasing my flexibility.
One thing I read about Yoga was the movement of lifting your arms above your head.
How often do you raise your arms above your head on a daily basis?
Besides reaching for a top cupboard, probably not often. That’s why we should stretch daily - we’re far less mobile than our hunter-gatherer ancestors if we don’t have a daily mobility routine. Here’s a video to get you started if you’re a beginner looking to start.🎙️PODCAST: Honestly I’ve been struggling to find a podcast that I like lately. If anyone has suggestions please let me know.
📚BOOK HIGHLIGHT:
“You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better.”
From Mindset by Carol Dweck, resurfaced by Readwise.📖CURRENTLY READING: Ikigai by Hector Garcia Puigcerver - I finished this book today and it was truly amazing. I will be spending the next couple of weeks going through the book highlights and making notes and probably a few newsletters about them. I’m thinking to do a full book summary too!
About the Author:
That’s me! I’m Daanish, I’m a Biomedical Science Graduate and a first year Medic studying in Aberdeen.
I like reading, writing, exercising, anything mindfulness-related and coffee.
If you want to discuss something further, make a friend or just have a chat, please reach out! I love connecting with like-minded people.
You can find me on 📽️YouTube, 🐦Twitter, 📸Instagram and 🤓LinkedIn.
If you liked this post, consider sharing it with someone who might like it, I’d really appreciate it 😊
