Hey friend,

The end of the year is a special time.

A time to regroup, rest, re-energise. And most importantly, a time to spend with friends and loved ones.

But there’s something else that’s special about the end of the year.

It’s a time to prepare for something new—the new year!

And to prepare for the new year, we need to carve out time to reflect on the year that was—your biggest wins, your most meaningful events, your energy-drainers and the challenges you faced.

Without self-reflection and review, we won’t know what to eliminate from our life, double down on or change for the better.

What Are You Missing if You Don’t Take a Look at Your Past?

In the productivity space, everyone talks about goal setting and making exciting plans for the new year.

But people seldom talk about the the value of reviewing our past to guide our futures so we can:

• Make better decisions.

• Design goals that align with our values.

• Start projects that move use closer to our desired business and lifestyle.

Our lived experience is the key to creating an intentional life, business and work that we love.

Reviewing your year closes off one chapter of your life, so you can open the next with clarity.

Three Big Reasons to Do the Most Important Review of Your Year

Before I show you how I track my annual plans in Notion, I want to dive into the three big reasons an annual review has been mission-critical for me over the last 14 years.

1. Celebrating your wins and the results you achieved

Research tells us that negative events sticks out in our mind more than positive ones.

So it’s easy to forget the wins and results you achieved throughout the year.

Reflecting helps us resurface the wins and positive events that happened throughout the year.

Reviewing your highlight reel is a lovely way to celebrate how far you’ve come, realise what worked for you and what to double-down on in the new year.

A real mental and wellness boost to the end of the year.

This creates a positive mindset as you start to plan our your goals for 2025.

2. Identify goals and projects in all your buckets of life holistically

If you’re multi-passionate like me, you have a long list of projects and goals that you’re excited to chase throughout your lifetime.

An annual review helps you to set goals for all areas of your life—family, health, business, finances etc.—instead of one narrow slither of your life.

After all, a deep and joyful life comes living a holistic life.

And if you do focus in one just one aspect of life, like your business or career, then at the very least you’re making a conscious and educated decision that this aspect is your highest priority in this season of your life.

A good rule of thumb that that experts like Cal Newport recommend, set a maximum of 3 goals or projects for each area of life.

Any more than that, it starts to become overwhelming and unrealistic.

The aim is not to achieve as many goals as possible in 2025.

It’s about keeping creating a list of goals and project that you can accomplish over 2025 in a sustainable and enjoyable way (without burning out or giving up from overwhelm)

3. Reflecting on your losses is where you experience the most personal growth

It’s hard when we’re hit with failures, disappointments and challenges.

But we’ve all been there.

This is also where we experience the most personal and profession growth in our life. I know that’s been the case for me. And I hazard a guess it’s the same for you, if you take a moment to reflect.

Without challenge, we won’t appreciate our wins.

Without challenge, we won’t know what we’re capable of.

Without challenge, we won’t realise something is not right for us.

Reflecting on why you faced these challenges and lowlights actually helps you to:

• Set better goals

• Build stronger systems.

• Predict and plan for future roadblocks.

• Install better habits and practices that stick.

So achieving your goals and completing your projects in 2025 becomes much easier.

While there are many other reasons for doing an annual review (and planning for 2025), these are my top 3 reasons and benefits for why I think doing an annual review the single most valuable activity you can do at the end of each year.

How I Track My Annual Reviews and Plans in Notion

I’ve been doing annual reviews and plans for the last 14 years.

Notion is a powerful tool to track your thoughts and ideas.

For the last five years, I’ve tracked my annual reviews and plans in Notion. Along with my weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews. As you know, I like to keep things simple in Notion.

One of my favourite features of Notion is being able to link different databases together so you can easy how things connect (and jump between them quickly).

If you don’t review your life at any other timescale—weekly, monthly or quarterly—at least do an annual review.

Wrap Up

There are 10 days to go before 2024 comes to a close.

Plenty of time left if you haven’t started or thought of doing an annual review.

I guarantee it’ll be one of the most impactful things you can do to close the chapter on 2024.

Without question, doing an annual review is the most impactful thing I do in December every year.

That’s all for today!

Hit reply and let me know if you’ll do annual review?—I’d love to hear from you!

Happy holidays and see you next week!

Janice CK

(p.s. Notion helps you organise your thoughts, projects, tasks and so much more. If you’re ready to simplify so you can amplify your business and life, regain control of your time and get a peace of mind in 2025, I encourage you to take the next step here.)

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