A simple way to review your year

It’s so easy to forget. I’m not talking about forgetting your laptop at home. Although I did do that last week! I’m talking about forgetting the good, bad and ugly of the years as they roll past.

That’s why I’ve started taking the time around November or December to write down all the notable things about that year.

I use some headings to jog my memory and get the words flowing:

Different - What made this year unique? New jobs, habits, schools, houses etc.

New - What interesting things did I learn or discover? New concepts, books, TV shows etc.

Friends - New people, old friendships rekindled and anyone I lost touch with etc.

Highlights - Anything that made me happy, I enjoyed, I’m grateful for or that stood out as special.

Lowlights - Anything I regret, that made me sad or upset or that was disappointing.

Achievements - Anything that I’m proud of or that stands out.

All this goes into a text file stored on my Google Drive. I do about 90% of it in one day and then I update the document over the the next few days as I remember more things.

Once you’re done it makes for fascinating reading. It’s cool to step back, overcome recency bias and look at the year as a whole.

It’s easy to forget. But it’s also easy to quickly write down some things that are worth remembering.