This year I started doing weekly (mostly) reviews on the computer. I’ve tried doing it in my journal before, but I lose motivation, and it was harder to track and read those when I wanted to.
So in January I’ve set up folder in my Notes app on my Mac, and started logging. I’ve decided that I future me would appreciate structure and review not only “Did this – Bought that – Visited XYZ”, but also snippet of how I was feeling, what I was thinking and track internal changes.
I’ve compiled list of questions that I am now answering every week or two:
I’ve set up a separate note as a template, pinned it to the top of the folder, and when I am ready to do week review, I duplicate a note and update dates in the title.
- Highlights – Where I list main events of the week – “been there-done that-this happened” style
- What worked / What did I do well (proud of in myself) – positive moments. Overall I am usually hard on myself, so this is the reminder to give myself pat on the back at least once a week
- What didn’t work / What wasn’t done? – some items that were sad or upsetting moments where I let myself down. or where I didn’t do something that I pre-planned.
- What did I learn? – this one has different layers – what I’ve learned knowledge wise, what I learned about myself, or life lessons. And what are the lessons for why smth wasn’t done in the previous question answers
- What did I do for creativity? accounting for creative things (drawing, painting, photography, etc) I’ve accomplished that week. Because if not documented – after few weeks I start to feel like “I am not doing anything at all”
- Read-Watched—Listened to this week? – listing podcasts, youtube videos, books, articles, blogs, movies, tv shows
Section to prepare and set up focus for week ahead:
- What I can improve, adjust next week?
- What are my main 3 goals next week?
This weekly review is becoming a routine but also a good recap “diary”. Good for accountability, but also snippet to see “What am my spending life weeks doing, what is important, am I on the right track towards my values”