annual review

As I spent time figuring out what kind of environment I needed in order to create a new home for myself and my family in Virginia, I decided to revisit an old tool, the Annual Review.

2015 was the last time I did the Annual Review, a concept I learned about many years ago from Chris Guillebeau. I changed the categories a bit this time around and added a third question to help me process the year in greater depth. My goal is to finish my annual review by December 31st. I have found that 2 weeks is enough time to do a deep dive into an annual review for me.

I have 3 questions I answer about the current year. Then, I focus on 3 to 5 goals with next action items for each category. I adapted the categories to fit my life as a mom, wife, Catholic, and female over 50. I keep the Annual Review in my Evernote app for easy access anywhere at any time. Google docs would work just as well. I also set reminders in my Nozbe app to review the categories monthly and put the next action items into my weekly planner.

If you’re not familiar with some of these terms, they come from David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I highly recommend his book which is geared towards the business professional, however, there is much to glean for folks in other roles. When I was blogging and a SAHM, GTD helped me stay focused and organized in both areas of my life.

In a nutshell, here’s the outline of my annual review:

Questions:

What went well?

What didn’t go well?

What did I learn?

Categories:

Relationships

Faith

Creativity

Healthy Living

Finances

Home/Garden

Marriage

Travel

Learning

Service

Finally, I decided to choose a word and a theme for 2023. My word is reset since I’m focused on creating an environment where we live now to support my goals. My theme is stewardship to help me focus on my revisited role of SAHM, aka family manager.