Are you taking time to do a weekly reflection?
Weekly reflection is simply setting aside time at the end of the week to touch base with yourself. It’s a way to see how you’re feeling about your job, your family, your friendships, your health, and other areas of your life.
You don’t need much in terms of tools or supplies to conduct a weekly reflection. All you really need is a pen to write with and something to write in like your trusted notebook, a guided journal, or a paper planner.
Here are just some of the reasons why you’ll want to make weekly reflection a regular part of your routine.
1. Reignite your goals
Want to actually make progress on your goals? Then do a weekly reflection. This way, your goals are always at the top of your mind, and you’ll strengthen your commitment to them.
During a weekly reflection, use the Weekly Goals page in your Ink+Volt planner to reflect on the progress of your monthly and yearly goals. Write down a few notes about how you’re feeling about them.
Some questions you can consider:
- What did I do to work on my goals this week?
- What got in the way of my goals?
- What progress did I make?
Remember: you don’t have to wait until the end of the year to reflect on your goals. A weekly reflection will help you stay motivated and energized. Come December, you’ll look back on your year with a huge sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
2. Ensure growth
A weekly reflection can also help you become a better person. That’s right. Taking some structured time to review your habits, behaviors, and even your hopes and dreams, guarantees that you’re always moving forward and improving yourself.
Without regular reflection, it’s so easy to cling to bad habits or limiting beliefs. But when you reflect on your week, you have a real opportunity to closely evaluate your patterns and tendencies. You can strengthen your resolve to do better and try harder the following week or even that very day.
Examples:
- You want to stay off your devices at night. At the end of the week, reflect on whether or not you stuck to this promise.
- You want to branch out and meet new people. At the end of the week, check-in to see how many new contacts you’ve reached out to or met.
- You want to be more grateful. At the end of the week, make a list of things you appreciate.
Personal growth takes time. And the little steps you take every week and reflecting on those steps ensures that you’re moving in the right direction.
3. Gain a new perspective
A weekly reflection that involves a guided journal or journaling prompts can help you gain more clarity on a situation.
It’s so easy to have tunnel vision when it comes to our own lives. Whether it’s your job, your relationships, or your goals, you might be plodding away without even realizing what’s going on around you.
A guided journal offers some much-needed perspective. It asks you questions you may not have even considered. And encourages you to look at a situation from a different point of view.
For example, in our Ink+Volt planner, the weekly reflection pages offer a variety of prompts to help you look inward. One prompt asks you to brainstorm different ways to take charge of your life, while another asks you to reframe a problem and see it as an opportunity.
These guided journaling prompts nudge you to think about things in a fresh way. You might discover something new about yourself. Or gain clarity on a stale problem.
Additionally, a weekly reflection on “big” topics such as defining what success means to you or defining your values, gives you some much needed space to think through these big ideas and articulate them into words.
4. Slow down and savor the little moments
If you’re tired of being go-go-go all the time, a weekly reflection can encourage you to slow down and really savor your week.
- When’s the last time you took a pause and identified all the little things that made you smile?
- Or took a moment to recognize all the people who made your day?
- Or expressed awe and wonder at what’s around you?
At the end of the week, use your weekly reflection time to make a list of all the little and big things that brought you joy. You might surprise yourself with just how full and rich your week has been. All because you took a moment to really let it all sink in.
5. Express self-love
It’s so easy to dwell on your mistakes and flaws. But how often do you actually celebrate all the wonderful things about you?
Taking the time to honor yourself and practice regular self-care is good for you and your well-being.
You can use a weekly reflection routine to give yourself some well-deserved TLC. Write about what you love about yourself or what you are most proud of. Reflect on the experiences that made you feel confident. And take note of the moments when you stretched and challenged yourself that week, and how proud you are. Brainstorm new ways to practice self-care and then check-in the following week to see if you did them.
A simple exercise like a weekly reflection can help you turn your life around. With a little reflection, a week at a time, you can make significant progress on all aspects of your life.
Written by JiJi Lee
