Do you take the time to reflect on your week?
You probably already know the value of conducting a weekly planning session. It’s a system that helps you stay organized and on top of your work: updating your to-do list, maintaining your calendar, and managing new deadlines and assignments.
But if you really want to experience the full benefits of a planning session, you’ll want to add weekly review questions to your current routine.
Why it helps to reflect on your week
Weekly reflection is an opportunity to examine all the different areas of your life: work, goals, friendships, health and fitness, etc. You get to see what’s working and what needs to be improved.
Here are just some additional reasons why checking with yourself and doing a little bit of internal work can be so transformative.
Weekly reflection helps you flag any challenges or issues early on
Most of the time, we’re so busy with work and personal demands, that we don’t always remember to stop and review our progress, or actually think about what we’re doing. As a result, we end up sticking with habits, behaviors, and routines that don’t really suit us. Or we falter on our goals because we didn’t take the time to see what was wrong and adjust our strategy.
For example, let’s say you’ve been trying to incorporate a new running routine but you keep finding yourself making excuses to skip a workout.
It’s easy to let several months or even an entire year go by before realizing that your running routine isn’t working out for you. With a weekly review, however, you can address any challenges and come up with solutions. Perhaps changing the time of day you go running or finding a new workout routine altogether.
By taking an honest look at yourself and your life, you can resolve any issues before they escalate–saving you time and energy in the long run.
Weekly reflection helps you recognize what’s going well
Weekly reflection isn’t just about diagnosing problems with your goals or habits. It’s also a chance to celebrate the things that are going well in your daily life.
By reflecting on what went well this week, you can continue doing the good practices and habits that are giving you success. And you also get to express gratitude for the people, place, things, and experiences that are lighting you up. And when you see how fortunate you are, you just feel better. Period.
How to use weekly review questions
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of weekly self-reflection.
Use the same set of questions
You can use the same set of review questions every week. Example: What went well? What didn’t go well? What can I do to improve next week?
Routine questions can be particularly helpful if you're trying to maintain your goals and need a way to stay accountable.For example, if you’re monitoring your health and fitness goals, routine questions are like a checklist to guarantee that you’re doing the right things and staying on track, without skipping any important steps.
Also, there’s a certain simplicity and meditative-like quality about sticking to the same set of questions every week. And you may just surprise yourself with your answers.
Tailor your questions to your week
You can also mix up your questions every week. For example, maybe one week you want to focus on reviewing your career, and then the next week you want to examine your friendships and social life. By varying your review questions every week, you’re doing a holistic review of your life. This is especially beneficial if you’re trying to prioritize your self-care and wellbeing, and since so much of our emotional health and well-being can be tied to what’s going on with work, or our diet and exercise routine, it’s helpful to survey all aspects of our life.
Use your planner as a guide
Your planner captures all the things that you do, day in and day out, and it also contains your long-term goals and plans. So you’ll want to have it on hand so that you can properly assess what’s going on with your life, and see if your current actions are in lockstep with your goals.
Weekly review questions to examine your life, career, health, and well-being
Take a look at the weekly review questions provided below. They range from questions examining your work and goals to exploring your values and priorities.
By no means do you have to answer all of these questions in one sitting. See which ones resonate with you and choose 3-5 questions to reflect on this week. You can always select different questions depending on your mood or what you need insight on.
Feel free to use the prompts as jumping off points and customize them as you like.
- What went well this week?
- What didn’t go as planned?
- What can I do to make next week better?
- What do I want to prioritize next week?
- What are some ways I can show up for myself this week? Maybe it’s making a nutritious meal for myself. Or showing up to my desk to write. Or buying flowers for myself just because.
- What are some ways I can show up for others this week? Maybe it’s checking in on a friend who needs comfort. Or attending a friend’s show.
- What would make me feel really good about myself if I accomplished it next week?
- Why is my goal important to me? Why do I want to pursue this goal?
- Is my home or office environment getting in the way of my goals and productivity? What tools do I need to help make my life easier? What can I do to improve my space?
- What matters most in my life right now?
- Is my life aligned with my goals? Am I carving out enough time and space for my goals?
- How do I feel about my goals right now? Do they need to change? Do I need to reset my expectations?
- What habits are supporting me?
- What habits are holding me back?
- What can I do next week to modify my unproductive habits?
- What was the best part of my week?
- Who was a positive and supportive presence in my life?
- What little joys did I experience this week?
Written by JiJi Lee
