End of Year Retrospective, A World-Class Practice

We believe you and the teams you are part of will become more advanced versions of yourselves by ingraining an end-of-year reflective practice into your rhythm. And the benefits compound year over year as you can review your previous year’s work.

There are certain practices we believe are elite level because of the impact they have. This is one of them. Put simply, you will be more effective for having made this an annual tradition.

Call to Action

Deliberately pause and look back on the entire year 2023. Visually map the major events so you can see them displayed, spanning from Jan to Dec. Then create a written or oral summary of your year and share it with at least one other person—a paragraph-long narrative telling the story of your year.

*The visual and narrative nature of the experience reveals connections and unlocks meaning that does not otherwise show up.

You choose how much time to invest—20 minutes, an hour, or even a day-long retreat (solo or with your team or family). Our personal approach with this retrospective practice is to invest time up front visually mapping the past year and drafting a written summary that we revisit and continue to build during the month of December.

Pro Tips for Your End-of-Year Retrospective

1. Organize. Pull together any tools or documents that will help you recall what you did over the past year. For example, your calendar, notebook, and running “to do” list. For those using The Groove Expedition, your end-of-month and quarter-reflections will be especially helpful with this. Choose a time and location where you can focus, uninterrupted.

2. List out all the major events of 2023 chronologically. Do this like a brainstorm. Include highs and lows, achievements and setbacks—anything that strikes you as important.

3. Create a visual map that spans from Jan to Dec and place the events on it. We like to use a large poster board and draw a timeline left to right across the bottom listing the months and a large arc to create a visual effect. Consider using post-it notes and experiment with posting the events high or low on the page corresponding to level of impact. Finally, it can be helpful to put a “star” (or other visual) next to the most impactful events so that they are especially noticeable.

4. Iterate. This retrospective reflection work is best done spread over multiple days because you will subconsciously continue to think and remember important things. Add anything that matters to you and that provides historical context. For example, names of people and key local, national, and international events that impacted you over the year.

5. Finally, create a written or oral summary of your year and share it with at least one other person—a paragraph-long narrative telling the story of your year. This is a turbocharged meaning-generating practice! You will notice patterns and experience new connections and insights that generate increased sense of purpose and motivation to act in the year ahead.