My Yearly

Reflection

2021/2022
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

Instructions

● This is only a rough guideline and very comprehensive – properly going through the
entire process might take you up to 12 hours, so I strongly recommend to adapt it to
your own needs and time availabilities
● prepare accordingly. Make a playlist with reflective music and music that was
important to you in this closing year (use the "important" music only in key moments,
otherwise it might sweep you away and you cannot focus on the process anymore).
Take enough money with you to being able to buy some drinks and maybe a meal.
Keep your schedule for that day clean. Turn off your mobile and your internet. Wear
most comfortable clothes. Be relaxed and well slept. Treat yourself good food that
day.
● Do not start or do anything that might linger on your mind that day. Try to close all
matters at hand (projects, meetings, calls, ...).
● Look for a really nice, not too loud, not too busy place - best is a place you have
never or hardly ever been to, so you are not distracted by associations. It's important
that the possibility to meet people you know should be quite low and all other
potential distractions eliminated as much as possible. A little cafe in a side-street is
very nice for example.
● Take everything with you that contains facts, thoughts, goals or dates of the year
(like journals, planners, etc.) so you can go through those as supplementary material
● There is no fixed format to this – I personally prefer to reflect mostly by writing (in
bullet points so I can keep up with the speed of my thoughts and am not restricted
too much by grammar and proper syntax) – but you can also take sheets of papers
and scribble and paint your answers and thoughts about the different points there or
talk about them with a friend (I’d recommend recording your narration then though
as it’s important to capture your reflections for future reference)
● The framework and instructions are meant for reference. Don’t stick to them,if you
don't feel like it.
● The easiest “basic” process would be to go through the year month by month,
writing down what happened or topic by topic (family, uni, career, friends, love,
health, ...), how you felt about it and then just setting some goals.
● Go with the flow. Jumping around in the process is ok. Everything that comes up in
your mind is the right thing – for example if in the middle of going through the
events of the year you have an intense emotional flashback, write down what you
feel and why instead of forcing yourself to finish the list of events. What comes up in
your mind should be written down, even if it does not directly "fit" into the topic you
are just working on. It's an open process.
● There is no perfect writing here. Things come up as they are should be written down
like that without much regard for grammar and punctuation
● Try to write continuously. If you take a break, it's for thinking back, not for looking for
the perfect phrase
● When it comes to goal-setting, try SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Relevant, Timely) goals!
● Trying to dig even deeper? Check out these simple, yet powerful questions
● While it’s important to be ambitious, don’t forget to care for yourself, some pointers
here: Link 1, Link 2
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

I wish you good luck with your reflection! Feel free to add me on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benediktg/ or drop me an e-mail at
benediktglatzl@gmail.com and let me know how it went! I also offer
professional coaching sessions and training for those who would like a more
in depth look at themselves.

Looking forward to hearing from you! ☺

All the best, Bene

Yearly Reflection Template by Benedikt Glatzl (version 11: 23th of December 2021)

Source:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DhmcXYD-ar5pYw_d0zgvmwagW2sLnIRwDQsDwrph6hc/edit?usp
=sharing
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

My Year 2021 7
Events – out of my memory (optional) 8

Events – comprehensive 8

January 8

February 8

March 8

April 8

May 9

June 9

July 9

August 9

September 9

October 9

November 9

December 9

General Reflection about the year 10

Failures, (personal) projects/ideas that just died, possible reasons & recommendations/conclusions for the
future 10

Successes/Achievements, possible reasons & recommendations/conclusions for the future 10

What did I learn out of this year? 10

Which beliefs did I (subconsciously) act on? 11

Optional: Text Analysis 11

My people of the year 12

My songs of the year 13

Pictures of the year 13

Themes of the year 13

Evaluation of the yearly goals set for the closing year 14

Me on 1st of January of the closing year vs. Now 14

Time investments (how much time did I spend with which activity?) 14

Resource investment (mainly: What did I spend my money for?) 14

Personal Statistics 15
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

My Present (Inventory) 16
Financial Situation 17

Curriculum Vitae (Update) 17

Networks 17

Material Resources 17

Body & Health 18

Skills & Talents 18

Options/Opportunities (e.g. Job offers, potential projects, …) 18

What are my 3-4 biggest/most important challenges right now? 18

What is frustrating me currently? 18

Loose ends 18

Habit Scorecard 19

Evaluation of my current way to organize myself (vs. the years before) 19

My Future 20
Goal Brainstorming 21

What kind of person do I want to be by the end of the coming year? And how do I want to feel by the end of the
year? 21

Setting the big goals for the coming year 21

Future Scenarios 22

Guiding principles of the coming year 22

Time Investment 22

Setting Milestones 23

Develop/Adapt Self-Management System 23

Necessary changes in behaviours, habits, skills, resources 23

What should be the main theme of the coming year? 23

Wrap Up 24

Immediate next steps 24

Create a rough timeline 24

Create reminders, visualizations & other helpful tools 24

 Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

My Year
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

I. Past (My 2021)

a) Events – out of my memory (optional)

Just list everything that happened. No need to have them in any particular order or
length. This is a start to see what stuck most to your mind and compare it later with
what actually happened.

b)Events – comprehensive
Go chronologically through your calendars, journals, todo-lists, Facebook-Postings
and whatever other means you have to track what actually happened.

January
●

February
●

March
●

April
●
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

May
●

June
●

July
●

August
●

September
●

October
●

November
●

December
●
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

c) General Reflection about the year

What are your thoughts about the year? How do you feel about it? Just let your
thoughts flow. You will probably come back to this section when answering later points.

d)Failures, (personal) projects/ideas that just died,

possible reasons & recommendations/conclusions for
the future
Not pleasant, but important to acknowledge. If this is upsetting you too much, keep
it very concise or skip it for later when you feel ready.

e) Successes/Achievements, possible reasons &

recommendations/conclusions for the future
Similarly you should have a sober look at your successes – give the role of chance and
other people a fair evaluation here.

f) 80/20 reflection1
Looking at your successes & achievements - try to identify which efforts had the biggest
impact on your achievements. Try to identify the 20% of activities that led to 80% of
your outputs or successes.

1
Based on the book “The 80/20 principle”
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

g) What did I learn out of this year?

General conclusions and recommendations out of the year in its entirety.

h)Which beliefs did I (subconsciously) act on?

About myself? Others? My work? The world? What behavioural/emotional patterns governed
me?

Which assumptions were underlying those beliefs and patterns?

What are my thoughts on these beliefs and assumptions?

What are the “recurring themes” throughout the year? Believes could e.g. be that you
believe you are an always honorable person or that you believe that a certain type of
task you did was exceptionally good or bad or that you are (not) recognised for
something or that you don’t deserve the praise you get. Behavioral patterns are more
on the subconscious sides – e.g. avoiding conflicts, subconsciously seeking out certain
types of people, avoiding decisions, doing everything to cheer sad people up etc. It’s
important to note that you should not write down things you wanted to be or do, but
things you actually were or did (deducted from what happened throughout the year).

The underlying assumptions are more fundamental parts that make up those beliefs.

Behaviors Belief Assumptions Thoughts on it

 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

i) Optional: Text Analysis

Sometimes a more data-driven approach can give additional insights. You can copy your
above reflections into tools like https://www.online-utility.org/text/analyzer.jsp and get
some additional insights into the frequency of words used. (If you have additional
helpful analysis tools, feel free to comment them here).

j) My people of the year

Think about which people played an important role in this year. It doesn’t matter how
close those people actually were to you or how much time you spent with them. Maybe
you had a conversation with somebody that sparked a new thought which made you
change your life, or somebody helped you out in a dire situation or you just specially
liked the company of a person. This section is meant to help you understand who really
mattered in your life and why they actually do. There are also some people we spend a
lot of time with without us and them adding value to each other in any way. The
personal message is meant to thank these people and appreciate them for their
contribution to your life.

Person:

Reasoning/Explanation:

Personal message (sent via mail later):

Person:

Reasoning/Explanation:

Personal message (sent via mail later):

Person:

Reasoning/Explanation:

Personal message (sent via mail later):

 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

Person:

Reasoning/Explanation:

Personal message (sent via mail later):

k) My books of the year

Book:

Thoughts:

Book:

Thoughts:

Book:

Thoughts:

l) My songs of the year

Some songs strongly express what our year was about or have strong emotional
associations with certain key moments in the year or were simply accompanying us
throughout the year.

Song:

Explanation/Situation/time period:

Song:

Explanation/Situation/time period:

Song:
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

Explanation/Situation/time period:

m) Pictures of the year

You can add them here or just put them in the same folder.

n)Themes of the year

If possible, try to summarize the year in a few words. If you’d attribute a theme to the
year, what would it be? (E.g. Consolidation, Love, Creativity, Freeing yourself, …)

o)Evaluation of the yearly goals set for the closing year

In case you set goals at some point in/for the year, have a look at them and try to write
down what you think about them now in retrospect and analyze why or why not you
reached them.

p)Me on 1st of January of the closing year vs. Now

How would you describe yourself as a person now? How one year ago? How do these
two images differ and why?
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

q)Time investments (how much time did I spend with

which activity?)
If possible try to estimate what you invested your time in throughout the year on a
bigger (X days for studying, Y days for travelling, Z days for family, …) and smaller
(watching TV x hours per day on average, meeting friends y hours per day on average,
…) scale

r) Resource investment (mainly: What did I spend my

money for?)
What did you invest the resources you had into. You could look at your bank statements
for seeing how you used your money.

s) Personal Statistics
If you have tools available to measure your life (like fitness trackers, Facebook statistics,
etc.), summarize them here.
 Photo by Deniz Altindas on Unsplash

My Present
(Inventory)
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

II. Present (Inventory)

a) Financial Situation
What? (Till) when do I Plus/Have Minus/Debts
get paid/have to
pay this?

b)Curriculum Vitae (Update)

What new potential „items“ could I add to my CV (skills, experiences, activities)

c) Networks
What are my current contacts and networks? How did they change over the past year?

d)Material Resources
What other resources do I have (e.g. property, technical equipment, special clothes, …)
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

e) Body & Health

How do I feel physically? Was I sick during the year? Are there special developments or
concerns?

f) Skills & Talents

What am I good at? What did I develop newly in the past year?

g) Options/Opportunities (e.g. Job offers, potential

projects, …)

h)What are my 3-4 biggest/most important challenges

right now?
Can be from any field of life (professional, relationships, health, …)

i) What is frustrating me currently?

j) Loose ends & what do I give too much of a f*ck about?

Things that are still lingering in my mind and/or need to be finished - commitments,
emotional things, relationships, projects, etc.
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

Recommendation means what you would suggest in order to tie up or continue the
loose end. If I am giving too much f*ck about something, what can I do to cut it out of
my life?

What Recommendation (till) when

k) Habit Scorecard
To create your own Habits Scorecard, start by making a list of your daily habits
(especially in mornings and evenings). Once you have a full list, look at each behavior,
and ask yourself, “Is this a good habit, a bad habit, or a neutral habit?”. Generally
speaking, good habits will have long-term net positive outcomes. Bad habits have
long-term net negative outcomes.

Habit Trigger What is the habit? Good / Bad / Neutral

(when does it happen) +/-/0

l) Evaluation of my current way to organize myself (vs.

the years before)
Look at how you do your time-management, how you deal e.g. with your studies, job
responsibilities etc. Are the tools you use effective? Or are you just used to them?
 Photo by Alex Azabache on Unsplash

My Future
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

III. Future
a) Goal Brainstorming
Just write down anything that comes to your mind that you would like to do at any point
in your life – no matter how big or small (dentist appointment, calling my parents, learn
surfing, found a business, …)

a2) Optional: Create a clustering & mindmap of the goals to see how they
fit together, have synergies and where parts might be missing.

b)What kind of person do I want to be by the end of the

coming year? And how do I want to feel by the end of
the year?
Example for the feel part: "I want to feel free, fulfilled, competent and performing well,
confident in my professional activity (not constrained, limited by it), and confident in my
contributions"

c) Setting the big goals for the coming year

The most important step in this part. Decide on the goals you want to focus on for the
year. Start with “Goal”, then “Expected outcome”, then “current state”, then the other
columns. This particular system prevents you to have a “achieve or die” attitude i.e.
being demotivated when you realize you won’t achieve exactly what you set as a goal.
The “0” state represents a realistic goal – don’t aim too high, those things are reserved
for +1 and +2. In case you achieve “0”-state early you already have a backup goal then
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

with those2. Try to think holistically – areas could be health, family & social, career,
financial, …

Goal Current -1 0 +1 +2
State / Somewhat The Somewhat The best I
Performanc better than expected better than could
e the current outcome the possibly
state expected expect
outcome
Describe How are Better What you What Completely
in your you than it would like would be overachievin
own currently currently to achieve even g
words doing in is, not as in the better than
what you regards to good as coming what you
want the goal you want it year think is a
to be good
outcome

d)Future Scenarios
Looking a bit further into the future, what could you become? There are probably more
than one “main paths” that you see for yourself. Describe them (with a time-horizon of
5-10 years).

e) Guiding principles of the coming year

What principles and values do you want to follow in the new year?

f) Time Investment
How much time do I have, how much do I want/have to invest in what? You could draft
a sample time-schedule for a normal day if you want to organize yourself that strongly.

2
Special thanks to Wolfgang Jungmeier for this method
 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

g) Setting Milestones
Looking at the goals you set – what are steps you need to take to achieve them? You
could do a rough timeline saying which date you want to achieve what.

h)Develop/Adapt Self-Management System

Looking back at how you organize yourself currently (see a few questions above), how
could you improve that?

i) Necessary changes in behaviours, habits, skills,

resources

j) What should be the main theme of the coming year?

 Yearly Reflection Template 2021/2022 by Benedikt Glatzl

IV. Wrap Up
k) Immediate next steps
Extract all the actionable items (calendar dates, ToDos, people to talk to, opportunities
to research, courses to book, …) and put them in your self-organisation system

l) Create a rough timeline

Try to roughly schedule when you want to start & complete certain projects and tasks.

m) Create reminders, visualizations & other helpful

tools
Examples are creating a vision board, printing out your big goals, creating a mood
tracker, monthly planners, motivational posters, …