I recently discovered “Annual Life Reviews”. A methodical process where you reflect on the last year, map out your priorities/values/etc, and plan out the next year.

We often spend more time planning vacations and work than we spend planning our lives. This lack of meaningful reflection and planning means our lives end up following some default path as laid out by societal norms. Instead, we should take time to reflect on our current situation, decide what we want our life to be like, and make plans to bring it to fruition.

"Plans are worthless, planning is essential."
 - https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/18/planning/

I completed a review of my life for the first time in May and found it to be transformative.

First, looking back at the last year helped me recognize how fortunate I am. I felt an immense sense of gratitude when thinking about my friends, family, travels, and all I’ve learned in the last year.

Next, taking stock of my priorities and values has had a calming effect. Usually, when I’m doing something that is not strictly “productive”, I have a vague sense of guilt that I should be doing something else. Now, when I’m spending time on my priorities or things I value, I feel present in the moment. I don’t feel anxious because I know I’m doing something I truly care about.

Finally, planning out the year let me break down areas I want to improve into achievable, actionable tasks. “Learn machine learning” feels much more achievable when you instead task it as “complete 1 lesson from FastAI per month”. In the month since I completed the review, I have spent 95%+ of my free time either completing these tasks or otherwise doing things that I prioritize (ex. Gymnastics). None of it feels like work because I’m only doing things I care about and the sense of accomplishment I get when I complete a task is gratifying.

I’ve been telling everyone I know about this process and can’t recommend it enough.

The Process

I followed the process laid out by Alex Vermeer in 8760 Hours (hours in a year). I’ve summarized it here (with my modifications). If you decide to try it (which I hope you do), I recommend reading the PDF as it has helpful tips and tidbits beyond the bare bones I’ve included here.

Step 1 – Shallow Reflection (1 Page)

Mind map the last year. This should be pretty quick, it’s a warm up that moves big items out of your head onto some paper. I had things like “good=got engaged”, “bad=some friends moved”. 

Some priming questions (and more):
What went well?
What did not go well?
Where did you try hard?
Where did you not try hard enough?
What is the current situation here?
How do things stand right now?
How would I summarize to a friend the status of this area?

Step 2 – Guided Deep Reflection (1 Page per Life Area)

For each life of the 12 life areas:

1. Make a mind map of that life area for the last year (~1/2 page). Prime your mapping with these life area descriptions and these general helper questions.
2. Summarize that life area, using the mind map as a guide (~1/2 page).
3. List tasks and projects that could improve this area (a few bullet points).

I used the 12 areas suggested in the 8760 hours PDF. You can reduce or add, per your preference. The 12 areas are: Values & Purpose, Contribution & Impact, Location & Tangibles, Money & Finances, Career & Work, Health & Fitness, Education & Skill Development, Social Life & Relationships, Emotions & Well-Being, Character & Integrity, Productivity & Organization, Adventure & Creativity

I used 1 page per life area. Just under 1/2 for the map, just under 1/2 for the summary, the rest for an action item list. This section is the most time consuming, I spent 1-3 hours per life area.

Step 3 – Your Ideal Life (2 Pages)

On a single sheet, for each life area, write a few bullet points that describe what would make that life area ideal.

My Ex. Health and Fitness
 – Be able to do a planche.
 – Heal shoulder injury.

Don’t limit yourself unnecessarily but be realistic (i.e. no winning the lottery).

On a second sheet, describe your ideal life, organized however you want. I listed my top priorities/values, described why each matters to me, and how they would fit into my ideal life. I also wrote down the things I would like to spend less time doing.

Finally, I summarized my ideal life in one paragraph. This is your guiding vision for step 4.

Step 4 – Taskify (1 Page)

Now that you have reflected on your life and envisioned your ideal life, it’s time to figure out how you go from where you are to where you want to be.

1. Collect the tasks/projects you listed for each life area in Step 2 onto one page. De-duplicate any that came up multiple times (but remember which came up a lot, those should be a high priority).
2. Read through your “ideal life” from step 3 and add more tasks/projects that will help you live your ideal life.

Step 5 – Prioritize (2 Pages)

Prioritize the tasks you created in step 4. I did this in 2 ways (1 page each):

1. Group tasks into projects and/or themes. I had 8 (ex. Wedding, Travel, Health, Misc). Rate the projects and tasks on a priority scale (I used 1-7).
2. List your values at the top of the page. Make 7 rows. Reflecting on your values, place each task into one of the 7 rows, based on the importance of that task.

I found that these produced similar but not identical results.

Step 6 – Schedule and Track (Electronic)

Pick the projects and tasks that you will spend the next year working on. You will likely have far more tasks than available time, use the prioritization from step 5 to select what you want to work on this year.

Now schedule your tasks/projects. This is absolutely essential. If you don’t work on your projects, this review is no more useful than an incomplete new years resolution. I’m using Todoist, which has most of the features I want at a reasonable price (base features are free). You can create projects, put tasks under those projects, break tasks into smaller tasks, schedule tasks, and look back at the tasks you’ve completed.

Step 7 – Summarize (Electronic)

Summarize your results. I created a OneNote page with my priorities, projects for the year (with tasks under them), and some miscellaneous thoughts on the process.

Step 8 – Review

Schedule a monthly mini-review. Track your progress. Note what’s going well/poorly. Change your goals/priorities as necessary.

Step 9 – Done

That’s “it” 🙂 … This is not a lightweight process. I took over 2 weeks and spent most of my free time at home completing the process. Still, despite the time it took, I can’t recommend it enough.

Results

I learned a lot about myself.

I now know what my priorities are. I often look at them as a reminder of how I should spend my time:

Autonomy – I care about having the freedom to do the things I want to do. I value my time a lot. I need a sense of control over my life.
Fitness – I love spending time doing gymnastics, mobilizing, eating well, learning about the human body, etc. Few things beat the raw pleasure I get from Gymnastics.
Social – I care about my friends and family. There are few things I value above time spent with them discussing interesting things. I want to spend more time with friends.
Knowledge – I love learning new things, gaining new skills, and thinking about hard problems.
Problem Solving –  I love solving problems. I can’t help but try to solve any problem I see.
Impact – I care that the things I do matter. I want to use knowledge + problem solving to contribute back to the world or a community.
Travel – Travelling gives me a sense of adventure. Not knowing what I’ll find. Being immersed in another culture. The sense of awe and wonder. I love the entire process.

One of the most valuable pieces of this process has been the realization that there are some things I value which I didn’t realize I valued. Impact, for example, is not something I’ve consciously prioritized in the past but is something I realized I care about and should spend time on.

Similarly, I learned there are things I don’t value which I thought I did. Productivity, for example, is not something I care about intrinsically. I prioritize it only in so far as it helps me achieve other goals (ex. If I’m more productive I can learn more/solve harder problems).

Finally, I feel more accomplished because I have a concrete set of projects to work on. I have spent more time hanging out with/talking to my most valued friends. I have blogged more. I have read more about AI and Machine Learning.

Thanks to this process, I spend more time doing things I value and, as a result, spend less time feeling anxious that I should be doing something more important. With only two weeks of effort, I have at least doubled the amount of time I spend doing things I value. I can think of few ways to get such a large reward for so little effort.