Year in Review Template: 24 Questions to Close Your Year and Plan the Next

Year in Review Template: 24 Questions You Can Copy Today

The year in review template below uses the three questions from Terry Borton's reflective model (what, so what, now what), described in the overview of reflective practice. Answer each part in order and keep answers short: a line or two per question is enough.

Part 1: What happened (look back)

1. What were the three biggest events of my year?
2. What did I finish that I am proud of?
3. What did I start and not finish?
4. Where did most of my time go, month by month?
5. Who did I spend the most time with?
6. What did I buy, learn or try for the first time?
7. What was my best day this year, and what made it good?
8. What was my hardest week, and how did I get through it?

Part 2: How it felt (be honest)

9. When did I feel most like myself?
10. What drained my energy again and again?
11. Which habit helped me most, and which one quietly slipped?
12. What am I grateful for that I did not expect in January?
13. What did I avoid, and what did avoiding it cost me?
14. If this year had a title, what would it be?

Part 3: So what (lessons)

15. What is one thing I now believe that I did not believe a year ago?
16. Which decision would I make again without hesitation?
17. Which decision would I change, and what would I do instead?
18. What pattern shows up in my answers above?
19. What should I stop doing next year?

Part 4: Now what (next year)

20. What are three to five goals for next year, written so I can check them?
21. Which one daily or weekly habit would move my biggest goal?
22. What will I say no to so these goals have room?
23. What is my word or theme for the year?
24. When will I check my progress, and how often?

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How to Write a Yearly Review in One Evening

A yearly review works best in one focused evening with your records open, not from memory alone. Plan for about 90 minutes: gather material first, answer the 24 questions second, then pick next year's goals last.

Start by opening what you already have: your calendar, photo roll, journal, bank statements and any habit or goal tracker. The peak–end rule describes how people judge an experience mostly by its most intense moment and its ending. A whole year is no different. Without records, a hard December or one great trip can color every answer.

Then work through the four parts in order:

• 20 minutes, gather: scroll your calendar and photos month by month and jot one line per month.
• 30 minutes, Parts 1 and 2: answer quickly; do not edit yet.
• 20 minutes, Part 3: read your answers and circle any pattern that appears twice.
• 20 minutes, Part 4: choose three to five goals and one habit for the biggest goal.

If you prefer a structured debrief, Graham Gibbs's reflective cycle (description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, action plan) covers the same ground in six steps. For setting the goals themselves, the 2027 yearly planner goal-setting guide walks through a SMART worksheet that also names the likely obstacle.

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Free Year in Review Template vs a Paid Planner

A free year in review template, like the 24 questions above, is enough to reflect on the year that just ended. A paid planner adds something a question list cannot: a record of the next year as it happens, so your next review reads real numbers instead of guesses.

What you need	Free question template	Planner that tracks the year
Reflect on the year that just ended	Yes, works well	Not needed
Know how many weeks a habit actually held	Only from memory	Streaks and completion rates are saved
See which goals moved and which stalled	Rough guess	Milestones and pace are logged
Connect a goal to the habits behind it	You link them yourself	Built in
Cost	Free	One-time purchase

Use the free template this December. If last year's review felt vague because you could not remember what happened in April, the missing piece is tracking during the year, not a better question list. For habits, the Habit Tracker & Streak Planner keeps current and longest streaks plus 7-day and 30-day completion rates for each habit, and exports check-ins and streaks as spreadsheets you can open next December when you answer question 11.

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Best Annual Review Template Formats Compared

The best annual review template is the one you will finish, and for most people that is a written question list. Slide decks and videos suit sharing, while a digital planner suits people who want the next review to be quick because the year's data is already collected.

Format	Best for	Watch out for
Written question list (this page)	Private, honest reflection	Relies on memory unless you have records
Printable worksheet	People who think on paper	Hard to search or compare across years
Slide deck or photo collage	Sharing highlights with family or friends	Easy to show the good and skip the lessons
Short video recap	Social sharing and memories	Takes hours to edit; little room for lessons
Digital planner with weekly reviews	Turning the review into next year's plan	Only helps if you open it during the year

Personal and professional reviews are different documents. This template is for your own year, not a work performance review, so it asks what you want, not what a manager needs to rate. If you are still choosing a format for next year, the guide on whether a planner is worth it, paper or digital compares the trade-offs, and the best productivity planner guide shows what to check before you buy.

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Turn Your Year in Review Into a Christmas Letter

A year in review Christmas letter is a short note, usually sent with a holiday card, that tells friends and family what your year held. Your answers to Parts 1 and 4 already contain most of it; the work is choosing three or four moments and keeping the tone warm.

The round-robin or Christmas letter has a long tradition and a reputation for bragging, so a few habits keep yours welcome:

• Open with one real moment, such as your best day from question 7, not a list of achievements.
• Keep it to one page and use the title you gave your year in question 14 as the heading.
• Include one honest line from your hardest week, without turning the letter into a confession.
• End with what is next from Part 4, and ask the reader one question about their year.

Write the private review first and the letter second. The private version can hold everything; the letter only needs the parts you are happy to share.

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Put This Into Practice: Carry Your Review Into 2027

Your answers to Part 4 are only useful if you see them again before next December. Here is how the two planners pick up where the template stops:

• Goals from question 20 get milestones. In the 2027 Digital Planner & Goal Tracker, each goal opens to its milestones, linked habits and journal entries, and measurable goals show where you are now against where you should be by today.
• The habit from question 21 gets a streak. Every habit you tick on the Command Center counts toward a real goal, and streaks count only the days the habit was due.
• The check-in from question 24 becomes a weekly review. The planner's weekly review fills in its own numbers from your habits and milestones; you add what moved, what drained you and one lever for next week.
• Next December's review starts from records. Wins and insights you log in the journal stay linked to their goals, so question 2 has an answer already waiting.

Both apps open in your browser, work offline and keep your entries on your device. If habits are the part that slipped this year, start with the Habit Tracker & Streak Planner; if you want the whole year in one place, start with the 2027 Digital Planner. You can browse both in the productivity and habits collection.

For over 8 years, Jennie has practiced these exact steps with more than 2,400,000 followers and 38,000+ students. What people share most often: once they see their day and progress in one place instead of juggling scattered lists, they stop drifting through the year and see each habit moving a real goal.