How to Do a Year in Review: What to Keep, What to Release, What to Sow

Welcome back to Bri Books! Today, we’re doing an in-depth personal year-in-review. Spoiler alert: a year in review does not need to be dramatic or emotional to be useful. It needs to be honest and practical. This approach is about looking at the year clearly, deciding what is actually working, and making intentional choices about what you are carrying forward. Not everything needs to be turned into a goal. Some things just need to be named so you can stop dragging them with you. If you’re new to the show, leave a review of Bri Books on Apple Podcasts, and listen to Bri Books on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Please tell me where you’re traveling to by using #bribooks on Instagram and subscribe to the Bri Books newsletter at bribookspod.com/newsletter. 

By the end of this process, you will have clear language you can use for goal-setting, journaling, and planning the next season of your life.

Start With What Actually Exists

Before you reflect, gather evidence. Do not rely on memory alone.

• Pull together your calendar, your journal or notes app, your camera roll, and anything that shows how you actually spent your time and energy. If something mattered this year, it left a trace somewhere.

• Sit down with one notebook, one pen, and a solid block of uninterrupted time. Forty-five to ninety minutes is enough. This is not about making it pretty. It is about seeing clearly.

Review the Year Through Three Questions

You are not reviewing everything at once. You are moving through the year using three simple lenses.

1. First, write down what actually happened. List major events, shifts, projects, travel, relationship changes, work changes, and health moments. Do not interpret yet. Just get it on the page.

2. Next, write what cost more than it gave. This is not about failure. It is about energy. What required constant effort to maintain. What drained you even when it looked good on paper. What felt heavy simply because it never let up.

3. Then write what felt quietly right. These are the things that worked without forcing. The routines, relationships, or rhythms that felt sustainable and did not need explaining. These are often the most important signals and the easiest to overlook.

Decide What to Grow, Sow, and Release

This is where reflection turns into direction.

1. Grow: What to grow means identifying what is already working and deserves more room. These are practices or dynamics that produced results and felt aligned. Write down a few sentences starting with, “In the coming year, I am growing…” and let yourself be specific.

   Write:

   In the coming year, I am bringing with me ____

2. Sow: What to sow is about new input. This is not about perfect goals. It is about experimentation. What needs to be introduced that did not exist before. What you want to test gently without pressure. Write, “In the coming year, I am sowing…” and leave space to explore.: Write:

   In the coming year, I am sowing ________.

3. Release; What to release is essential. Ask yourself what cannot come with you. What only existed because you never questioned it. What you are allowed to stop doing. Write, “I am no longer carrying…” and be honest.

   Write:

   In the coming year, I am releasing ____

 

If you’re new to the show, leave a review of Bri Books on Apple Podcasts, and listen to Bri Books on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Please tell me where you’re traveling to by using #bribooks on Instagram and subscribe to the Bri Books newsletter at bribookspod.com/newsletter.