Annual Review

: Journal Prompts and Guides

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5
journal prompts and guides about
Annual Review
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reflect on achievements and plan meaningful goals for growth
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Annual Review is a chance to step back and make sense of the past year—what worked, what changed, and what matters next. Writing about your year helps you notice patterns, celebrate progress, and turn lessons into clearer priorities for the months ahead. Use these prompts as a simple structure: pick one that speaks to you, set a 10–15 minute timer, and write without editing. Return to entries to compare intentions with outcomes and refine plans over time; treat this practice as a compassionate, practical way to close one chapter and begin the next.
Trauma & Healing
Mindfulness
Parenting
Intentions & Goals
Nourishing
Creativity
Spiritual
Work & Finance
Health & Wellness
Personal Growth
Relationships
Anxiety & Depression
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How To Use
Annual Review
Journal Prompts
Start by setting aside a quiet time to focus on your year without distractions. Use the prompts to explore key moments, achievements, and challenges, writing freely to capture your honest reflections. Consider what lessons each experience offers and how they align with your goals. Identify patterns or themes that emerge, noting areas for growth or change. Use the guides to celebrate progress and acknowledge setbacks without judgment. Finally, summarize your insights to create a clear vision for the year ahead, using your reflections as a foundation for intentional planning. Approach the process with openness and curiosity, allowing your journal to be a supportive tool for meaningful self-discovery.
Read more tips on how to start and keep a journaling practice that can guide your wellness and personal growth.
Benefits of
Annual Review
Journaling
Journaling an annual review helps you turn scattered memories into clear evidence: writing consolidates achievements, uncovers recurring patterns or blind spots, and creates a year-over-year record you can use for data-driven planning and decisions. Research on expressive writing (Pennebaker and colleagues) shows that putting emotions and experiences into words reduces stress and can improve well-being, while work on retrieval practice (Roediger & Karpicke) and written goal-setting (Locke & Latham) demonstrates that actively recording reflections and goals strengthens memory, commitment, and follow-through. Applied to an annual review, these effects mean clearer priorities, better-informed career and project choices, and higher likelihood of achieving next-year objectives—especially when reflections are translated into concrete, written goals or implementation intentions (Gollwitzer), which studies show increase goal attainment.
Learn about the science-backed benefits of journaling along with primary sources.

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