How to Review Your 2025 (so 2026 feels intentional)

Most people "review" the year by vaguely thinking: "It went fast."

A good review is different: it turns 12 months of noise into clear lessons, decisions, and a plan.

This guide gives you a simple, repeatable annual review you can do in 60–120 minutes.

What a 2025 review should produce

By the end, you want 5 outputs:

1. A short summary of what actually happened
2. Your biggest wins (and why they worked)
3. Your biggest misses (and what you'll change)
4. A few lessons worth keeping
5. A concrete plan for 2026 (themes + first steps)

If you don't end with actions, it wasn't a review — it was journaling.

Step 1: Collect your 2025 data (15 minutes)

You don't need perfect data. Just enough to be honest.

Pull from:

• Calendar (events, trips, major milestones)
• Notes / journal / task manager
• Photos (camera roll is a timeline)
• Bank statements (spending patterns don't lie)
• Work artifacts (projects shipped, invoices, GitHub, client work)
• Health signals (weight trend, workouts, sleep averages if you track)

Quick rule: Don't start "thinking" yet. First, gather.

Step 2: Rebuild your 2025 timeline (10–20 minutes)

Create a simple month-by-month skeleton:

January:
February:
…
December:

Under each month, add 3–7 bullets:

• big events
• meaningful work projects
• relationship moments
• wins + problems
• any turning points

This step is important because memory lies. The timeline forces reality.

Step 3: Score your year across life domains (10 minutes)

Pick 6–8 domains:

• Health & energy
• Work / business
• Money
• Relationships
• Learning / skills
• Fun / adventure
• Mental health / peace
• Home / environment

Score each 0–10.

Then answer:

• What made the score high?
• What made the score low?
• What is one lever that would raise it by +2 points in 2026?

This gives you direction without overcomplicating.

Step 4: Identify your 10 wins (and extract the recipe)

Write 10 wins from 2025. Keep them concrete.

Examples:

• "Shipped X feature"
• "Lost 7kg"
• "Went on 2 trips"
• "Improved sleep schedule"
• "Cut a bad client relationship"
• "Created a better routine"
• "Made more time for family"

For each win, answer:

• Why did this work? (system, routine, people, environment)
• What should I repeat in 2026?
• What did it cost? (time, stress, trade-offs)

A win that burned you out is not a pure win — it's a warning.

Step 5: Identify your 5 misses (without self-hate)

Now list 5 things you're not proud of or simply didn't handle well.

For each miss, write:

• What happened (facts only)?
• What was the real cause? (not the excuse)
• What will I do differently next time?
• What boundary or rule would prevent it?

This turns regret into strategy.

Step 6: Do a "Start / Stop / Continue" reset (10 minutes)

Write three lists:

Start (add in 2026)

• new habits
• new processes
• new boundaries
• new experiments

Stop (remove in 2026)

• draining commitments
• time leaks
• unhealthy loops
• people/processes that create chaos

Continue (protect in 2026)

• routines that worked
• relationships that mattered
• tools that increased clarity
• practices that created calm

This is one of the simplest ways to "upgrade" your year.

Step 7: Find the patterns that ran your 2025

Look at everything you wrote and answer:

What gave me energy?

• people
• activities
• environments
• types of work

What drained me?

• tasks, clients, habits, routines, contexts

What did I consistently overestimate?

• time available
• focus capacity
• how fast a project would move

What did I consistently underestimate?

• the impact of sleep
• the cost of context switching
• how long recovery takes

These patterns are more valuable than goals.

Step 8: Write your "2025 in 12 sentences" summary

One sentence per month. Done.

This creates closure and makes your year feel real instead of fuzzy.

Step 9: Convert your review into a 2026 plan (this is the point)

Create 3–5 themes for 2026. Themes are better than rigid resolutions.

Examples:

• "Consistency over intensity"
• "Fewer projects, higher quality"
• "Health first = everything improves"
• "Build assets, not just tasks"
• "More deep work, less noise"
• "Protect relationships"

Then choose:

• 3 goals max (big outcomes)
• 1 keystone habit (the one habit that makes everything easier)
• 1 constraint (a boundary that protects your year)

A simple annual review template (copy/paste)

2025 Timeline Highlights

• Jan:
• Feb:
• Mar:
• Apr:
• May:
• Jun:
• Jul:
• Aug:
• Sep:
• Oct:
• Nov:
• Dec:

Domain Scores (0–10)

• Health:
• Work:
• Money:
• Relationships:
• Learning:
• Fun:
• Mental peace:
• Home:

Top 10 Wins (and why they worked)

1.
2.
…

Top 5 Misses (and what I'll change)

1.
2.
…

Start / Stop / Continue

Start:
Stop:
Continue:

2025 Lessons (keep it short)

• Lesson 1:
• Lesson 2:
• Lesson 3:

2026 Themes + First Steps

Themes:
1)
2)
3)

First steps (next 2 weeks):

How to do this inside Self-Manager.net

Here's a clean way to structure it:

1. Create a table called "2025 Annual Review"
   • sections as rows: Timeline, Wins, Misses, Lessons, Start/Stop/Continue, 2026 Themes
2. Create 12 mini tables (or one table grouped by month)
   • "2025 January", "2025 February", etc.
   • paste your month bullets inside
3. Pin these tables (so the review stays visible while you write)
4. Use your weekly/monthly/quarterly views to cross-check patterns
   • what months were strongest, weakest, most chaotic?
5. Finish by creating a "2026 Themes" table
   • each theme gets a row + a few measurable indicators
   • then link weekly tasks back to these themes

The goal is to keep your annual review from becoming a dead document. It should feed the weeks of 2026.

The key mindset

A year review is not about judging yourself.

It's about learning what worked, removing what didn't, and designing a better default.