Doing Self-Reviews and Planning (for personal use)

I have journals for every subject where I want to improve: cooking, nutrition, gym, work, podcasts. When I don't reflect on how something can be improved, I find myself getting into bad habits that I might not notice or address for many years.

An entry will usually be the date and a bullet point of what didn't go right and how it could be improved. I try to make it as simple as possible. Example entries might look like:

• 4/16/24 (in the cooking journal)
  • Cooked "X" for 2-3 minutes too long, came out very dry
    • Start checking temperature at the 10 minute marker
• 5/1/24 (in the workout journal)
  • Did "X" exercise, but feeling it in "Y" muscle instead of "Z" muscle
    • Lower elbows and bar next time to feel it more in the "Z" muscle

I do make it a point to make the notes short to reduce the time it takes to write them as well as reflect on them later. Every 3-6 months, I will sit down and review the notes.

I have mostly internalized this (I don't set up meetings with myself), but I'll share my process regardless:

1. My main vehicle for introspection are long walks I take 4-5 times a week. Exercise is both good for your physical health and clearing your mind so you can look inwards. My walks are minimum 45 minutes long and can be as long as 2 hours.
2. During the walk, I go through these questions:
   1. What did I accomplish since the last walk? Over the last week? Over the last month? Over the last 3 months?
   2. Am I proud of what I did in #1?
   3. If not (I often am not as I hold myself to very high standards), why didn't I accomplish as much as I wanted to?
   4. Now that I know the "Why" from #3, how can I alter my behavior to fix those problems?

For the weekly review I do, it's mostly a calendar review. I look at blocks on my calendar and where I spent my time. Questions I ask:

• When was I most productive? Least productive?
• Which meetings were the highest leverage?
• When did I have the most energy? Least energy?