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Doing Self-Reviews and Planning (for personal use)

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Data Engineer at Financial Company5 months ago

I have a question about doing self-reviews. I'm not talking about doing them in the context of a company's performance review. I'm talking about doing them totally for myself regarding my own personal development, including my job, side-projects, learning, etc. It might even include more personal stuff like health and fitness, relationships, etc.

I recall Rahul mentioning something about setting aside a half hour at the beginning of every week to plan the week and take stock of last week. I also believe he says something about doing a quarterly review.

My questions are:

  1. What do these weekly and quarterly reviews looks like, i.e. how should I go about doing them?

  2. Is there more than just weekly and quarterly reviews? i.e. daily, monthly, annual?

  3. Do these reviews involve planning out the next week/quarter or is that a separate exercise?

  4. Is there a difference between doing self-reviews/planning when it comes to work vs. personal career development vs. personal life? Or is the approach/process the same?

I know different people do different stuff and YMMV, I'm looking for good habits I might apply to my own life!

Thanks!

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Discussion

(3 comments)
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    Eng @ Taro
    5 months ago

    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.

  • 2
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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    5 months ago

    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?
  • 1
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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    5 months ago

    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?