An end of year review that argues with January
Twelve questions about what you thought 2025 would be, and what it was.
About forty minutes. At the end you get your own answers back, placed next to each other so the gaps show. No score, no rating out of ten, no word for the year. Nothing is sent anywhere, and the first question is already below.
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Why the questions compare instead of summarise
Most end of year reviews ask you to list what happened. That is a reasonable thing to want and it is also the easiest possible version of this, because you already know what happened in 2025. Listing it changes nothing. You finish with a tidier copy of the account you were already telling yourself in the shower.
These twelve put two things next to each other instead. What you expected in January against what actually took the hours. What is finished against what you are carrying over. The sentence you were saying twelve months ago against the one you are still saying. Nobody is talked out of their account of the year by an argument, and quite a lot of people are talked out of it by their own two answers sitting in the same paragraph.
Below the questions this page does that pairing for you and adds nothing else. No interpretation, no rating, no summary of your character. There is no model on this page. Every word you read back is one you wrote.
The twelve questions
All of them, in order. Take them and use them somewhere else if you prefer.
January
- 1What did you think this year was going to be about?Answer as the person who started it, not the one finishing it.
- 2What did it turn out to be about?Where the hours went, not what you would put in a summary.
- 3What is done now that was not done in January?It can be small. It has to be finished.
What It Charged
- 4What did this year cost you that you did not expect to pay?
- 5What did you stop doing this year without ever deciding to?The thing that quietly fell off. You noticed it was gone in about March.
- 6Who saw the least of you this year?You don't have to explain why. A name is enough.
The Pattern
- 7What were you still saying in December that you were already saying in January?As close to the words as you can get.
- 8Think of the worst week of this year. What did you actually do to get through it?Including the parts that did not help.
- 9Which month would you not want to live twice?The month is enough. The reason is optional.
What Crosses Over
- 10What are you carrying into next year that you meant to close in this one?One thing.
- 11What would have to stop for that to close?
- 12What question about this year are you glad nobody asked you?Write the question down. Leave it unanswered.
Questions people ask
What are some good questions to reflect on at the end of the year?
The ones that compare. A question you can answer the same way in March and in December is not measuring the year, it is measuring you. What did you think this year was going to be about, and what did it turn out to be about. What is finished now that was not finished in January. What did you stop doing without ever deciding to. Those have different answers on 2 January than they do on 20 December, which is the only reason to ask them now.
How do you write an end of year review for yourself?
Write down what happened before you decide what it meant. Most people do it the other way round, settle on a verdict about the year in the first two minutes, and then spend an hour collecting evidence for it. Answer the questions plainly, leave the ones you cannot answer, and read the whole thing back in one sitting. The reading back is the part that does the work, and it is the part almost everyone skips.
When is the best time to do it?
Any time between about mid December and the end of January. Earlier and the year is not finished, so you are reviewing a forecast. Much later and the answers start being about the new year instead. There is no deadline on this page and no reminder, so nothing happens if you do it in March.
How long does it take?
About forty minutes if you take it seriously. Not an afternoon. Twelve questions is a deliberate ceiling: the reason people abandon long year-end workbooks is length, and a review you did not finish tells you nothing at all.
Does it help me plan next year?
Not directly, and that is on purpose. This reviews the year you had. Two of the twelve look forward, and they ask what you are carrying into next year and what would have to stop, which is a different thing from goal setting. Nothing here asks you for resolutions or a word for the year.
Is anything sent anywhere?
No. The page makes no network request after it loads. What you type is written to your own browser storage and stays on the device. No account, no email field, no copy anyone else can read. Clearing your browser data clears this with it, so download a copy if you want to keep it.
Can I print it and do it on paper?
Yes. There is a blank sheet download that prints the twelve questions with room to write under each one, and the filled-in version exports as PDF, image, Markdown or plain text.
If you would rather not do this by the calendar
These twelve are built around the turn of a year, which makes them worth very little in June. The life audit is the same page with a set that does not care what month it is: the record, what it cost, the pattern, what is unfinished. Same twelve boxes, same exports, same nothing-sent-anywhere.
If you got here from YearCompass, or you are looking for something shorter than it, the comparison is written out, including the cases where the booklet is the better tool.
If a pairing above landed and stopped there
This page can only rearrange what you put on it. It cannot ask the follow-up, because it has no idea what you wrote. If two of your answers disagreed and you want the second question rather than the first, Fatement asks it. One at a time, adapting to what you actually said, and it does not stop at the polite answer.
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