40 End-of-Year Reflection Questions (and How to Turn Them Into a Letter)

End-of-year reflection questions help you look back on the past twelve months before the new year starts: what happened, what you learned, and what you want to carry forward. Answering them takes about half an hour, and writing your answers as a letter to your future self turns a one-off exercise into something you will be glad to read a year later.

The big picture

1. What were the three biggest things that happened to you this year?
2. What are you proudest of?
3. What surprised you most?
4. What was harder than you expected?
5. If this year were a chapter in a book, what would it be called?
6. What did you spend most of your time on, and was it worth it?
7. What do you know now that you didn't know in January?
8. What would you do differently if you could live this year again?

Work and learning

9. What did you get better at?
10. Which piece of work are you most glad you did?
11. What drained your energy the most?
12. What did you learn that you didn't plan to learn?
13. Who taught you something this year?
14. What did you avoid that you need to face next year?
15. Did your work feel more or less meaningful than last year? Why?
16. What do you want to learn next?

People

17. Who made this year better?
18. Who did you grow closer to?
19. Who did you drift away from, and do you mind?
20. Who do you want to thank?
21. Who do you owe an apology?
22. Which conversation do you keep thinking about?
23. Who did you meet for the first time this year?
24. Who do you want to see more of next year?

Health and habits

25. How did you feel most days?
26. Which habit helped you most?
27. Which habit do you want to drop?
28. When did you feel most rested?
29. What did you do just for fun?
30. How did you cope with the hard weeks?
31. What does your body need more of next year?
32. What gave you energy?

Looking ahead

33. What would make next year a good year?
34. What is one thing you want to start?
35. What is one thing you want to stop?
36. What do you want to say no to?
37. Where do you hope to be this time next year?
38. What do you want to remember on a bad day?
39. What would you like to ask yourself in a year?
40. If you could choose one word for next year, what would it be?

How should you use end-of-year reflection questions?

There are three good ways, and they combine well:

• In a journal. Answer one group per evening in the week between Christmas and New Year.
• In conversation. Ask each other two or three questions over dinner with a partner, family or friends.
• As a letter. Answer them in a letter to your future self, so the answers come back to you next year.

How to turn your answers into a letter

Reflection answers are useful today. As a letter, they are also a gift to the person you will be next December. Use this order:

1. Start with the date and where you are.
2. Summarise the year in a few sentences, using your answers from "The big picture".
3. Add one paragraph about the people who mattered.
4. Write what you hope for next year, as hopes rather than resolutions.
5. End with one or two questions for your future self.

Then seal it and choose when it arrives: halfway through next year, or next New Year's Day. For more help with the letter itself, see How to Write a New Year Letter to Your Future Self.