Year in Review: 25 Questions to End 2026 (Free Printable Workbook)
Table of Contents
Most year-end reflection goes one of two ways. You either skip it, because December is chaos and by January 1 you're already making plans. Or you find a list of 101 reflection questions, answer seven of them, and close the tab.
Neither gives you the useful part of looking back: knowing what actually worked, so you can do more of it next year, on purpose.
This is a shorter version. 25 year in review questions in five parts, five questions each. Each part takes about 10 minutes. You can do it in one evening with a hot drink, or one part a night from December 27 to 31. At the end you won't have a vague resolution. You'll have one specific challenge for January, with a start date and a finish line.
There's a free printable year in review workbook (PDF) with all 25 questions and room to write. It also has a "2026 in numbers" page and a page to plan your first challenge of 2027. No signup.
Why bother reviewing your year?
Because your memory is a bad record of what happened.
You remember the last few weeks clearly and the rest of the year as a blur. You remember what went wrong more vividly than what went right. And most of what you actually did, the small things you did again and again, never felt big enough to remember at all.
A structured review fixes that. A few things the research suggests:
1. Reflection turns experience into learning. In a series of studies, researchers at Harvard Business School found that people who spent 15 minutes at the end of a training day writing about what they had learned did better on a later test than people who spent the same time practising more (Di Stefano, Gino, Pisano and Staats). Thinking about what you did is part of how you learn from it.
2. The new year really is a good moment to start. Researchers Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis called it the fresh start effect: people are more likely to start goal-related behaviour (like going to the gym) after "temporal landmarks", such as the start of a new week, a birthday or a new year. January 1 is the biggest landmark there is. The review makes sure you use it for something specific. (More on when is actually the best time to start.)
3. Writing it down makes it real. A thought you have in the shower disappears. A sentence on paper can be read again in June, when you've forgotten why you started.
One honest note: none of this works if the questions are too big. "What is the meaning of my life?" is not a December-evening question. Every question below can be answered in a few lines.
How to do your year review (in one evening or five)
1. Get your evidence first. Open your calendar, your camera roll and your notes from this year. Ten minutes of scrolling will remind you of things you'd completely forgotten.
2. Pick your pace. One evening (about 50 minutes) or one part a night from Dec 27 to Dec 31.
3. Write, don't type. Print the workbook if you can. Handwriting is slower, and slow is the point.
4. Short answers are fine. Three honest lines beat a page of what you think you should say.
5. Be kind to 2026-you. This is a review, not a trial. You're looking for patterns, not for things to feel bad about.
The 25 year in review questions
Part 1: What happened (look back)
Start with the facts. No judging yet.
1. What three words describe my 2026?
2. What were the biggest moments of the year, good and hard?
3. What did I finish this year? A course, a project, a challenge, a book, a hard conversation. Finished counts more than perfect.
4. What did I start and then stop? No guilt. Just write it down. (You'll come back to this in Part 4.)
5. What surprised me most about this year?
Part 2: The proof (what I actually did)
This is the part most reflection lists skip. Not what you planned or felt, but what you can *prove* you did.
6. What am I proudest of that nobody else saw?
7. What was the hardest thing I did this year?
8. Which challenge did I take to the finish line, and what got me there? Name the specific thing that helped: a friend, a deadline, a tracker on the fridge, being seen.
9. What small thing did I keep showing up for? The ten-minute walk. The Sunday call. The page a day. Small and repeated is how most real change happens.
10. Which one photo sums up my year? Find it. Stick it in the workbook or write down where it is.
Part 3: People and energy
The year wasn't only about you. And your energy is your most limited resource.
11. Who made this year better?
12. Who do I want to thank, and have I told them? (If not, that's a very good use of December 28.)
13. What gave me energy this year? People, places, activities, times of day.
14. What drained me? Be specific. "Work" is too big. "Meetings after 4pm" is useful.
15. What did I say yes to that I should have said no to?
Part 4: Lessons
Now look for patterns.
16. What did I learn about how I work best? Morning or evening? Alone or with people? Big goals or small steps?
17. When did I quit something, and what was really going on? Look back at question 4. Was it the wrong goal, the wrong size, the wrong time, or no one watching?
18. What would I tell myself on January 1, 2026?
19. What am I ready to let go of? A goal you've carried for three years and don't actually want, a grudge, a version of yourself.
20. What do I want more of in 2027, and what do I want less of?
Part 5: Into 2027
The point of looking back is to choose what's next. Keep it small and keep it specific.
21. What's my word for 2027?
22. On December 31, 2027, what one sentence do I want to be able to say? "I ran a 10K." "I read 20 books." "I called my mum every week."
23. What's one small daily action that moves me toward that sentence? Small enough to do on your worst day.
24. What's my first challenge of 2027, and where's the finish line? Give it a length (21, 30 or 66 days) and a date. "30 days of reading 10 pages, January 4 to February 2."
25. Who will see my proof? One person, one group, one place you'll share it. A challenge that someone else can see is much easier to finish. (Here's why doing things in public changes everything.)
Your free year in review workbook
From review to resolution (without the resolution)
Here's the problem with most New Year's resolutions: they're open-ended. "Get fit." "Read more." "Be less stressed." No start, no end, no way to know if you're winning, and on the first bad day, no reason not to quit.
Question 24 replaces the resolution with a challenge:
| A resolution | A challenge |
|---|---|
| "Read more" | "Read 10 pages a day for 30 days" |
| No start date | Starts January 4 |
| No finish line | Finishes February 2 |
| You quit after a bad day | A missed day doesn't cancel the finish line |
| Nobody knows | Someone sees your proof |
A challenge is short enough to finish, specific enough to check, and when you finish it you get something a resolution never gives you: proof that you did what you said you'd do. That proof is what makes the next challenge easier.
Why proof beats memory
Remember how hard Part 2 was? Trying to remember what you actually did in March is difficult, because most of it left no trace.
That's the idea behind Harder. Every challenge on Harder is built from daily proof: a photo, a short video, a note. Not for likes, and not to show off. It's a record. Next December, your year review won't depend on what you can remember. You'll scroll back through hundreds of small pieces of evidence that you showed up, and Part 2 will take five minutes.
And because every challenge has a fixed finish line and the steps already laid out, you never have to decide what to do tomorrow. Missed a day? It doesn't wipe out your progress. You protect the finish line, not a perfect record. And other people are doing the same challenge on the same day, so you're not doing the hard thing alone.
Next December, your year review writes itself. Pick your first 2027 challenge on Harder: the steps are already laid out, your daily proof builds a record of your year, and other people start the same challenge on the same day.
Year in Review FAQ
What are good year in review questions? Questions that are short and specific enough to answer in a few lines: What did I finish this year? What am I proudest of that nobody saw? What gave me energy, and what drained me? What do I want more of next year? All 25 are above, grouped into five parts.
How do I do an end of year review? Collect your evidence first (calendar, photos, notes), then answer a short set of reflection questions about what happened, what you did, who mattered, what you learned and what's next. Finish by choosing one specific challenge for January with a start date and a finish line.
When should I do my year review? Anywhere from mid-December to the first week of January. The week between Christmas and New Year works well for many people: one part a night from December 27 to 31. (Doing the Advent Challenge? Doors 22 to 24 are a perfect warm-up.)
How long does a year in review take? About 50 minutes for all 25 questions, or 10 minutes a night over five nights.
Is there a free year in review template? Yes. The free printable workbook has all 25 questions with writing space, a "2026 in numbers" page and a first-challenge planner, in A4 and US Letter.
Can I do this with a partner, friends or a team? Yes. Answer on your own first, then share your answers to questions 3, 6, 11 and 22. For teams, Parts 1, 2 and 4 work well as a 45-minute end-of-year retro.
Close the year on purpose
You don't need a perfect year to have a good review. You need 50 minutes, a pen, and the honesty to write down what really happened.
Save this page. Print the workbook (A4 / US Letter). Pick your evening.
Then, on January 1, you won't start with a wish. You'll start with question 24 already answered: one challenge, one finish line, and someone who'll see your proof. You don't have to plan tomorrow. You already did.
*Sources:* Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., & Staats, B. R. (2016). Making experience count: The role of reflection in individual learning. *Harvard Business School Working Paper* 14-093. · Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. *Management Science*, 60(10), 2563–2582.