Doug Smith on How to Conduct a Year-End Review

In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, host Doug Smith shares his year-end review process, which has been a cornerstone of his personal growth since 2004. Doug discusses the importance of reflecting on the year gone by to foster growth and documents his detailed approach to conducting a comprehensive year-end review. He includes practical tips and encourages creating a personalized review system. Additionally, the episode features a word from the sponsor, Andocia Marketing Solutions. Doug wraps up with thoughtful ways to conclude the review process and the benefits of such reflections.

00:00 - Welcome to the L3 Leadership Podcast
00:27 - The Importance of Year-End Reviews
00:58 - Sponsor Message: Andocia Marketing Solutions
02:08 - Starting Your Year-End Review
06:05 - Essential Tools for Your Review
08:23 - Creating Your Year-End Report
12:26 - Wrapping Up Your Year-End Review
14:29 - Final Thoughts and Encouragement

The L3 Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Andocia Marketing Solutions. Andocia exists to bring leaders' visions to life. Visit https://andocia.com to learn more.

To find more leadership resources and helpful content for your leadership journey, check out our website at https://l3leadership.org/ today.

About Doug:  Doug Smith is the Director of Development atLight of Life Rescue Mission and Founder and CEO of L3 Leadership. He is the author of his eBook, “Making the Most of Mentoring”, a step-by-step guide to help you build and cultivate relationships with mentors. He blogs atdougsmithlive.com, is the host of the L3 Leadership podcast and is a sought-after public speaker. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Laura, who currently works as an Account Executive at Ivalua. Together, they love family, personal growth, travel, working out, and serving others.

Resources Mentioned:
Year-End Review Template
Living Forward by Michael Hyatt (Affiliate Link)
How to Journal
mint.com
The Five Minute Journal App

Quotes from the Episode:
"The best system for a year-end review is the one you'll actually follow."
"The best way to learn something is to teach it to others."

Connect with Doug:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram

Transcript

Hey leader and welcome to another episode of the L3 leadership podcast where we're obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host and we recorded this episode live from the Birgo Realty Studios. If you're new to the podcast, welcome.

I'm so glad that you're here and I hope that you enjoy the content and become a subscriber. If you've been listening to us for a while, it would mean the world to me if you left us a rating and review. That really does help us to grow our audience and reach more leaders. So thank you in advance for that.

Well leader in today's episode, you're going to hear an episode that I recorded years ago.  Many, many people create a year end review process. If you don't have a year end review process, you need to. I've been doing them since 2004 and they've transformed my life. And, uh, everyone that I've talked to who's actually implemented what I'm about to share with you, uh, has said how transformative  it's been in their life.

So I really encourage you, it's at the end of the year, You have a couple of weeks before the new year starts. Take some time and intentionally create a process like this and reflect on your year. I hope this practice will help you as much as it has helped me. But before we dive into it, here's a word from our sponsor, Andocia Marketing Solutions.

At 

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Reach out today. Let's start a conversation. 

Hey, everyone. Today, I want to talk to you about finishing your year well, and I can't think of a better way to finish your year than by doing a year end review. I first started doing year end reviews in 2004. My mentor, Larry Betancourt, encouraged me to spend some time at the end of the year reflecting and learning from the year that had just passed.

And so I did that, and I absolutely loved it, and now I've been doing year end reviews for 13 years. And over those 13 years, I've consistently studied and learned from leaders on how they 

I'm going to share my current process with you today, and I'll also include a template in the show notes that you can download and use for your year end review this year. Before we dive into the actual process of how to do a year end review, just a few thoughts. First and foremost, why do you need to do a year end review?

Well, number one, because you don't grow just by getting another year older. You grow through reflecting, learning, and making changes as necessary. I'll say that again, you don't grow just by getting another year older, you grow through reflecting, learning, and making changes as necessary. John Maxwell said it best when he said, Experience isn't the best teacher, evaluated experience is.

And all a year end review is, is an opportunity to evaluate the year that it just passed.  The second reason I would tell you to do a year end review is it's a way to document your life. Imagine being able to go back to any year of your life and read a summary of where you were that year. What goals you had, what you accomplished, the losses, the lessons learned, and so on.

And to take it a little bit further, uh, this is kind of nerdy, but I do decade reviews. And so when I turned 30, I took all of my year end reviews from my 20s and I evaluated the lessons learned from an entire decade of my life. Again, I know that's a little bit nerdy, but it was incredible to be able to do that and just see everything that happened in my life in my twenties.

And I can promise you that if you'll do a year in review, it'll change your life and you'll love, love, love having them. And then lastly, I just thought about this, you know, as far as a longterm vision, it would be a cool gift to give your kids one day. Even though they might not care, right? I might be 80 years old one day and hand my kids my urine reviews and then just laugh, right?

And put it in a box and wear it for the next 80 years. But it could be a cool gift that your kids can actually look into every year of your life and see what lessons you learned, what memories you had. And, um, I just think it would be a wonderful gift for them. So that's why you should do a year-end review.

And just two other thoughts before we dive into the process. Number one is realize that the best system for a year-end review is the one that you'll actually follow. The best system for a year-end review is the one that you'll actually follow. I wouldn't encourage you to copy my process. However, what I would encourage you to do is take what you like about my process and make it your own. 

And then secondly, realize that if this is your first year end review, it's not gonna be as in depth as you would like it to be. But do it anyway. I'm gonna be sharing things that I track in my journal throughout the year, and if you haven't been journaling or capturing things throughout the year, you may not have as much content as you want.

So to fill your year end review, but do it anyway, next year's will be better. The important thing is just to do one and I'll be sharing, uh, in January, how to make the most of your year and I'll walk through how to journal and capture some of these things, but again, if this is your first year in review, do it anyway.

Just create a process, do it and, uh, and get better every year. With all that being said, let's dive into the actual process of doing your year end review. The first step I would encourage you to take is to actually schedule time to do your year end review. Preferably this would be during the last week of the year, and some of you may want to do a morning, some of you an entire day, some of you multiple days.

The important thing isn't necessarily how much time you devote to it. The important thing is that you actually do devote time to it. So schedule something right now that last week of the year and say, I'm going to do my year end review at this time. And some of you may say, well, Doug, where should I go?

Uh, the important thing here is. Just get to a place where you won't be distracted, a place where you can get quiet and actually think. And so some of you, you may want to actually do an overnighter at a cabin in the woods. Some of you are able to do this in your house, but again, find a quiet place where you can think and reflect.

So once you have the appointment, you're it in your calendar. And once you know where you're going to go, what do you need to bring with you? Several things that encourage you to bring first, I'd encourage you to bring your journal if you journal. And I'll just say this, I don't have time to teach on journaling, um, but I will include a link in the show notes.

I wrote an entire blog post and I did an entire podcast episode on how I journal. So I would encourage you to start journaling if you haven't in 2018, but if nothing else, I would encourage everyone listening to this to download the app, the five minute journal.  The five minute journal. This is an app I downloaded in January of this year, and I've been using it every day.

It literally only takes two or three minutes to fill out every day. And, um, it's been a great addition to my actual handwritten journal. And so I love that. And, uh, I think anyone can do it and they'll really draw a lot from it. from that. So the five minute journal app, make sure you get that. I also bring my calendar, which is usually on my laptop.

Uh, this is something interesting, but, uh, Matt Keller posted this recently. I thought it was a great idea. I'll bring all of my photos for the year. So I'll be able to look through those and draw some things from the photos. I also bring my life plan. If you have no idea what a life plan is, I encourage you right now to go buy a book and I'll include a link in the show notes, uh, to the book living forward by Michael Hyatt. 

Again, that's living forward by Michael Hyatt and he outlines in that book a process for developing a life plan. This is something I had everyone in our mastermind groups do and it's been one of the most rewarding exercises for all of them. But you need a life plan. I don't have time to teach on that, but, uh, get the book living forward by Michael Hyatt and make sure you go through the exercise of creating one.

Um, I bring my goals and so I have goal documents and I write my goals out every week. And so, uh, I'll bring a list of all my goals and the progress that I made there.  I bring all of my finances as well. I use a website called mint. com, which is also great. And, uh, and that'll tell my financial picture. Uh, and then this is fun, but I actually bring my bucket list.

And so if you, if you don't have a bucket list and if you have no idea what that is, it's just a list of things that you would want to do before you kick the bucket, before you die. Um, but I have a bucket list and I bring it in because I always want to dream about, you know, Um, new things that I can add to the bucket list, but I also want to see, uh, what bucket list items that I crossed out for the year.

So that's pretty much everything that I'll bring, uh, to my year end review. I do bring my journal so I can continue to write in that and I bring my laptop cause that's where I type up the report, which is what I'll talk about next. And so, um, I'm going to, the report is what I actually write for the year end review.

I create an entire report summary of the year. And so I'll actually include, um, a PDF in the show notes, uh, that'll be a template that you can use, um, for the report, but I'm just going to run you through all the areas that I actually track during my year end review. And again, you don't have to take this system.

You may think this is excessive, but, uh, take what you like and make your own system. That's the whole point of this entire episode.  So once I go through all the documents that I just listed, I go through my journal, I go through my calendar, my photos, my life plan, my goals, my finances, and my bucket list.

I write all kinds of things out. So here's some things that I put in my year end report, and again, uh, there'll be a template for this in the show notes. First is my highlights. What were the biggest highlights of the year? Low lights. What were the bummers of the year, right? What were the losses  were there?

Uh, third, were there any themes throughout the year? Usually God puts a theme or two in my heart throughout the year, and, uh, and I'll write that down.  Number four is lessons learned. So this is probably the biggest, um, section in the report. All the lessons that I learned from anything. Um, and I'll talk about what I do with this report after I go through everything in the report.

Next number five is memories. So I type up an entire document of all the memories for the year. So I can go back to any year in my life and look at all the memories and funny things that happened that year. It's wonderful.  I have a section for scripture. So what were the main scriptures that spoke to me that year?

I have a section on how I spent my time. Um, specifically, you know, did I, did I have too many breakfast meetings? Did I have too many lunch meetings? Did I spend enough time at home? How did I actually spend my time? Another section I do is tough questions that I got asked to this year, tough questions I got asked this year.

I spent time with a lot of leaders and I asked for a lot of feedback and often they asked me very tough questions and I want to keep those in front of me. And so I always have a section for that. I have a section for all the books that I read that year. Um, I have a section for areas that I need to grow in the following year.

So once I start extracting lessons, I start to look at areas I really need to grow in. I have a section for action steps that I didn't follow up on. What were things that I said I was going to do, but I didn't.  I have a section for encouragement. What encouraging  things were said to me, um, that year that really fired me up and that I need to go back to, um, if I'm having a rainy day and need encouraged.

I have a section for things that I prayed for. What were the big things I prayed for? What prayers did God answer that year?  I have a section on opportunities. So what opportunities opened up that I never thought would open up? Uh, what doors opened that I never thought would open? I have a section for accomplishments.

What did I actually accomplish this year that I'm proud of? I have a section for the most influential people in my life that year, specifically the top three. I have a section for a goal assessment. So how did I do in all my goals? What progress did I make? What goals didn't I hit and why? I have an entire section on stats.

And so I'll write down how many speaking engagements I had that year, uh, how much it got paid for them. If I got paid, uh, I have all of my social stats. So I go through and see how many followers and all of that stuff. Same thing for the website. I do all of the analytics on my websites. Uh, same thing with the podcast, how many downloads each episode got, et cetera. 

So I have an entire section on stats. Uh, I do a section on the funniest YouTube videos for that year. Cause I enjoy going back and watching funny videos. I have a section for the best movies of the year. I have a section for bucket list items, completed a section for places that I travel to, and then I do a financial report, which is.

A summary of everything of how I spent my money, how I saved, what progress I made towards my financial goals, etc. And that pretty much wraps up, uh, what I actually report on. So I realize that you may have listened to everything that I just listed out that I put in my year end review. And you may be overwhelmed, you may think that's way too much.

Again, the important thing isn't that you copy my year end review section for section. The important thing is that you actually do your own year end review. So again, take the best of what you liked out of my year end review and make your own. The most important thing here is that you actually do a year end review and reflect and review the year that you just experienced.

And so you may be asking, well, Doug, what do you actually do with your year end review report once it's done? Or how do you actually wrap up the whole process? Well, here's what I do after my year end review.  First, I save the report, right? I actually save the year end review. I save it on my desktop or, you know, on my hard drive.

I save it online and I also print out a copy and put it in a folder because I don't want to lose it. And so that's the first thing that I do. Secondly, um, when I'm done with my year end review, I actually plan the next year.  And so I'll set my goals and I'll actually do a podcast next month on how to have the best year ever and some things that I do to plan for the year ahead.

Uh, another exercise that I do after my year in review is the, when I list the top three most influential people in my life, I'll actually write handwritten letters to them, letting them know that they were one of the top three most influential people in my life that year. And if I can, I'll hand deliver it.

If I can't, I'll mail it to them.  Um, and that's been a wonderful exercise, uh, every year and I'd highly encourage you to do that. Uh, I also look over all the people that impacted me and I'll try to thank as many people as I can for a great year. If someone said something specific to me, um, or did something for me, you know, I'll text them, I'll email them and just say, Hey, um, thank you so much for making an impact in my life. 

Uh, something else that I do is Laura, I've sold Laura on the year end review process and so she'll do a year end review as well. And afterwards we go out to a dinner and it's our New Year's dinner and we reflect and share about our year end reviews and what we learned and our highlights and uh, it turns into this wonderful dinner.

And so if you're married, I highly encourage you to involve your spouse with this, but have a year end review dinner with your wife or your husband. You won't regret it.  And then the last thing I do is I'll actually write a blog or now more often than not, I wrote a podcast episode, um, on the lessons that I learned from the previous year.

Uh, for me, I personally believe that the best way to learn something is to teach it to others. And so, uh, I take everything that I reflected on and I write a lesson called the top lessons learned in the previous year, and then I share it with everyone. Um, that way it's cemented in my mind and it hopefully adds value to other people. 

Well, hey, leader. Thank you so much for listening to my year end review process. I hope it added value to your life and I hope it's a practice that you'll implement. If you do, let me know how it turns out. I would love to hear back from you. I want to thank our sponsor and dosha marketing solutions. They are the producers of this podcast.

And if you're looking for help with your organization's marketing, I cannot recommend them enough. Make sure you check them out at Andocia.com. Again, that's a n d o c i a. com. And as always, leader, I like to end every episode of the quote and I'll quote Socrates who said this, The unexamined life is not worth living.

That's going to wrap up today's podcast as always. Remember leader, don't quit. Keep leading. The world desperately needs your leadership. I'll see you next episode.