From Survival Mode to Structured Planning: Building a Quarterly Review Road Map
I’ve been at my new job for about six months. As anyone who’s ever started anything new, it was a process of intense learning and adjustment. Thanks mostly to when I started, during cold and flu season, everyone in my family (and on the management team I lead) has been sick more than I can count. It was pure survival mode for most of the winter, with little time for creativity or writing and even less time for keeping organized and doing any personal review.
Oh, sweet relief, spring is here, despite the random snowstorm that dumped four inches as I write this, and with that comes another quarter. Life is happening at a slightly more manageable pace, and it’s time for me to recommit to being more organized and having time and space for reflection and planning.
My experience with quarterly reviews has been mixed. I’ve either tried to do too much and failed because it was too heavy a lift, or I’ve gone super casual, written a few things down, and basically forgotten all about it until the next quarter rolled around. With this in mind, I’ve created a new quarterly review process. This new simple is built to keep me on track with three different elements. Because of my love for journaling, I’ve decided on Day One as the primary tool for this workflow.
The Process
The first step is to complete the review. I’ve broken it into three entries, and they include:
A journal entry looking back: Pure reflection on how the quarter went, what I learned, how I felt, where I was successful and where I wasn’t, and the relationships that had an impact.
A journal entry looking forward: Part hopes and dreams, part reflection on what I learned, what happened, and how it applies to what I want to do.
A journal entry roadmap: I am, by trade, an operations person, so this is where the planning happens. What actions will I take to get where I want to be? Each area I’ve written about gets a headline, and after some thoughtful planning, I write actionable steps to help me get there.
Then, there’s a deadline:
The three journal entries that comprise the quarterly review must be done by the seventh day of the first month after the quarter hits. Another thing I’ve been reminded of being back in my day job is that periods, particularly in finance, don’t “close” right away. There’s accounting to be done, numbers to run, and things need to catch up. The seven days give the quarter and me time to breathe. This deadline will also usually catch a weekend, when I have more time to do this successfully.
Finally, there’s an ongoing weekly call to action to review my progress:
To accomplish this, I have a once-a-week reminder and calendar event to review the quarterly road map. At the bottom of this journal entry, I’ve added an area to leave comments or feedback on how I’m doing. This will empower me when it’s time to do my next quarterly review with insights into the process, what worked and didn’t, and how I did overall. In addition to having this on my personal calendar with a reminder, I also have it on my work calendar as a blocked 30-minute time at lunch. I’m setting myself up to honor my commitments, which are often the ones we are most likely to ignore when things get challenging.
I did this new review for the first time over the last week and like the process. It took me less than two hours, and my check-in took me about fifteen minutes when I did it. I operate well with structure like deadlines and check-ins, and this feels like a good way to approach something I’ve struggled with keeping up with by forcing myself to be accountable to the calendar and to myself because, at the end of the quarter, I’ll see which weeks I was able to complete my call to action review and which weeks I couldn’t.
I’m building this quarterly review process because I’m tired of figuring things out by reading the tea leaves. I think a system like this will help me succeed in planning my next steps, permit me the time, space, and data to review what happened in the previous period and help me make better decisions about where to go from here. It also suites my schedule and desire to do a journaling based review. I’m planning an update next quarter and will share with you how it goes.
PKM Toolkit: End Your Day With This Powerful Personal Review Question
After a lengthy absence from daily personal review, I decided to revisit my four-question Day One review template that I put together a few years ago. In the last few editions of The Journaling Guide, my bi-weekly newsletter, I wrote about how the changes in my life, particularly returning to work, influenced my decision to give it another try. It’s been going well, and I’m pleased to take a few minutes at the end of each day to build this habit.
These are the questions in the prompt:
What happened today that went well?
What happened today that could have gone better?
How did I make a positive impact on those around me?
Is there anything unfinished or that needs to be written down for tomorrow?
Of the five questions, the most valuable one for me right now is the last one, where I ask if anything needs to be written down for tomorrow. This simple question unburdens me of something, and there’s always something I didn’t get to or forgot about. It means one less thing swirling in my head and helps me continue to hone my organizational skills.
I’ve written and talked a lot about gratitude journaling, which I have done daily for years. When asked by someone interested in starting their own journaling habit, my go-to advice is to start by writing a sentence or two about something they feel grateful for and repeat it at an interval that works for them. I haven’t dispensed as much advice about the daily review, mostly because I’ve not been a regular practitioner. However, this experience has me again seeing the value of the process, and particularly of including this question in it. It’s an extremely valuable way to move something from a mental burden to a planned task.
If you’re interested in a daily review process, try these questions and commit to a two-week trial. Find yourself a notebook or journal, or start a note or document on your phone or computer. Take five or ten minutes at the end of the day to reflect on how things went.