Every new year, I start with celebration, energy, and a list of resolutions. Within a month, most of them vanish. Then, another month later, I start something new, leaving behind what I had picked the previous month. The loop goes forever without achieving anything at the end of the year.
The problem was not laziness. But lack of awareness.
One day, I realised that I started multiple things but left them undone. And started asking myself why this is happening? Where am I spending my time and energy when I am not finishing anything?
That day, I decided to try a self-review of my day-to-day life. I've read about self-reviews a lot, but I've never applied them in my life, perhaps because they sound boring, or I was afraid to face reality. But the frustration of seeing a list of undone tasks pushed me to do a self-review anyway.
I didn’t choose it because people on the podcast talk about it. I chose it because I was stuck.
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
Initially, I was not sure about how to approach it. Should I do daily, weekly, or yearly?
Without giving much thought, I started the review of my past week and a month. Initially, it was not structured, but once I went through it, I realised how deviated I was from achieving my goals. Unknowingly, I was killing my goals with my own hands. That day, I realised how important self-review is in personal life.
While reviewing for the first time, I observed how I was spending time on social media, watching random videos or shorts, doing mindless scroll and doing things without a proper schedule. I vaguely find some patterns, but I've learned that a few things are killing my time.
After frequent reviews, it was obvious that some days I was spending 3 hours on Instagram, and other days on YouTube. I misinterpreted Dopamine hit as a Relaxation.
This act really helped in making more mindful decisions. I limited my time on social media, kept the timer on the time-burning apps, and stopped stepping out for no reason. Replaced this time by reading books, solving a random riddle, engineering problems, and hitting a workout session.
Gradually, I developed an awareness of my lost time and also started taking action to not repeat it. All this is because I decided to do a self-review on a random day.
Whenever I do a self-review, it triggers a spark of joy within me of what I achieved, which I earlier sought from an Instagram reel or doomscrolling. With it, I had better clarity of how many days I worked out, how many days I did upskilling, how many days I read books, and how wisely I spent my money.
Regular self-reviews prevent me from deviating from my goals.
Summarising my experience, this is how it feels to me…
Suppose two blindfolded persons standing in two seperate room are given the challenge to get out of the room within 12 hours. Both have shown the exit at the beginning, and one of them can open the eyes for a minute every hour, while the other cannot.
The person who can open the eyes, can track the previous movement, and fix it before he drifts away from the right direction, while another person keeps moving in the hope of going in the right direction. Self-review felt like opening my eyes and adjusting the direction to reach my targets.
If you are someone who is chasing goals blindfolded, then do give it a try; maybe you will find some hidden patterns in your daily life.
