Year-in-Review for Creatives
15 reflection questions
Many of us get lost in the hours and minutes: from admin and managing finances, to the mirage-like flow state that evaporates time completely. Our time gets sliced a thousand different ways. It’s important to step back occasionally to evaluate what we actually did with our time— and by extension, our attention and energy— not as an efficiency audit, but to assess what we actually want to be doing.
Here are fifteen reflection questions that have helped me frame my year, and myself, beyond productivity.
If I could thank myself for three choices I made this year, what would they be?
If I could warn 2024 me about one challenge, which would I choose?
How did I respond to stressors this year? How do I want to respond to stressors going forward?
Which relationships nourished and sustained me? How?
Who in my life did I support? In what ways?
What new skills did I learn or improve on, and/or which activities did I try for the first time? How did it feel?
What was the most powerful loss I experienced and why?
What pleasant surprise did I experience?
How was my relationship with my body this year? How did I move, nourish, adorn, speak, and think about my body? What is one thing I’d like to implement next year?
Which day did I most enjoy? Write out every detail.
What do I feel I wasted my time and energy doing?
What were my consumption habits like? Shopping, media, substances, etc. What needs are these behaviours trying to meet? How can I meet those needs in healthier ways?
What was my relationship like to my environment? How has my living situation changed, and how do I feel about it? Is there a new job I’ve had to adjust to? How ecologically responsible have my choices been this year?
What did I worry about? What solutions did I find? Where can I find peace with the things I cannot immediately resolve?
Whose work inspired me this year? Why? What does it say about what I want out of my creativity?
My answers to these questions are long and vast and loaded and a bit much for right now, but I hope this prompts some helpful reflection!
Let’s enjoy our December wind-down. See you next year :)
xx