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Closing Out 2022

Closing Out 2022

How I'm preparing my annual review.

Josh Cadorette
December 15, 2022

Howdy from Burlington, NC,

Welcome to the 8 new subscribers from this past week!

I am wrapping up an early Christmas celebration at my aunt/uncle's house in NC.

With the holiday season in full swing, we are moving closer to the turn of the calendar year.

Today, we're jumping into how I am closing out 2022.

What's an annual review?

A number of online writers that I respect prepare a document called an annual review.

The basic premise is that folks look back at the previous year, determine whether or not they've accomplished their goals, and set new goals for the upcoming year.

I've looked over 15+ annual reviews from other writers. I've taken bits and pieces from the ones that I like in order to best create one that suits me.

I have 2 ways to synthesize information for the review.

1. Sorting what I learn from newsletters and journal entries into a t-chart.

I'm reading every newsletter (roughly 50 of them) that I published publicly and every journal entry (roughly 90 pages of a notebook) that I wrote privately in 2022.

While reading my previous writing, I fill out a simple t-chart with a positive column and a negative column.

Anything that gave me energy goes on the positive side. Anything that sucked my energy goes on the negative side.

It's an easy, low cost way to try to identify energy sources, maximize the positives, and minimize the negatives heading into the new year.

The newsletters were a breeze to read because they're refined, edited heavily, and largely fun/positive.

Reading the journals is an absolute bear. Why? I don't edit myself on the page and am typically working through what's most challenging in my life through pen and paper.

I'm glad I have my journaling habit as an outlet, but goodness it can be difficult to re-read one's own raw emotions. Yet, to me, the challenge of the activity signals to me that it's all the more reason that I need to do it - to fully capture the lessons I've learned this year.

2. Answering a set of specific questions.

Steve Schlafman is an executive coach to venture capitalists and founders. Each year, he puts out a guide to annual reviews.

In it, he includes a series of exercises for folks to work through on their own to reflect on the previous year.

Categories include identifying milestones for the year, capturing lessons, assessing your current life, identifying your intentions, and setting goals moving forward.

I am intentionally doing a light pass of my inputs (newsletter, journal entries) first, then jumping into these guided questions second.

That way, I'm able to take the context of the entire year into account and try to prevent recency bias (favoring recent events over historic ones.)

What the final product will look like.

Here's what my 2022 annual review will look like when it's finished:

I. IntroductionII. Quick Hits (think superlatives for the year)III. Grading My 8 Elements of Holistic HealthIV. 2022 Goals ReviewV. 2023 Goal SettingVI. ConclusionVII. Photos of The Year

You can expect this piece to be delivered straight to your inbox next Thursday, December 22nd (Josh from the future here - I ended up competing in a hackathon and had to push the annual review to Thursday, December 29th. Full write-up on the hackathon here.)

I've completed 3 drafts of the review thus far. When I'm finished, I anticipate that this review will have taken me ~40 hours to complete.

I'm telling you now that it is one of the hardest pieces that I've ever written because there is no hiding from myself on this one - both my successes and my failures.

What I'm paying attention to:

"Do you see what I see?" by Joanne Soliday - this is the best thing I watched this week (+ I got to see my Aunt Joanne preach it in-person.) It's a holiday message on taking a step back to look at the journey you've been on, where you're headed, & what it means to be a strong community member.
"Drugs, Love, and Air" by Grace Smith - this is the best piece that I read this week. Here's a snippet: "The reality is that love is not a volatile emotion, but a state of being. It’s an extension of who you are. It’s willful and habitual. You wake up every day and put this person first, even if you don’t feel like it."