Twenty-five questions for a year in review.

Most of a year goes unwritten. The big days get a photo or two, and the rest blur together by the time someone asks how the year went. A handful of good questions brings a surprising amount of it back.

The twenty-five below come in five parts, from what happened, to who was there, to what you’re grateful for. Answer them at the end of a year, on a birthday, or in any quiet week that feels like a turning point.

A few notes on answering:

• Skip freely. A question that doesn’t land today might land next week, and some never will. Move on without guilt.
• Come back. Answers change after a night’s sleep. Write a first pass, leave it, and add what surfaces later.
• Answer out loud. Talk it through on a walk, or with someone who was there, then write down what you said. Some answers come more easily spoken.
• Start anywhere. The parts are loose. If gratitude is where you want to begin, begin there.
• Write it rough. Nobody grades this. Lists and fragments are fine, and you can tidy them later if you want to.

Looking back

The widest questions come first. They’re about the shape of the year before any one part of it.

1. What are you most proud of from this year?
2. What was the hardest thing you went through this year, and what did it teach you?
3. Which moments made you feel most alive?
4. What did you start this year that you want to keep doing?
5. What did you stop doing, and how did that change things?
6. What happened this year that you did not see coming?

The second question can be heavy. It’s fine to leave it for another day, or to answer only the part about what it taught you.

For the first, go past the obvious answer. The thing you’re proud of might be a promotion, or it might be the week you asked for help. Both belong on the page.

Relationships

These are about the people in the year, the ones who were there and the ones you’d like to be closer to.

7. Who made the biggest positive difference in your year?
8. Which relationship grew the most, and which one needs attention?
9. How did you show up for the people you care about?
10. Who did you meet this year that you hope stays around?
11. What conversation from this year do you keep coming back to?

Question 8 has two halves on purpose. The relationship that needs attention is often the one worth a goal, and it’s easier to see next to the one that grew.

Use names in these answers. “A friend from work” is hard to place a few years from now, and the name is half of what you’ll want to remember.

Work & growth

Work here means anything you put effort into, paid or not: a job, a degree, a side project, a skill you picked up at the kitchen table.

12. What did you learn this year that you did not know before?
13. What accomplishment at work or in your projects meant the most to you?
14. Where did you feel stuck, and what would have helped?
15. What did you get better at this year?
16. What did you finish this year that you had been putting off?

Question 13 asks what meant the most to you, which may be something small that nobody else noticed. Question 16 is there because finishing an old thing rarely gets written down anywhere, and it should.

Health & energy

This part is about how the year felt to live in, day to day. It asks what wore you down and what brought you back.

17. How did you take care of your body and mind this year?
18. What drained your energy the most? What restored it?
19. What habit had the biggest impact on how you felt day to day?
20. Which stretch of the year felt lightest, and what was different about it?
21. What did you say yes to that you would say no to next time?

Question 20 is worth lingering on. The lightest stretch of a year often has a plain reason, like more sleep, fewer evenings out, or a project that ended, and knowing it helps when you plan the next one.

Gratitude

The last part is the shortest, and a good place to end a sitting even if you skipped everything else.

22. List five things you are grateful for from this year.
23. What small, ordinary thing brought you unexpected joy?
24. Who deserves a thank-you you have not given yet?
25. What from this year would you like to happen again?

Question 22 asks for five on purpose. The first two come quickly, and the last three make you look harder at the year.

If question 24 turns up a name, the thank-you can go out today.

Turning the answers into a scrapbook

Eighteen of these are the questions YearCraft’s Year in Review asks, in the same five sections. In Reflect they come one at a time, and each answer saves as you go, so you can stop halfway and pick up later. Answers are typed on Free. On Pro you can record an answer out loud instead.

As you answer, “Juniper found · tap to pin” shows journal entries, reached goals, and achievements that match the question. Tap one to pin it to that answer’s page. When you’re not sure what else to write, “Ask Juniper for a follow-up” asks one question about your answer.

When you finish, the answers become a scrapbook. Each answer gets its own page, set in handwriting-style type. A pinned goal’s postcard becomes the photo, and Juniper adds a short caption. She also writes about what connects your answers. Your answers stay in your own words, and any edits you make appear in the scrapbook too. On Free, Juniper writes her captions once per reflection. On Pro, you can ask her for new ones.

Then look ahead

Reflect’s other conversation, “What do you want next?”, asks what you want to work toward, why it matters to you, and what you want to do first. Juniper uses your answers to draft goals and waypoints. You choose which ones to add.

It also ends in one sentence about who you want to be next, drafted from your answers and yours to edit. Pin that sentence to Today and it waits there each time you come back.