A Personal Retrospective

We hold retrospectives with teams all the time, encouraging them to inspect and adapt their ways of working together. And there are regular times of product inspection; in Scrum, we have Sprint Reviews with stakeholders.

As this new year dawns, consider applying this same practice to you, personally. Take a moment to hold a personal retrospective. Set aside some uninterrupted time - say, 30 minutes - and consider a few important aspects:

• What is going well?
• What could be better?
• Where are you over-investing?
• Where are you under-investing? 
• What are you ignoring?

You can use the Wheel of Life concept, originated by Paul J. Meyer in the 1960s, to consider a wide view of your life across several categories. 

Then, consider actions that you intend to take:

• Protect things that are important and going well
• Grow things that are important and need more investment
• Let go of things that are less important or harmful
• Be grateful for things that are beneficial and healthy

As with teams, we recommend that you only pick a few actions to focus on, and then make those small enough that you can do them in a short period of time (like a week).

What better way to start the year?

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