How to reflect on your week

Before you start planning for your week, it’s helpful to reflect on the previous one.

Here are examples of topics that you can reflect on.

Career reflection. Do you feel stuck in your career? Are you looking to get a promotion or make a career pivot? Weekly reflection can help you assess what’s working and what’s not in order to make progress in your career.

Personal growth reflection. Maybe you’re looking to learn a new language, or make new friends, or become more confident. Weekly reflection is a great way to boost your personal development goals.

Self-care reflection. Oftentimes, we wait until we’re really stressed and overwhelmed to take care of ourselves. But it’s vital for our health and well-being to make self-care a regular practice. At the end of the week, identify your stressors along with the things, activities, and people that made you feel good. By understanding what causes us stress and what brings us relief, we’ll be better able to meet our needs.

Whether you’re reflecting on your career, personal development, or well-being, below are some questions you’ll want to ask yourself.

Reflect on the challenges. Take note of days that seemed stressful and challenging. Knowing what you know now, how would you handle a similar situation in the future? Is there anything you would do differently? Were there any positive lessons to take away from it?

Take note of what went well. Think about a recent engaging lesson that resonated with students. Maybe a new teaching strategy sparked their interest or you managed a challenging classroom situation effectively. Consider what led to these successes. Was it preparation, resources, or how you connected with students? Oftentimes, we tend to dwell on the mistakes we made. But it’s so important to identify the things we did well, so that we know to keep doing them.

Celebrate your wins. Now that you’ve noted what went well, use this moment to celebrate your big and small wins. Place a gold star in your planner or celebrate with a small treat. This will energise you as you enter the upcoming week.

These reflection exercises are not set in stone. You can customise your weekly reflection to suit your goals and needs.

How to do weekly planning

Now that you’ve gained some insight into your previous week, here are tips to help you better plan for the week ahead.

Identify your priorities. To ensure that your week is a successful one, it helps to identify your biggest priorities. What are 2-3 things you’d like to do this week that will make you feel fulfilled and happy? Your priorities can be related to your goals, your personal development, or career. Maybe it’s setting aside time to write in your journal or attend a cultural event or have a night out with friends. Think of priorities as a bullseye for your week. They help you figure out where to direct your efforts.

Identify your must-dos. What are the things that you must accomplish this week? These are your deadlines, appointments, and events. By planning for your essential tasks, you won’t be caught off-guard when they arise. You’ll be able to portion out your time and energy to work on them.

Create a checklist. Get everything organised with a to-do list. This list should capture your priorities, must-dos, and anything else you’d like to tackle this week.

Add it to your calendar. We can’t rely on our memory alone to get things done. We need tools to help us manage our time and complete our work. An essential step to weekly planning is to add deadlines, tasks, and other important activities to your planner or calendar. This will help you honour your commitments.