Why Reflection in Your Planning Process is Important
I have touched on many aspects of planning over the last few years. One thing I have been working on this past year is my own reflection in my planning process. I spent a lot of time in the Janes Agenda Masterclass Program reflecting not only on the course itself and what I learned each week, but on my planner system. Sometimes I would break each area down - I would reflect on the processes I use, the steps I use and how I capture content. There were many small changes I’ve made to my planning and journaling routines over the years. If for example you watch my YouTube channel, my videos and processes from five years ago look a lot different than what I do now. This is because I have used reflection as a tool to establish what works for me and what doesn’t.
My reflection process broken down:
Daily: I’ve got a few different things that I reflect in on a daily basis. I will tell you what they are as well as the purpose for each of them
Daily Journal:
This isn’t so much a reflection as it is an intention for the day. It may contain dreams from the night before, my excitement, feelings, fears, thoughts, ideas and intentions for the day
Business Journal:
This journal takes a look at my progress from the previous day of work, my thoughts and ideas on that work and any new ideas for the work for that current day. It’s surprising the insights you can come up with on your own just be writing it down.
Morning Pages:
This is a recent addition to my morning routine. I began June 3, 2025. At first I struggled with the time it took to write out three full pages (front and back) of stream of conciousness writing, but as I continued to make it a habit, it did get easier and I got faster. I really starting looking forward to this process daily. I do not let anyone else read my morning pages. This is strictly for me to brain dump my thoughts on paper and clear my head for the upcoming day. It’s amazing how well it works too. You can write about anything at all without judgement or worry about what anyone else thinks. You don’t even have to go back and read them…you could throw them away, shred or burn them if you want.
Evening Reflection:
I write this in my daily journal. I take all the positive and/or major events that happened during the day and write them down. I can express how I feel about them if I want to. By focusing on the positive, it helps to recalibrate your brain into believing good things will happen and stifles the negative self-talk. It’s also a good way to capture the entire day. I used to spend hours trying to capture the entire day in one journal entry and the way I do it now is perfect: one side of a page for the morning and the other side for the evening reflection. Also, I find doing this routine at night time helps to calm me ( I usually drink a cup of Sleepytime Tea with it). When I focus on the positive right before bed, it makes me feel good and I tend to get a better night’s rest.
Weekly: I only do this reflection in my planner. I ask myself three things:
How was my day successful? I write out all of my accomplishments for the week. This helps me to see what I focused on, how much I actually did to what I thought I could do and overall gives me a feeling of being productive.
What were the challenges, and how did I overcome them? It’s good to know where you are having difficulties because then you can figure out how to fix them. If you couldn’t find a solution to a problem, that’s ok…it may yet come to you.
What my focus will be for the next week. This is like goal setting for the week. The best goals are ones you can break down into minuscule parts so that it becomes ridiculous not to do them.
Each week, I will compare what my successes were for that week and what I had planned for that week’s focus. Then I can see if I’m achieving my goals or falling behind. In this way, I’m using reflection to figure out what works for me.
I use this process for my personal planner and my business planner in the same way. My personal planner focuses on things like my family, our finances, my selfcare and health, and our home. My business is obviously everything I do on a professional level.
I also use this same process for the monthly review and for the quarter. Each period of time, I’m looking at a more broader perspective. (i.e. Daily —> Weekly —> Monthly —> Quarterly).
When it comes to the year, I use my refection process to figure out if my planner is still working for me. For example, maybe the way the tabs I have currently are not working. I might go ahead and decide to change the order for the new year, or I might create new ones altogether.
The same thing with my task cards: maybe I’ve dropped a task and deemed it no longer necessary, or maybe I’ve picked up a new one. (i.e. Morning pages). I will change the order, add new ones and delete ones that no longer work for me.
Without reflection, I don’t think we would change things when we need to. I think we would become stagnant and repetitive. It pays to review your planner, or anything really in your life to see where you can make positive changes. Get rid of the clutter and keep improving your organization to keep moving forward!
Thanks for reading!
Sandra
