Coaching practices for Stop Doing List Annual Review
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Stop Doing List Annual Review, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Every year I pile new goals on top of an already-overloaded life and wonder why none of them stick
- My old list of goals is cluttered with stuff I wanted years ago and don’t anymore, and every time I glance at it I just feel a wash of guilt about all the unticked boxes
- Even after I’ve gone through all my lists there’s still this faint background hum that I’m forgetting something
- I only ever take stock of my life around New Year’s, and by then the year I’m grading is already gone
- When I try to look back on the whole year, all I can really summon is the last few weeks and the couple of dramatic moments
Practices that may help
- Generate a stop-doing list, not just a to-do list for next year
What you stop doing next year is as important as what you start.
The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method) - The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method)
Tim Ferriss’s annual review is built on two questions — "What went well this year?" and "What did not go well this year?" — applied systematically across major life domains and answered with enough specificity to produce different decisions next year. It is a practitioner tool without clinical evidence, but its mechanisms (structured reflection, explicit failure review, behavioral specificity) are consistent with goal-review and learning research. - Review and revise the bucket list quarterly
A list reviewed only at writing is nostalgia; one reviewed quarterly is a live planning document.
The Bucket List Method - Do a mind sweep to surface anything the system hasn’t captured
Before ending the review, spend 5 minutes writing down anything still bothering or nagging in your mind.
The GTD Weekly Review - Run a quarterly life audit, not just an annual one
Review all four quadrants of your life every 90 days while the feedback loop is still tight enough to correct.
The Eisenhower Life Audit - Gather raw material before reflecting
Pull the data — calendar, photos, notes, emails — before you begin reflecting, so memory does not do all the work.
The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method) - Review the someday list weekly — even briefly
An unreviewed someday list is a guilt pile; a reviewed one is a planning resource.
The Someday List - Run a quarterly focus review to refresh the lists
Revisit and rebuild both lists every quarter — priorities shift, and so should the lists.
Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy - Spend more time on "what did not go well" than on what did
Failure analysis contains the most actionable information in any honest review.
The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method) - Go deep on "what went well" — extract the recipe, not just the win
A win recorded but not analyzed produces no transferable knowledge — identify what specifically caused it.
The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method)
Related concerns
- The Annual Review Tim Ferriss Method During A Big Change
Tim Ferriss’s annual review is built on two questions — "What went well this year?" and "What did not go well this year?" — applied systematically across major life domains and answered with enough specificity to produce different decisions next year. It is a practitioner tool without clinical evidence, but its mechanisms (structured reflection, explicit failure review, behavioral specificity) are consistent with goal-review and learning research.
- Honest Year In Review
Failure analysis contains the most actionable information in any honest review.
Spend more time on "what did not go well" than on what did
- Honest Year Review Partner
A review held privately is easier to fudge; one shared with an honest questioner is harder to rationalize.
Share the review with someone who will ask honest questions
- How To Do An Annual Review
Tim Ferriss’s annual review is built on two questions — "What went well this year?" and "What did not go well this year?" — applied systematically across major life domains and answered with enough specificity to produce different decisions next year. It is a practitioner tool without clinical evidence, but its mechanisms (structured reflection, explicit failure review, behavioral specificity) are consistent with goal-review and learning research.
- Share Annual Review
Tim Ferriss’s annual review is built on two questions — "What went well this year?" and "What did not go well this year?" — applied systematically across major life domains and answered with enough specificity to produce different decisions next year. It is a practitioner tool without clinical evidence, but its mechanisms (structured reflection, explicit failure review, behavioral specificity) are consistent with goal-review and learning research.
- The Annual Review Tim Ferriss Method After A Setback
Tim Ferriss’s annual review is built on two questions — "What went well this year?" and "What did not go well this year?" — applied systematically across major life domains and answered with enough specificity to produce different decisions next year. It is a practitioner tool without clinical evidence, but its mechanisms (structured reflection, explicit failure review, behavioral specificity) are consistent with goal-review and learning research.
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