"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection~Anais Nin"

It was a draggy, braggy project retrospective meeting, and there I sat among the people who were deliberately exaggerating and trumpeting the very smallest effort they had made to complete the release cycle. The meeting was going out of the track and apparently I started scrolling through the project retrospective document, and all of a sudden, it struck me "How about creating a retrospective document in personal life too!!!??"


I don't know how the meeting was concluded as this thought was hovering, and my mind was restless until I came up with a schema of the same.  I had decided the document to be an excel sheet, as I have a huge crush on it!! [I really admire its functionalities, Psst...Sometimes, I even dream of colorful excel sheets ;)]


As I was grouping my scattered thoughts, I came to a conclusion that, retrospective analysis wouldn't suffice but a combination of retrospective and prospective analysis would be more effective! Therefore, I imbibed few things from the performance management tool too and named the excel sheet as BDay-BDay Tracker, with each tab being a overview of an year! I owe this excel sheet to the process-oriented companies that I had worked/working...! :P


When Do I update it? 
On my BDay, I feel great to write whats going on in my mind, along with listing the professional and personal objectives for the year, short term and long term plan, etc etc... I also spend time on reasoning why some of the previous year objectives weren't met. Along with this, I make an attempt to capture the most striking and important events, situations, characters, and how it has impacted me! 

The best part of this excel is, on my Bday, I capture a close up shot of myself and paste it!!!! Its nice to point out the differences over the years ;) 

How effective is this?
I have been maintaining this sheet from past five years, and I must say that initially it was to fritter away the time! :P But now, I second, spending some time on yourself is worth in long run! Looking back at the jotted points helps you to measure your progress, and also the lesson learned! ;) I have been promptly and honestly updating this sheet through out the year and I believe we are the manager of our soul!! After all, COMPLACENCY means a lot to me!!