A weekly reflection you'll actually look forward to.

A routine I’ve implemented recently that I love is the end-of-week reflection. Every Sunday evening, I sit down with my notebook and think about the last week – what happened at work, at home, with friends, everything.

The structure I follow is really simple: Plus, Minus, Next.

You can do it on paper or digitally. All you need is three columns titled Plus, Minus, and Next, and then you can fill in notes below it – I use bullet points.

Under Plus, I put anything that was good about this week. It could be projects I’ve completed that I’m proud of, an event I enjoyed, or even just that my mood was particularly good.

Under Minus, I put anything that was negative about this week. It could be disappointments, things I wanted to do but didn’t get around to, or the rain putting a damper on my plans.

Then under Next, I put down thoughts about what I want next week to be like. Mine operates more like a lite to-do list, but you might want it to be a bit broader.

And that’s it! It takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how big your week was, and it should feel really good to wrap up the week. Some weeks I fill the entire page, and others I only have a couple of bullet points.

Most activities we talk about on here are work-specific, but what I love about this exercise is that it’s about your entire week. How you do at work will affect how you feel at home, and vice versa, so it’s important to take some time to consider them together.

I started doing weekly Plus, Minus, Next reflections a bit over a month ago after I finished reading Tiny Experiments. I wanted to do it a few times before I wrote about it just in case it wasn’t particularly useful, so I can safely say I think this is a great exercise! Are you going to give it a go this Sunday? 💖