We’re halfway through the year but it’s not too late to fill out the YearCompass self-review for 2020-2021. A belated review provides far more value than no review, and the delay itself shows that you need such a post-mortem. How better to prepare for a more timely self-review by the end of this year?

Put your next annual review session on your calendar now. Provide enough of a reminder that you can schedule paid time off (PTO) for it if necessary. Remember to account for any winter holidays in your scheduling. Schedule specific activities for those review days. Schedule time with others, be it your team, manager, spouse, partner, children, friends, and the like. Schedule a trip to somewhere secluded, if possible, or at least designate a specific coffee shop where you know you can camp out. Everyone needs to be prepared if you’re to have enough focus for this deep work.

Add reminders so that you can prepare any required materials. Prepare a shopping list. Package up a kit for your review session: books to re-read, printed copies of the YearCompass or the like, notebooks and pens, music and charged headphones, and anything that would disrupt your review process if otherwise absent.

Study up in the meantime. What books have you been meaning to read in preparation for this? Which blog posts? Can you cue up any podcast episodes or YouTube videos? The sooner you watch them, the sooner you can find the ones worth re-watching closer to the review. Download these ahead of any travel, too. You’ll want to work from somewhere with little if any online connectivity if at all possible.

Today’s still a good day for that annual review. It may not be a great day, but any day in which you actually perform the review is so much better than the day after. Why not download and print off that YearCompass right away? 2022 will be here before you know it.