Why Reviewing Is Important and Should Be a Habit, Not a Chore.

When we talk about reviewing or rereading, isn’t it like what you do when you want to understand the material better or to ace your exams?

Let’s say that you utilize reviewing or rereading because it’s required of you. Would that make it easier to do?

To some, reviewing something would mean advancing further on a topic. They use it as a navigator to propel themselves when they feel stuck, so they can align the steps they should take next to achieve the results they want.

But, what if we take reviewing in life as something more of a hobby?

“I’m curious about how I did these past few months.”

“I wonder how close I am to the goals I set the past month.”

Most of us tend to look forward and not look back. It’s not a bad thing. It could also serve a good purpose for others.

If that is what makes them sleep better at night, isn’t it the best way to go?

I recently did my Alignment Workshop hosted by the Productivity Lab by Ali Abdaal this quarter and I realized plenty of things about how my 2024, in the past couple of months was doing.

I was doing this thing he calls the “Quarterly Quests” where you had to supply facts, plans, and systems to reach your desired goal. It has to be something you finish at the end of each quarter hence the name. In short, it’s a helpful goal-setting strategy.

I have finished 2 out of 3 quarterly quests I created during the second quarter of 2024. This, I realized while aligning my previous entries to my quarter three of the Alignment Workshop.

Now, I didn’t have the time to peek through the second quarter entries after I wrote them last April. I was too busy with university as a graduating Psychology student.

As soon as I noticed that I was able to achieve some goals, I was amazed with myself. It just felt internally gratifying to see my growth on recorded data.

But even if you don’t attend these kinds of workshops, you can do similar things that don’t even have “Quest” in the name.

I know a few other self-help books that mention a strategy in them related to making a review of the past to serve as a guide and insight into a better future.

It’s a simple thing to do, it costs nothing, and I believe it works good for everyone.

Forgetting to make monthly reviews isn’t just the only issue here. We tend to not give ourselves praise for going through what we went through — Myself included.

After doing a monthly review the next cue should be praising ourselves whether on a job done well or not.

I contemplated the things that might have contributed to why people don’t usually give themselves the time to sit back, do monthly reviews, and hopefully praise themselves for doing a great job of surviving the past month.

And I’m not leaving myself out of this situation. The same thing happened to me, I wasn’t totally aware that due to being so caught up with the deadlines at school and unending demands from other activities, I never had the chance to look back and review what accomplishments I had the previous months.

Yet, in fact, this allows us to see progress. We can gauge from stored data how close we are from Destination A to Destination B, and how connected our life vision is to how we’re living out our lives at present.

So, hurrying with life could be a possible indicator of forgetting to praise yourself. Based on my experience that I mentioned earlier. I had myself in the grip of tight deadlines and had forgotten to take my quests seriously.

Or, you find it difficult to learn about how to do that. Maybe you’re confused about how to actually start reviewing.

Others are uncomfortable dealing with their pasts. Looking towards the future to amend things that were already done. To keep moving on with life, thinking that what’s ahead is more important to deal with.

More often, it seems like we people are uncomfortable praising ourselves due to cognitive distortions. We might also be conditioned to think that it’s not important and that others go their way also not praising themselves for the hard work they did.

Please be gentle with yourselves. Giving yourself a pat on the back shouldn’t be a hard thing to do, metaphorically speaking. Let alone acknowledge the work you’ve done. We’re the best people to know about our own hardships and miseries. To understand how we have risen up to the challenge to overcome problems and to reach our goals.

We know ourselves well but, we filter out the thoughts. We like praising others or being on the receiving end of it. But, how could you give something you’re finding hard to give to yourself? Why do you only like receiving it, and not letting yourself be the creator of it, for yourself? Is it being selfish? I hope that’s not your answer.

As a person who has acknowledged reviewing as important and is now on the other side of awareness about finding out my progress. Hopefully, we get to see the data laid out for us. Then, we take charge of supplying it with a framework to lay down a stronger goal with a map of how to get there and to praise ourselves before, during, and after the process.