As the year winds down, we can find ourselves consumed with the busyness of the holiday season, in the thick of responsibility at work and school, and perhaps wondering if we are just spinning our wheels, glancing back to see where the time has gone.
For productivity expert and author Tiago Forte, the Annual Life Review has become an anchor in his yearly rhythm, providing clarity and direction for a life lived with intention. Grab a journal and a pen, a copy of Forte’s latest book,Life in Perspective: The Art and Power of the Annual Life Review, and make deep self-reflection a gift you give to yourself each year.
Q: Share a bit about your background and what inspired you to writeLife in Perspective.
Tiago Forte: I’ve been a content creator, coach, teacher, and author for the last 13 years, focused on helping people become more productive with technology. I decided to write this book because I realized over those years that being productive is not helpful if you don’t have a clear sense of where you’re going and why.
Modern technology is an incredibly powerful force for getting what you want, but you have to know what you truly want in the first place; otherwise it will just fill your time with distraction and noise. My personal answer to this need for deeper intention has been a practice called the Annual Life Review, which I’ve followed every year for the last 17 years, and this book is my attempt to make it available to others who feel the same need for clarity and balance in our rapidly changing world.
Q: How has practicing an annual life review impacted your own life? In today’s fast-paced world where many of us are seeking answers online, what is the value of looking within for the validation, direction, and inspiration we need?
Tiago Forte: There are endless sources of external information that we’re flooded with every day, all year long: podcasts and videos we consume, the advice of gurus and media personalities, and the digital feeds that seek to dominate our attention on every platform.
The annual life review is about turning down the volume on all those external sources and tuning in to internal ones instead – our inner voice, our intuition, our desires, our dreams. No one else can tell us what is right for us, in our unique life circumstances, or what we need to feel fulfilled and joyful. The only
The benefit of finding those answers, which I’ve experienced again and again, is a sense of deep calm, peace, certainty, and self-confidence that I know where my life and career are headed.
Q: What is the method that you disseminate in this book, and how can readers apply it to their own reflective practice?
Tiago Forte: When I first started conducting annual reviews, there was no method or framework to help me structure them. So my process was haphazard and filled with mistakes and wrong turns. Later on, when I learned that many others also practiced year-end reviews of some kind, there was still no definitive book or method to follow.
Annual Review Course (ARC) is the one I developed over the years, first for myself, and later for the students in my course. It takes you on a learning journey from the past, through the present, and finally to the future, where all the insights and realizations you gleaned from the past and present can inform your future plans.
Q: What role might reading and journaling play in this process of annual life review? How have reading and writing helped you to grow, personally?
Tiago Forte:Reading and journaling play a crucial role in the annual review, alongside many of the most proven practices that many people are already familiar with, like meditation, reflection in nature, visualization, and goal-setting.
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What the annual life review does is place all those practices into a framework so they build and compound on each other. This leads to an experience that is more than the sum of its parts – a crescendo of insight and meaning that no single one can produce on its own.
Q: How do you hopeLife in Perspectivechanges readers’ lives for the better?
Tiago Forte: I hope it gives them a counterbalance to the fear, uncertainty, chaos, and mental fragmentation that modern life often creates in our lives. A special time and place that they know they can set aside once per year, or anytime they want to return to themselves, and reliably reach a state of balance and clarity. I hope it introduces them to a wider global community of reviewers, from whom they can learn and be inspired. I hope it becomes a cornerstone of their self-reflection and provides a foundation of intention for years to come.
