Weekend Reflection

An important part of my daily routine is a modified version of morning pages. On the weekend, I try my best to maintain this routine. The reality is that often coffee, or long leisurely dog walks, or brunch takes priority and I don’t get to my pages in the morning. Often I’ll skip Saturday, but do a nice reflection and transition between weeks on Sunday. 

Just as this blog is intended to help me revisit, synthesize, and ultimately comprehends the inputs in the world around me, I find my weekend reflection routine to be a critical part of how I how myself accountable and level up from week to week. 

So, what do I do? It’s quite simple:

  1. What worked

  2. What didn’t

I divide the page vertically and start a numbered list under each. The numbers serve no purpose, but it’s something I like to do. 

At face value, this seems like a super simple exercise. It is simple, but it can quickly become uncomfortable. In my experience, I tend to focus on what didn’t work in a given week. Such is the fate of anyone with a dash of type-A personality. I don’t let it devolve into a negative session. Instead, I use the time to be real with myself about why my expectation for the week didn’t align with reality. Again, the answers are often simple, yet impactful. 

What didn’t work:

  1. I slept poorly, which led me to snooze and skip my morning routine >>> Fix? Did I have too much caffeine? Or did I stick to my workout? Or did I force myself just one of those mornings to get up early so I would be tired that night and rest my routine?

  2. I had too much coffee >>> Fix? Stock decaf at home, take walking work meetings to avoid temptation at a coffee shop

  3. I didn’t read everyday >>> Fix? Work was incredibly busy this week, so it’s not realistic to expect yourself to work every night AND stay committed to your personal habits. Could I have found a pocket of time in the middle of each day? 

And so on. I love to do this exercise early on a Sunday morning. It gives me a chance to incorporate any changes in a new week and gain some momentum in the right direction. 

This is what works for me, for now. But I’m always evolving my system. 


Alicia Diamond