Every year at the end of the year, I do a little retro in Google Slides for my small business. I keep the same prompts every year, but this year I added a few new ones.

Sharing the prompts in case it's helpful to you:

1. 2020 was about...
(What was your overarching goal/north star? e.g. data gathering, rest)

This year I made 2 separate slides for this prompt:
2020 was (supposed to be) about...
but then it became about...

2. What numbers were important this year?
(e.g. time, income, # calls a day, hours spent traveling)

This prompt resulted in some SURPRISES this year. I had written on a slide, "I worked less hours this year overall." And then had to update it once I looked at the #'s:

3. What were the bummers/misses?
(so many this year!)

4. North stars/guiding ideas that emerged
(for me this means, "what did I write on sticky notes to see in front of me every day")

5. A mind blowing thing I learned this year was...

6. A mistake I made that I learned from was...

7. I thought “this is a ridiculous gambit” when I took the risk to...

8. 2021 will be about...

(This will give you the opening of your retro for next year!)

These are all prompts for my small biz retro, not purely personal reflections.

But if you're looking to do a personal retro for 2020, I wrote a whole blog post for @TheLeadDev on that if you want some inspiration: https://leaddev.com/personal-growth/how-2020-has-shaped-you-engineering-leader

Some favs from that post:

- What did you historically believe was true about yourself, but now with new constraints and circumstances, you see in a new light?

- What old routines did you find an opportunity to discard?

- What do you need in order to stay safe and calm?