I’m clearing up my desktop, and found this, a checklist I’ve used during my six-monthly life review. Note that I believe Alex Vermeer has the state of the art on this topic; use his guide rather than this one.

Jobs

Introspect

This section is not only to determine whether I’m happy at the moment, but is also a more generally useful tool to work out what my day-to-day preferences are for any job.

• Do I enjoy my job?
  • If not: what specifically is bad about it? What are the things that make me not want to go into work? Are there any good features of my job? Can any of the things that make me not want to go into work be mitigated in the short term? What lessons should I learn from disliking this job?
  • If so: what features of the job are good? Are there any features which are bad - on the days when I don’t want to go into work, why is that? Can those be mitigated? What lessons should I learn from liking this job?

Specific ideas: what is management like? How are the people/atmosphere? Does it give me what I want from a work social life? Is it satisfying in a big-picture sort of way?

Evaluate

• What are my goals in life? Have they changed from last time?
• Is my job fulfilling those goals?
• Are my aptitudes different to last time - what have I gained, what has atrophied? Should I update based on that?
• What jobs would, in an ideal world, contribute to my goals the most?
• Can I pursue those jobs?
• Are there specific skills I should work at to prevent atrophy?
• Are there any specific skills I could acquire (to open more doors or to go into some specific job)?

Consolidate

• Update my master CV.
• Review last time’s criteria for success/failure.

Project

• Make a plan for the next six months.
  • What does a successful next-six-months look like? (Be specific and measurable if possible.)
  • What does a failed next-six-months look like?
• Schedule the next session for six month’s time.

Free time

• What do I spend my free time doing? Do I enjoy it? (Try and guess e.g. how much time is spent mindlessly poking the Internet.) Is it improving me? How much of my free time do I want to be spent improving myself?
• What do I want to do with my free time?
• Why is “what do I want to do” not the same as “what I do”? Is any of the slack avoidable? Set calendar reminders to act on things where appropriate.

Wellbeing

• Are there any physical conditions I have been suffering from but ignoring?
• Are there any mental conditions I have been suffering from but ignoring?
• Are there any cheap interventions or experiments I can perform that might improve my wellbeing?

Financial

Collect

• What are my assets, and where are they stored?
• Are any of my assets volatile?
• What did I spend my money on in the last six months?

Assess

• Am I happy with the volatility of my assets? Do I have enough liquid emergency fund?
• Did my assets return what I expected of them? If not, why not? (E.g. introductory bonus rates on bank accounts)
• Are any of my assets in inefficient places? (E.g. interest rates which are beaten by other accounts)
• Are there outgoings which are systematically too high (e.g. bills, coffees/takeaways)?

Plan

• Where specifically should I move my assets?
• Are my savings goals still the same?
• Roughly how much do I expect to save over the coming six months?
• Are there any supplier changes I should make e.g. energy providers?
• Are there any lifestyle changes I should make e.g. not having coffees?