The Grand Audit

Another year has passed away! You are either someone who is delighted about diving into the next year to achieve and accomplish more or you are someone who goes through the ordeal of living in the past, thinking of all the unaccomplished goals without an ounce of excitement. Either case, chances are you are not fully aware of how this year actually went, the accomplishments you have bagged and the opportunities of advancement at your disposal.

First of all, let me address one of the major ideas I want to convey through this blog.

If you haven’t yet started thinking of reflecting on the past year, setting your goals and being your higher self in the next year, it’s high time you do. A year end is a golden opportunity in numerous ways and I say we grab it and make the best use of it. The year end lets us close everything good and bad in the past, be proud of the traits that are accountable for our success and let go of the habits that are pulling us behind. But how would you know if you are too busy in the daily mundane to not care enough to look back. How would you know if 2023 was transformational or another 12 months of dragging yourself through the bare minimum. Let’s find out.

I really didn’t have to put much effort in naming this blog. It came to me in the first thought. I wanted to sit down all by myself and think of every aspect of my life and how did I do in the past year. The results were outstanding. The idea was to make a list of all the great things I wanted to keep close to myself and let go of all the ones that didn’t matter or rather should be forgotten or erased.

Strengths

When ever we prepare ourselves for the next phase or our life, be it a new job, relationship or a new role, it’s pivotal to know your strengths and weaknesses. Hence the first section of this grand audit is knowing thyself. Write down your strengths wrt to your activities, habits, attitude, personality, the ones that attribute to your success, makes you stand out and be you. These are attributes you should remember, take pride in and practice regularly.

Weaknesses:

This is an area of self improvement. Not knowing what you lack is a blight. We don’t have to live in a fantasy world considering ourselves to be infallible. Everyone has a couple of things they could be better at no matter how contended or fulfilling their life is. Note down all your weaknesses in this list with an intent to improve.

What are the things I achieved in 2023?

Keeping a list of your accomplishments is really handy on a rainy day when you feel lost, stressed or just in a slump. Those days this list is like my friend reminding me of how far I have come, how hard I have pushed myself. This helps in telling myself that it’s okay to have bad days, overall I have still made progress. However, this list at the end of the year is a mandate to add gratification, contentment and just a feel good factor to your life by noting down each of your wins. It’s like your Spotify Wrap but with only the greatest songs ever.

What are things I regretted in 2023?

This was one of my most favourite sections in the entire audit. On a lot of occasions, I have dwelled in the past and gone into the rabbit hole of overthinking all the things that have gone wrong. I am sure a lot of us have been there. Well, this section is an opportunity to deal with the “regrets” head on and get rid of them once and for all. When I wrote down this list, all I had in my mind is that I am going to close this chapter and never look back. Another reason why I loved this chapter in conjunction with “Weaknesses” was because I could draw a clear pattern of every regret/incident to one trait i.e "Not able to let go". This was a brand new discovery for me. Now I know, I could be happier, better at friendships, relationships, work and everyday life if I learn to let go and move on. That single conclusion from this activity was rewarding which left me feeling “Yes, the grand audit is so worthwhile”

What are the things you love?

This section is essentially going to eliminate the ambiguity from your life. There are days when you are happy and there are days when you are sad and gloomy. Yes, on the surface level you can tell what made you sad on a day and what contributed to making the day a success. But on a deeper level, are you able to point to a list of things that gives you the happy hormones or a list of things which stresses you out. By doing this exercise we will relieve ourselves from being in an ambiguous state of mind and sulking. It will help us live our best lives by practicing all the things which make us happy and avoiding the things that make us feel sad or upset.

For example - I know the days I wake up early and practice my routine are the happiest of all. But the days I wake up late and have to hustle to catch up with all my tasks are the ones that increases the cortisol level in my body. So I have created a routine and system that helps me wake up early and I try my best to follow it. Of course there are days when you can’t keep up (we can talk about this in another blog), however, it’s important that you bounce back up and push yourself to follow what makes you happy.

What are things you hate?

Just like the section of the things you love, this section on things you hate allows you to avoid certain activities that will make your day gloomy, sad and depressing. Some of you may think, “aahhh this is being so hard on yourself and one should take it easy”, and I completely agree. But sitting in a hazy cloud of ambiguity is definitely something you can free yourself from. Moreover, if you are someone who has to a lot of bad days or someone who does not experience a lot of great days, it’s time you train yourself to be better and quit doing things that harm you mentally or physically. Resent is not one of the feelings we want to be close to in 2024.

How do you spend your day?

I can understand why this section would not be something a lot of us might want to face.

We dread the idea of seeing our failures upfront. For example - we avoid looking at our bank balance because it’s depleting and scares us. We are often mortified to look at our social screen time because it is a reality check of how we have been wasting our time and accomplishing so little.

But the question is how long further would you want to evade the reality and the possibility of being better at managing your finances, your screen time or your daily routine. Now that I have handled the discomfort of facing this section, let me take your right into it:

A lot of productivity gurus and self help book writers ask you to log each and every hour into a notebook to reflect and improve your time management. However, I am going to make things one step easier and ask you to write down all the activities that you carry out with a timestamp.

Let’s create two columns : the first column is where you list down all your activities like : wake up, freshen up, commute to work etc with a timestamp of when you carry out those activities. It's important that you stay true to yourself and write down everything you do : if you spend an hour or two scrolling, don't hesitate to note it down. The 2nd column is where you write down a modified version of the same list, eliminating non value adding activities and adding extra activities that can be practiced during the day. These activities will have a new timestamp which is your goal timing for these activities. Ensure you do not inundate yourself with too many tasks on your plate. I also suggest not getting too ambitious and writing practically achievable timings.

When I ask most of the people what they do in the day(weekday), they can only talk about commuting to work and being in the office. Even if you are someone who works for 8 hours, spends 2 hours in commuting and let’s consider you get 8 hours to sleep and eat. You still have about 6 hours to yourself. Let’s not let work dictate our day. Each one of us are capable of adding beautiful elements in our day that make it more fulfilling. Apart from getting better at time management, the goal of doing this exercise is to achieve more daily : practice your hobbies, schedule some self-care, learn another skill, get fitter, cook a meal. When we add activities that align with our inner selves, we end up boosting our dopamine levels, self-respect and self-love. Start with a thirty minutes time to carry out a fulfilling task or hobby in the day and you'd realise what difference it makes to your daily life.

The rest of the sections of this grand audit are :

What are my goals and hobbies that I want to pursue?

What are my short term, mid term and long term goals

What motivates you?

What kind of person do you want to become?

Mindset and Habit Shifts

These sections are pretty straight forward and can be added in simple bullet points. I have added examples of each section below so you can take inspiration in creating this for yourself.

This audit is the first step one can take in becoming their best selves and achieving their dream life. Writing it alone doesn’t guarantee that you move ahead of your past self but definitely it takes you couple of steps further. This audit contains your past reflections, future goals, mindset, habits and routine shifts of how you are going to get there.

You should keep this document easily accessible via a link on your phone’s notes app or WhatsApp so you can view it, read it and review it several times and subconsciously get closer to a better version of yourself.

I have also created a template for anyone who would like to do this exercise. There is a Notion version (if you are a Notion fan like me) and a Google doc version too.

If you found this helpful, please hit me up through the section below this blog and let me know, it’d make my day!