Keep this life skill for later
Sign in to save
← All life skills

Learning & thinking · a life skill

Simple Reflection Prompts

three questions at the end of the day, and one change

A day of doing something teaches you more if you stop and ask what it taught you. Reflection prompts are a few fixed questions you answer at the end of the day, in a sentence each: what went well, what didn't, what you learned. Then you write one thing you'll do differently tomorrow, and tomorrow you start by checking whether you did.

  • Easy to start
  • Medium impact
  • Learn it: 1 week
  • The last 15 minutes
a first week answering calls, one card a day
End-of-day reflection cards for a week, each ending with one change that the next card checks The last 15 minutes of each workday are kept for the card. Mon: Went well: Calmed a caller angry about a double bill. Didn't: Kept two callers on hold, hunting for refunds. Learned: The whole refund policy is on one wiki page. Tomorrow I'll: Keep the refund page open in a tab. Tue: Yesterday's: Refund tab: worked. Holds were much shorter. Went well: Shorter holds; one caller said thanks. Didn't: Talked over a caller who wasn't finished. Learned: I answer fastest when I'm least sure. Tomorrow I'll: Count to two before I answer. Wed: Yesterday's: Count to two: forgot it by lunch. Went well: Closed a refund in a single call. Didn't: Talked over two more callers. Learned: Good intentions fade by noon; I need a cue. Tomorrow I'll: Stick a note saying “2” on the screen. Thu: The note worked. Tomorrow: account number first. Fri: Account number first: worked. On Friday the week is read back: four changes tried, three worked the next day, and one needed a cue to stick. A workday 9:00 last 15 minutes, for the card Mon Went well Calmed a caller angry about a double bill. Didn't Kept two callers on hold, hunting for refunds. Learned The whole refund policy is on one wiki page. Tomorrow I'll Keep the refund page open in a tab. Tue Yesterday's Refund tab: worked. Holds were much shorter. Went well Shorter holds; one caller said thanks. Didn't Talked over a caller who wasn't finished. Learned I answer fastest when I'm least sure. Tomorrow I'll Count to two before I answer. Wed Yesterday's Count to two: forgot it by lunch. Went well Closed a refund in a single call. Didn't Talked over two more callers. Learned Good intentions fade by noon; I need a cue. Tomorrow I'll Stick a note saying “2” on the screen. Thu The note worked. Tomorrow: account number first. Fri Account number first: worked. Friday, read the week Four changes tried. Three worked the next day; the one that didn't stuck once it had a cue. 1 2 3 4 5

Wednesday's card is the useful one: Tuesday's change hadn't happened, and writing that down is what turned “try harder” into a note on the screen.

The habit

Try it now.

  1. Stop fifteen minutes early

    Put it in the calendar as the last thing of the day, while it's still fresh. Not on the train, not in bed.

  2. Answer three prompts

    What went well, what didn't, what you learned. A sentence each, about something that actually happened today.

  3. Write one change for tomorrow

    One, small enough to do without thinking: "keep the refund page open", not "be more patient".

  4. Check yesterday's change first

    Start each card with it: did you do it, and did it help? A change you forgot needs a cue, not more willpower.

    If you never check, the changes quietly stop happening by Wednesday.

  5. Read the week on Friday

    Five cards, two minutes. Look for what repeats in "didn't", and keep the changes that worked.

When to break the rule: on your first day at something new, there's not much to reflect on yet; practise instead. And after a really bad day, write only what happened and stop. The lessons will be clearer tomorrow.

Your card for today

Three prompts, one change, then copy it.

Pick what kind of day it was, and the prompts change to fit. Don't like one? Shuffle it. If you wrote a card yesterday, start with its change. The fifteen-minute timer is there if you want an end point.

15:00
Went well
Didn't
Learned

Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. Copy the card into wherever you keep notes; tomorrow, paste its change into the first box.

The study behind it

Trainees who spent the last fifteen minutes writing down what they'd learned did better than those who kept practising.

Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano and Bradley Staats ran a field study at Wipro, with employees in training for customer-service work. For one group, the last fifteen minutes of each training day went on writing about the main lessons they'd learned. The other group used the time to carry on training. At the end, the group that reflected did better on the final assessment.

Their lab experiments suggested two reasons. Writing the lessons down gave people a clearer picture of the task, and it made them more confident they could do it, which kept them trying.

The honest limits: it's one company's training and a set of lab tasks, and the authors frame it for people who already have some experience. Fifteen minutes of reflection on a day of nothing new won't do much. That's why the first box on this page asks what actually happened.

The Wipro field study as two lanes of training days. In one lane the last fifteen minutes of each day were more training; in the other, writing down the day's lessons. The writing lane did better on the end-of-training assessment. Last 15 minutes: keep training Last 15 minutes: write the lessons … Final assessment … Final assessment each training day did better Lab experiments: writing the lessons down built a clearer picture of the task, and more confidence in doing it.
The design and the direction of the result, no figures. The number of training days isn't drawn to scale. Di Stefano, Gino, Pisano & Staats, "Making Experience Count", HBS Working Paper 14-093.

The idea

Why it works.

A day of doing leaves a lot of loose experience: things that worked without you noticing why, mistakes you moved past too fast to learn from. Writing a sentence about each turns them into something you can use again, and the "learned" prompt makes you say it as a rule.

The one change, and the check the next day, close the loop. Most reflection fades because nothing follows it. A single small change you'll check tomorrow is something you can actually do, and the check tells you whether it worked or needs a cue.

When it goes wrong

Habits that help.

  • Keep the same prompts for a week. Fresh questions every day make the cards hard to compare.
  • Write about events, not moods. "Talked over a caller" is useful; "bad day" isn't.
  • Make the change tiny. If it needs motivation, it's too big for tomorrow.
  • Don't skip the good. "Went well" is how you find out what to keep doing.

Go deeper

Keep going.

Practise this in HourLife.

In Journal: Writing prompt. One page per day, written a note at a time, with guided templates, photos, tags, search, a cover and writing insights.

Download on the App Store Download on the Mac App Store How Journal works in HourLife