Productivity

The Power of Review

Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.


Photo by exfordy

Reviewing isn’t just to keep you on track. Reviewing is also about seeing where you have been so you can appreciate where you have come from. The power of review lies in both looking forward and looking back.

Today we will look at how looking back is essential to your direction.

Why Reviews Are Important

I talked about how important reviewing was to keep you on track in the recent article. Reviewing what you have committed to regularly, such as goals and projects, will keep your focus on them so they do not get forgotten (out of sight, out of mind). But reviews are also important to see how far you have come.

Why Reviewing 2014 Was Helpful

I realized the power of the review when I went to do my business planning for 2015. The planners I use have me review the previous year, do some metrics, and see where things exceeded or didn’t meet expectations.

I dutifully pulled the numbers from the 2014 planner, and found, to my absolute amazement, that I had grown my email lists by 123%. Due almost entirely to two free products, that the 2014 planner had me plan on and launch, I might add. I also found that while Twitter and Facebook grew, I needed to get some specific strategies if I wanted to make these players in the communication game for the blog.

Moving Forward Based on Review

The best part of the review, besides seeing what worked, was to see what didn’t work as well as I expected, and to decide what was important to focus on. Seeing my reach not increasing as much as I wanted, I decided I needed to focus on one social media platform at a time. I also am looking at other free helpful products for my readers.

By taking a look at what worked and what didn’t work I am able to formulate a direction better than if I had a vague sense of both.

Conclusion

While reviews are good for keeping you on track for what you have decided to do, another power of review lies in looking at what you have done and seeing if it met your goals.


Photo by exfordy. Licensed under Creative Commons.