Vansh Kumar | 2025 Annual Review

An Annual Review Template for Curious Humans

👨‍💻 ~ How To Use This Template

⏳Two Approaches

It is obviously entirely up to you how much time you choose to spend on this review process.

The First Timer // For those of you who are approaching this tentatively for the first time I would recommend setting aside a minimum of 90 minutes—roughly 3x 30-minute chunks of time for each of the sections. Simply set a timer and answer the questions + prompts that you feel most drawn to (delete the rest once you’re done)
The Deep Dive // And for those who have the time and inclination to do a deeper dive, I like to set aside 3x 3-hour chunks (ideally on separate days) but it could of course be shorter or longer depending on how deep you get pulled in!

Given that there are 365 days next year, spending <1% of this time getting clear on your direction seems like time very well spent.

Day 1. 🕵️‍♂️ Gather introspective material

I like to cast the net far and wide to saturate my subconscious with memories and reflections from the year.

If you keep a journal or write monthly reviews this is obviously an excellent first port of call. But don’t stop there, looking at your Instagram stories archive + Twitter feed may also contain forgotten nuggets.

Perusing your calendar month by month to jog your memory of milestones, as might your Spotify most played songs or Goodreads profile.

Pay particular attention to emotional salience of these memories, i.e. moments that felt like highs + lows (the failures and struggles usually contain the real nuggets of gold)

Day 2. 🤔 Reflecting Backwards on 2025

Using the questions outlined in the template below as prompts and jumping off points for your own exploration.

I strongly encourage you to add your own flavor of questions based on the roles that you operate from—for example if you have your own business then this will likely deserve it’s own category, likewise if you are a parent or partner. Remember that this process is designed to be an exploration, if you do it well you will notice yourself writing something that you didn’t realise you knew.

Day 3. 🔭 Reflecting Forwards to 2026

This is the fun part. The questions below are designed to reveal clarity over your deepest intentions + desires for the year. 2020 was a big year for many of us.

I also recommend theming each year (see Dr. Jason Fox for more on this). For example, my word for 2022 was ‘Home’. These words may be clear from the outset or they may emerge from your reflections.

You might surprise yourself at how your values have shifted or even the vision of your imagined future.

The questions are designed to provoke and challenge you, if any cause discomfort to answer, excellent — lean into it, there’s likely something juicy on the other side 😅

📝 ~ The Case for Writing an Annual Review

I’ve been writing annual reviews for 9 years now, and it has been one of the most rewarding exercises of my life.

Here are some of the benefits I gain from the process:

Clarity on next year’s intentions, clear ‘creative constraints’, refreshed and re-aligned my values, mined the previous year’s challenges for insights, become aware of broader themes and patterns as well as allowing myself to celebrate the highlights.

Upon completing this seemingly self-indulgent exercise I feel a greater sense of coherence and meaning for the projects I commit to and the underlying values that drive the intention.

More importantly, for those of you who experienced struggles in 2024 (i.e. most of humanity) this is a chance to derive meaning and insights from those experience.

Above all, I encourage you to use this as a starting point for yourself.

Steal what’s useful, delete what isn’t.

Add your own questions, remix it any way you want and really make it feel like your own. This template is designed to be more provocative than prescriptive.

Ultimately the questions that you choose and the format of your annual review will evolve into a deeply personal mirror and reflection of what matters most in your life.

🤴 ~ A Primer on the ‘Archetype’ Framework

What are Archetypes?

Archetypes are essentially universal genetic human patterns that impact various aspects of our personality and shape how we show up in the world. When we reflect on ourselves and how this past year unfolded I find these four archetypes to be extremely useful lenses to view all aspects of our lives.

Which Archetypes are we using?

I was gifted the book ‘King, Warrior, Magician, Lover’ and it has had a profound impact on my life so this year I’m experimenting with using this framing to write my annual review—building on reflection prompts from previous years and integrating them into this framework.

Although I would definitely recommend obtaining a copy of the book (link), there is no need to have read it to get the gist of what they represent. Below I’ve summarised each of the four archetypes in my own words.

Note on gender: although the book was originally intended to describe mature masculine archetypes, they absolutely apply to both genders (read more here)

👑 KING // QUEEN

The King/Queen or ‘Sovereign’ archetype is the aspect that we most associate with leadership—of ourselves, our families, our teams—it is the part that holds our own vision for life and connects to a deeper sense of purpose.

This aspect is where our most important decisions (hopefully) come from—from where to live, who to be in relationship with, what to dedicate our careers to.

In a mature expression the Sovereign is a ‘heart-centred’ leader who holds responsibility for guarding the kingdom (your family, business etc.), speaking truth and not looking away from potentially uncomfortable situations or circumstances.

In the context of this annual review your King/Queen is the one who likely drew you to commit time to this process and cares that your upcoming year unfolds in a way that aligns with your highest values and what matters most to you.

⚔️ WARRIOR // HUNTRESS

Your Warrior/Huntress represents the part of you that takes action out in the world, the aspect that gets sh*t done and sets clear boundaries.

As you might imagine he/she also holds our sense of power, commitment and agency in the world.

In the context of this annual review the warrior reflections will look at ways in which we did or didn’t follow through with our commitments to self and others as well as how we fared at setting effective boundaries. The warrior in you speaks truth even when it might rock the boat.

The negative connotations we might associate with this arise when the ‘warrior’ is disconnected from its King and Lover aspects, which give rise to ‘shadow warrior’ qualities (for more on this listen to my conversation with Erick Godsey)

🧙‍♀️ MAGICIAN // CRONE

Your magician/crone within us is our internal problem solver and creative genius. For many of us left-brained + analytical types the magician archetype is alive and kicking.

This aspect loves an intellectual challenge to dive into and is the force behind business or empire building (think Elon Musk or Steve Jobs as expressions of this magician energy).

Challenges arise when this aspect dominates and leaves us disconnected from our emotions (the Lover) and our purpose (the King/Queen).

The magician also came up with strategies to keep us safe when we were growing up but many of these no longer serve us in adulthood (for example creating perfectionist tendencies or fear of putting our creative work out into the world).

❤️ LOVER // LOVER

Your lover represents the moments of awe and rapture, when the ineffable beauty of an experience—watching a sunset, being with an intimate partner or listening to music—sinks into our hearts and cracks us open to a deeper experience of life.

The lover is the poetic imagination that is alive in us all, it is our source of compassion and empathy for others and its greatest desire is to transcend into one-ness—whether through peak flow states, being moved through great works of art or having our hearts blasted open through moments of deep intimacy.

👪 TRIBE // TRIBE

I have added ‘TRIBE’ to this review because although it’s not an archetype, in the context of reflecting on one’s life our relationships and community play a vital role (especially in times of COVID when this is even more challenging than it once was) that I felt it was essential to include this as a 5th section.

NB. If this mythical language is off-putting for you, there is no need to adopt it and the prompts will make just as much sense without this framework.

📚 ~ Ten Curated Examples of Epic Annual Reviews

Steve Schlaf // This is one of my personal favourites, besides the prolific use of emojis, there are some powerful questions in here such as ‘what do I know to be true that I’m not acting on’, or ‘what permission do I need to give myself’.

Buster Benson // For the last 14 years Buster has written highly introspective and thoughtful reviews, I particularly appreciate his themes e.g. love the struggle and the interactive ‘life in weeks’ visualisation.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff // I really appreciated her parting words: “If there’s something this year has taught me, it’s to appreciate the detours; to enjoy the weird pit stops; to collect unexpected memories. I don’t know what next year will look like, but I’m excited to keep on exploring the labyrinth that is life.”

Taylor Pearson // Not an annual review but a highly pragmatic and detailed approach to ‘anti-fragile’ planning. A must-read for type-A, ambitious left-brainers.

Dr. Jason Fox // This is more of a mini-book that he playfully names ‘The Quest of Becoming’—I would definitely recommend reading the post on ‘pick a word’ as a way of theming your upcoming year.

James Clear // One of the more prolific + concise writer’s out there—James approach to writing his review is refreshingly minimalist. He just answers three questions: 1. What went well this year? 2. What didn’t go so well this year? 3. What did I learn?

Steph Smith // A relentless writer + maker, Steph’s approach will appeal to anyone who enjoys tracking + hitting milestones in all areas of life. Her practice of sharing the lessons behind the goals is insightful.

Chris Guillebeau // Spreadsheet lovers, this one is for you—whilst I’ve personally moved away from the rather intense goal-setting approach, it definitely resonates for some folks and is effective for taking abstract ideas and making them happen!

Tiago Forte // One of the most inspiring and prolific creators out there, Tiago is a genuinely deep thinker and I especially appreciate his practice of identifying ‘open questions’ for the following year. E.g. How can I have as much fun as possible, as much of the time as possible, without feeling guilty about it?

Paul Millerd // Paul ‘I have no goals’ Millerd as I sometimes like to call him used Roam for his review. Some questions I appreciated were: ‘What should you double down next year?’ ‘What kinds of work do you want to stop doing?’ And ‘What kind of goals for the next year can you commit to even though they might scare you?’

🕵️‍♂️ 1 ~ Gathering Materials

Retrospective Checklist

📖 Journal Entries (check physical, evernote etc.)
💡 Intentions from Jan 2025 (if you set them)
📆 Check calendar for milestones + events
💬 Social media (Instagram stories/Twitter/Goodreads etc.)
📝 Review notes from coaching sessions / workshops etc.
📸 Gather photos of memorable moments from 2025 (include below)
❤️ Have a conversation with someone close to you

Journal:

Physical notebook
Obsidian daily/weekly notes
Obsidian Sabbatical reflections note
Simplenote thoughts around birth (tho this became a substack post)

Intentions from 2025 (pulled from journal/substack):

12/30/2024: new years resolution. ask more fun silly questions!!! which disney princess would you be
From this post:
1. Make my mullet as monsterous as possible
2. Prank somebody
3. Make some obscene tsukemen. Maybe I can learn Tsujita’s recipe
4. Write a letter to each friend with the silliest memory with them I can think of
5. Make a viral tennis or rocket league meme
6. Draw, paint, write, something expanding an Asimov scifi scene or short story
7. Eat something spicier than anything I’ve ever had before
8. Start a paddle tennis vs pickleball spat in Pasadena
9. Try Wanderlust’s rotating flavors every month
10. Roast my own coffee beans
Looks like I accomplished (1), (5), (7), (9). Nb

Calendar notes:

Wow sooo many ppl visited + hung out with so many ppl in Sept/Oct 2024!
First OBGYN visit on Oct 3!
Empty days in Oct/Nov 2024 make me long for those days wandering NYC parks & reading in the fall omg
- Dang looking at the calendar this was only like 4 weeks.. wtf it looms so much larger in my memory
- Not longing for bub HG tho
Ha video chatting ppl to tell them about pregnancy, amazing
Wild that we moved from NYC → Nova → LA over a couple months
Jeez the AA$ wedding, that was a crazy ass weekend
- Also bub getting laid off riiight before I left for Guatemala lmao
Baby shower!
Starting up the book club w Irene
Various pregnancy/birth complications and the first month.. whew
Getting serious about tennis for like a month and a half in June/July before getting injured.. lmao
- And then on/off trying to fix it. Finally got serious + Caltech gym membership when I tried hitting in mid-Nov and it still hurt
Meeting a bunch of random ppl thru Pathless community was dope
Education Anti-Book Club scheduling etc
Month in Nova!
Buying a car
Lunchclubbing here and there starting in Nov
Does seem like I vidchat/call someone a few times a week on avg
- Surprising because I frequently feel a “I should be more social” “I should chat with more people” energy
- I am starting to feel that I should maybe say “no” to more things to focus in? But still not quite sure what to focus on. It’s worth at least reflecting on which calls are energizing me vs not.
Hanging out w Cassie/Charles pretty frequently!! Gym, walks, random hangouts

Social media:

Other (random projects etc):

Education Anti-Book Club
Anki/newborn/studio ghibli class syllabi
1k words a day
Building tennis app
Learned how to read Hindi
Read the whole Asimov catalog, Power Broker, tons of other books
Pappi calls
Tons and tons of healthcare/EDD admin stuff
Cleaning up parents finances, figuring out their retirement
TJ PSAT investigation
Info Bottleneck theory
December Aliveline – worm brain stuff
Various plugins: spaced inklings, dangerous mode, firefox stuff, etc
Coffee rush web attempt
Commenting hella on Alpha School review
Tons of 30m do nothing time/meditation. Writing poems
Really understood how little can be needed for me for peace and joy - specifically that one day where I did nothing for like 4 hours in the morning then went on the greatest walk ever looking at trees on green st

Photos of memorable events:

Wayyyyyyy too many Ramsters pics

📆 2 ~ Reflecting Back on 2025