Journal prompts
20 end of year journal prompts for your year in review
A year is too long to remember well. These twenty questions help you look back on it honestly, notice what mattered, and decide what you want to take with you.
Ask someone how their year went and you will usually get the last few weeks, plus one big event. The rest blurs. That is not a failing of memory. It is just how a year works when you are living it. These twenty questions are a way of slowing down long enough to see the whole of it, the good months and the hard ones. The last weeks of December are the obvious time, but a birthday works just as well, or any day that feels like the end of a chapter.
The list opens with first impressions: the moment that comes to mind first, three words, a title for the chapter. Then it moves to what made you proud and what made you laugh, before the hardest stretch and what got you through it. The middle is about people, new things and the decisions that changed the course of the year. Numbers fourteen to sixteen look at your mood and energy, where patterns show up that no single week reveals. The last few are gentler: what you are grateful for, the advice you would give yourself a year ago, and what you are still carrying. Skip any that feel too heavy right now.
If you kept any record this year, a photo roll, a diary, a mood log, have it open while you write. Your memory will offer a tidy story. A record shows you the real shape of the year, including the stretches you have already forgotten.
The prompts
When you picture the past twelve months, what's the first moment that comes to mind?
It doesn't have to be the biggest one. Start with whatever shows up first and wonder why it stayed with you.
What three words describe your past year?
Try not to overthink it. Your first three words often say more than a long summary.
If the past year were a chapter in a book, what would you call it?
A few words is enough. Notice whether the title feels heavy, light or somewhere in between.
What did you do in the past year that you're proud of?
Big or small: finishing something, showing up, saying no, trying again. Write down what it took.
Which moments in the past year made you laugh the hardest?
A dinner, a message, a ridiculous mishap. Let yourself enjoy the memory for a moment.
When did you feel most like yourself in the past year?
Think about where you were, who you were with and what you were doing.
What was the hardest stretch of the past year, and what helped you through it?
Look past the difficulty itself to what carried you: a person, a routine, a thought you held on to.
What surprised you most about the past year?
Something that turned out better, harder or simply different than you expected.
What did you learn about yourself in the past twelve months?
Maybe a strength, a limit or a preference you didn't know you had.
Who made the biggest difference to your past year?
Think about what they did, said or simply were for you. Do they know?
Which relationships grew closer in the past year, and which drifted?
Notice without judging. People move in and out of our lives for all kinds of reasons.
What new thing did you try in the past year, and what did it teach you?
A place, a hobby, a food, a new way of doing something. Even the ones that didn't stick count.
What decision in the past year changed things for you?
Think back to the moment you chose, and where that path has led so far.
Looking back at your mood over the past year, what patterns do you notice?
Were there seasons, months or weeks that felt lighter or heavier? What was going on in your life then?
What reliably lifted your mood on a hard day?
List the things that actually worked, even the small ones: a walk, a call, a song, an early night.
What took more of your energy than it was worth?
Commitments, habits, situations, endless scrolling. Notice what keeps showing up on the list.
What are you grateful for now that you didn't have a year ago?
A person, a skill, a place, a sense of calm. Take a moment to really appreciate it.
What advice would you give yourself from twelve months ago?
Write it the way you'd talk to someone you care about. What do you know now that you wish you'd known then?
What would you like to forgive yourself for from the past year?
Write it down, then add one sentence to yourself the way a kind friend would say it.
What unfinished thing are you still carrying from the past year?
A conversation, a project, a promise. Do you want to finish it, change it or gently set it down?
Prompts that keep your answers
These lists are yours to use anywhere, and a notebook works perfectly well. If you would rather the questions came to you, and kept every answer in one place so you can read them back later, that is what Luci does. Over 550 prompts across twenty topics, and when a question comes round again it shows you what you said last time.
All journal prompt topicsSee how guided prompts work in Luci
Start where you are
Ten seconds a day is enough for Luci to show you what lifts your mood. Free, works offline, no account needed.
