Reflection that leads to your next decision

Assess your approach and the conditions you used it in

Zuzana is practicing how to explain the purpose at the start of her presentation. She does it in two conversations, but skips it in a third when she’s under time pressure. “I’ve messed it up again” is too broad a summary of the experience. It’s more precise to distinguish when she used the approach, what happened next, and how the situations differed. That gives her a basis for adjusting her approach.

A 2016 meta-analysis by Harkin and colleagues found that interventions supporting progress monitoring improved goal achievement on average. The research involved a range of goals and conditions studied experimentally. This doesn’t mean that every form of monitoring is useful, or that monitoring more frequently is necessarily better regardless of the effort it takes.

End your reflection with a specific decision. Zuzana can keep the introduction that worked and prepare a shorter version for situations where she’s under pressure. Next time, she can assess whether the listener understands the purpose better. She doesn’t have to conclude from one good result that the approach always works; the conversations may have differed in subject or in the listeners’ experience.

Make your review proportionate to your goal. Track a few relevant situations and come back to them at a time you’ve chosen. You don’t need to evaluate every conversation throughout the day. If you keep repeating the same criticism without gaining new information or making a decision, try narrowing the question to what you’ll keep, adjust, or test next time.