It’s April 1st, fellow freelancers! This week’s MMF is all about building a system for personal reflection - and the value of assessing yourself as you grow. Should take about 5 minutes to scan. Share with a friend!

Happy April, party people!

Q1 is firmly in the rearview, and Q2 is now upon us (and a quarter of the year down - how horrifying.)

And beyond just needing to pay your quarterly taxes, April offers an excellent time to go back and reflect on how you’re doing in both work and life.

Some of the best work you can do to increase your value and pay will initially pay you nothing.

Let’s be honest - how often do you go back and update your portfolio? If you’re like me, probably seldom. Why? Because you could be making money working on client projects rather than your portfolio.

It feels like a waste to spend valuable daylight on things that may not make you money right now.

But what does that filled-out portfolio sparkling with use cases and client testimonials bring you down the road? High-paying clients who give you more money for less of your time.

The same is true for our own personal and professional development.

When we invest the time to reflect on our growth and look forward to how we can continue to advance, we are setting aside capital that will pay mighty dividends down the road.

Consider one hour per month devoted to reflection and goal-setting as an investment that will compound over time.

So, how do I do it?

Daily <> Weekly <> Monthly <> Quarterly

If you follow me online, you know I’m a sucker for note-taking apps and software.

I’m always downloading a new tool to try to build my Tiago Forte-style “Second Brain” - partially because I’m incredibly forgetful and mostly because it just makes me feel “cool.”

I have an ongoing daily note in my Obsidian workspace where I keep a bullet journal-style list of what’s happened throughout the day.

• the work I completed

• when I felt my best and my worst

• what days I worked out, what days I gave into social media too much, etc.

• any unique opportunities that arose, and what led to them

• a quote or learning that stuck out to me

• something weird or funny my kids said

• (an ongoing list of honey-dos that my wife is helping me stay on top of)

Basically, anything notable goes in the daily notes.

Some days, the note is packed; others, there’s nothing but a couple of quick thoughts.

Then, I’ll pull anything notable from my daily log and populate a weekly note at the end of the week.

At the end of the month, I then go back and take a Pomodoro-worth (25 minutes) to scroll through and copy over any big ideas or events from the daily and weekly notes that stuck out on a Monthly page.

Then, I go through the three monthly pages each month and pull over the big rocks into a Quarterly page.

The goal is that the daily, weekly, and monthly pages all work as a “filter” to bring up those 20% of things that bring 80% of the results.

It’s on this page that the magic happens.

The Quarterly Evaluation

Once I have a short list of the 20%, I can then start reflecting on what it was about those things that moved the needle.

I have an evolving self-reflection that I give an hour (two pomodoros, to be exact.) to complete.

The goal is to have some ideas down that stir up deeper insights and plot the course for the next month.

I’ll be honest - it can feel silly to answer, “What are my top three accomplishments from the last quarter?”

After all, I work for myself - why am I acting like my boss?

But we have to think about what we lose when we don’t take the time to question ourselves. Without a supervisor or mentor to help us watch our blindspots, we can quickly lose track of the why in the what of daily freelance life.

• Are you showing up for clients with your best work?

• Are you there for the important people in your life - friends, family, partners, kids?

• Are you still enjoying this lifestyle? Are you losing a bit of yourself in the work?

• Is there anything you need to let go of to capture better energy and focus?

If I didn’t have a physical, tactile process to reflect on these ideas, I’d never get around to answering them…until someone else does for me. And by then, it’s usually too late to fix (without major pain.)

One of my favorite ways to do this recently has been by using Strut - one of my favorite new AI tools developed specifically for writers.

With Strut, I can write my daily, weekly, and monthly notes within a single workspace, and then chat with my notes directly in the Strut AI to pull out big ideas, connect dots, and find where I’m doing my best work.

It’s like notetaking, but with an AI buddy right there in the system. (Plus, it’ll help you figure out how these AI models work within writing contexts!)

Download my free quarterly reflection sheet here!

Just kidding. April Fools. (You know I had to.)

You aren’t me, and you don’t need my reflection page. But you can build your own super easily.

Jump onto ChatGPT (or your preferred AI) and ask it to think like a freelance life coach and “create a quarterly reflection worksheet” that you can use. It’s actually super effective at helping you start building your own!

Try it out, delete what doesn’t work for you, and adapt it to your needs.

But do it. The most important thing is to create ongoing milestones that you can look back on 90, 180, or 365 days from now and see how you grew (or didn’t) and why.

You’d be amazed at how much more effective you become when you take the helm of your own life and start plotting a course where you want to go - rather than letting life do it for you.

Give it a shot - and let me know how it goes!