How I am spending my Holidays

The holidays are almost here!

I’m back home, and I’m starting to get into the Holiday spirit. If you don’t already know, I having been living in UAE this year and while there are many things to enjoy out there, it’s not particularly “cozy” during this time of the year.

So I decided to come back home, spend time with my family, in the familiar cozy winter Holiday setting.

And in my experience, this time of year goes one of two ways. Either you're frantically finishing projects before everything shuts down, or you've already mentally checked out and you're just coasting until January.

I mostly fell into that second category.

I'd tell myself I'd "think about the business stuff after the holidays." I'd tell myself maybe I’d do a year-end review. But then January would hit, I'd write down a dozen ambitious goals, and by February I'd completely forgotten what they were.

Well, this year I'm doing something different. And I want to share it with you because I think you'll find it helpful too.

I'm doing what I call a "minimal viable review."

With one goal: Create a simple, intentional process that helps me zoom out, extract the lessons from this year, and choose my direction for the next one.

Today, I'll walk you through what I'm doing.

Today, I'll walk you through what I'm doing. You can grab some of these prompts and use them for your own review too.

Full transparency, I haven't always done this well.

For years, I avoided doing any kind of year-end review.

When things were going well, I was so busy with client work that I told myself I didn't have time to pause and reflect. When things weren't going well, I avoided thinking about it because it felt too uncomfortable to acknowledge what wasn't working.

I'd do the classic New Year's thing. I'd sit down on January 1st with way too much energy and write out thirteen goals. Get better at Instagram. Raise my rates. Build a better portfolio. Create systems. Learn video editing. Launch a course.

All of these goals felt urgent, and important.

But none of them were connected to where I actually was in my business or what would

move me forward.

By February, I'd forget I even made the list. I'd be back to reacting to whatever was in front of me, with no real direction.

The problem was, even though I didn’t realise it at the time, I waited for things to blow out of proportion and force me to reflect because I started to see what business I was building and I wasn’t sure if that’s what i wanted.

But you don’t need to reach there, before you pause.

So this year, I'm making a different choice.

I'm going to do a simple, intentional review. Just three parts. Fifteen prompts total.

That's it.

No complicated frameworks or analyzing every metric from the last twelve months.

But an honest reflection to articulate lessons and come out with one focused direction.

Because the “what” of the review matters less than “doing” the review.

And the best way to make sure you do it is to make it so simple that you can't talk yourself out of it.

So I'm using what I call the Minimal Viable Review. Three parts: Look Back, Look Around, and Look Forward.

Here are the prompts I'm using so you can do this yourself.

Part 1: Look Back (The wins and lessons)

The first part is about acknowledging what happened this year. The good, the bad, and what you learned from both.

Most people skip this part. They're so focused on what's next that they never pause to appreciate how far they've actually come or extract the lessons from what didn't work.

But when you skip reflection, you miss the patterns. You repeat the same mistakes. You don't give yourself credit for the progress you made.

Here are some examples to get you started:

• Projects you’re proud of this year

• Decisions that paid off

• Skills you developed

• Habits you worked on

• Relationships you built

• Risks you took

Part 2: Look Around (Where am I now?)

The second part is about assessing your current reality.

This requires brutal honesty. Because you can't make good decisions about what to do next if you're not clear on where you're standing.

Here are four prompts that might help you get started:

"On a scale of 1-10, how energized do you feel by my business?"

"What's working that you should do MORE of?"

"What's draining you that you need to STOP?"

"The bottleneck holding you back right now is..."

If you've read my previous newsletters, you know about the five elements of a thriving design business. Which one is your bottleneck right now? Is it positioning? Lead generation? Delivery? Systems? Mindset? Name it specifically.

These four prompts will give you a clear snapshot of where you are.

Part 3: Look Forward (What's next?)

The final part is about choosing your direction.

You don’t want to set too many goals and end up making progress on none of them. So you can keep this ruthlessly simple.

For example:

"Your ONE focus for next quarter."

What is the single most important thing you need to work on in the next three months?

If you only accomplished one thing, what would move your business forward most?

"To make that happen, I need to START..."

What specific action do you need to start doing that you're not doing now?

Be concrete. "Post more on Instagram" is too vague. "Post three design breakdowns per week on Instagram" is actionable.

"To make that happen, I need to STOP..."

What do you need to stop doing to make space for your focus? You can't add new things without removing old things. What are you willing to say “NO” to?

"The support or resource I need most is..."

Do you need a course? A coach? A accountability partner? A specific tool or software?

Better boundaries? More sleep?

What support would actually help you make progress?

"This time next year, I want to FEEL..."

Notice I said feel, not achieve. Revenue goals are fine, but they're lagging indicators. How do you want to feel about your business a year from now? Confident? Energized? Proud?

Free? Name the feeling.

Answer these five prompts and you'll have a clear direction for the next quarter.

One focus.

Specific actions.

And a vision for how you want to feel.

That’s all you need.

To pause, reflect, and choose your next step with intention.

I hope you try the review, extract the lessons and choose your focus.

To making next year the one where it all starts to come together.

I’ll you in 2026. ✨

Chat soon,

Abi 😊

Sign Up

​The Ultimate Operating System for Brand Designers ➡️

If you're ready to save hours on admin work, start confidently taking on more projects, and deliver consistently professional results, these proven templates and systems are your answer.