· New Year · Reflection
Year in Review: free New Year game for reflection and planning
Sort your year's wins and lessons into a one-page review.
What is Year in Review?
Zip is helping a friend, Robin, look back on the year. Go through Robin's notes one quarter at a time and sort each into Wins, Lessons or Leave out. Turn one setback per quarter into a takeaway, then pick next year's plans. The result is a one-page review.
Year in Review is a free New Year game about looking back well. Zip is helping a friend, Robin, write a one-page review of the year. Robin's journal notes come one quarter at a time, and each one goes in Wins, Lessons or Leave out: a first gig is a win, a late report is a lesson, a new office coffee machine doesn't belong on the page.
After each quarter you turn one setback into a takeaway, choosing between a specific step, a vague wish and a blanket excuse. Finally, you pick the three plans for next year that really follow from the review. The page fills up as you play, and at the end you see Robin's whole year on one page.
At a glance
- Category
- Seasonal
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Play time
- 3–5 min
- Price
- Free, in your browser, sign-up optional
How to play
- Sort the notes
- Four notes per quarter: a Win, a Lesson (a setback worth learning from) or Leave out. Tap or press 1 to 3.
- Find the takeaway
- After each quarter, pick the takeaway that helps most next year: specific beats vague, and blame isn't a lesson.
- Plan next year
- Pick the 3 plans that follow from the review: fix a lesson or keep doing a win.
- Score
- 50 per note in the right place, up to 100 per takeaway, 100 per good plan. 1,500 points max.
Scoring
50 points for each note sorted into the right place (Win, Lesson or Leave out), 16 notes in all.
Each quarter's takeaway: 100 for a specific step, 40 for a vague one, 0 for an excuse. Then 100 for each of the 3 plans that follows from the review. 1,500 points max.
What it trains
- Reflection
- Telling what you did and learned apart from what just happened around you.
- Learning from setbacks
- Turning a bad moment into a concrete step instead of blame.
- Planning
- Building next year's plan from your own evidence: fix the lessons, keep the wins.
Strategy and tips
- Win = something done
- A goal reached, a skill learned, trust earned. It doesn't have to be big.
- Lesson = a setback with a fix
- If there's something to do differently, it's a lesson, not just a bad day.
- Leave out the noise
- Weather, gossip and other people's news are true, but they don't help next year.
- Pick the doable takeaway
- "Start in week one" beats "try harder", and both beat "group projects never work".
- Plans come from the page
- A good plan fixes a lesson or keeps doing a win. Copying a friend's plan doesn't.
Why play Year in Review?
A year-end review is only useful if it leads somewhere. Separating what you did from what happened around you, turning setbacks into concrete next steps and building plans from your own evidence is the core of reflection, and the same habit powers good retrospectives at school and work. Year in Review practises it in a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Is Year in Review free?
Yes. It is free and runs in your browser, with no download. Signing up is optional.
Is Robin a real person?
No. Robin, Dana and every note are made up for the game.
Why are some notes left out?
A review is about what you did and learned. True things that aren't about that, like the weather, make the page longer, not more useful.
Can I play with a keyboard?
Yes. Keys 1 to 3 sort a note or pick a takeaway, and every button can be reached with Tab.