Writing a Semester Reflection
Every semester (i.e. Fall, Spring, and Summer) in graduate school (and now into my postdoctoral position) I’ve written a semester reflection. This simple exercise is one of the most helpful things I do to round out the semester and start a new one feeling fresh and motivated. My semester reflection is fairly simple. I begin by first writing an overview of my semester before moving onto a section that summarizes my highlights and accomplishments for the semester. Next, I write a section that discusses my struggles and a section where I outline the lessons that I’ve learned. I wrap up the reflection by assessing my progress on semester goals and writing down my goals for the upcoming semester.
Writing a reflection in this way ensures I don’t dwell on the goals I didn’t accomplish (that reckoning happens at the end, ha!) and allows me to identify and honor the accomplishments that might not have made it in my semester goals but still took up time and energy. These accomplishments span personal and professional goals, as all goals, no matter the domain, took work and are important to celebrate! Finally, I get to see all of my accomplishments and highlights in the aggregate, as it can be so easy to overlook the things you do get done when you are constantly moving from one thing to the next. For example, my reflection for Summer 2020 was absolutely crucial for me to write. I thought my summer was an absolute mess but upon reflection, I managed to accomplish some large goals that should not be diminished just because things didn’t go as originally planned.
After writing my accomplishments I find it easier to then write about my struggles. And lord knows I struggle every semester. From feeling like I didn’t do enough writing to not prioritizing self-care and breaks, I struggle. I remember writing down my first graduate school related breakdown after I completely froze while attempting to answer an essay question on my developmental psychology exam. I cried as I handed in an empty document to my professor. Although living through that period was clearly stressful, writing about it helped me process the moment. Because the next section of my reflection exercise is "lessons learned," I was also able to create a narrative around that painful moment that helped me grow. I realized I thought I had to do everything alone. The moral of that lesson was to be ok with not always knowing the answer and to learn how to ask for help if needed. Of course, the lessons learned are not always rooted in the struggles but also in the accomplishments. For example, after creating a work community I saw my productivity skyrocket. In the “Lessons learned” section I wrote about the key factors that allowed my work community to help me become so successful.
Last, I do a line-by-line reckoning with my goals. I mark each goal as completed or not completed and write down what I thought prevented me from accomplishing a particular goal. Oftentimes the culprit is simply time, whereas some goals require me to explore the root cause of my procrastination before moving it to my task list for the following semester. Because I write this section after reflecting on my accomplishments and lessons learned, I am usually able to write this section with a sense of equanimity and calmness.
That’s it! That’s the process. Writing this reflection can take me up to a week, as I write and come back to sections. I will often write my overview section first and circle back to it at the end as I remember more things about my semester. I re-read my monthly reflections and my “A Good Thing a Day” pages in my LOT Planner and use those as springboards for the semester reflection. Although I type up my reflection, once I’m done with it, I print it out on sticker paper and paste it into the semester reflections page to have everything in one place.
One last piece of advice: I recommend, to the extent that you are comfortable, sharing the document with a mentor or advisor. It is important for others who are helping you grow your career to see your progress in a holistic way. Likely your mentors only see a small subset of what you do; showing your growth at the 10,000 feet level will help them mentor you better. Furthermore, you can more easily share things that happened to you in context in a reflection. For example, they might not know that you had a sick child for a month; you could mention that was a struggle if you never brought it up before. Finally, you don’t have to share everything in your reflection with your mentor. Depending on what happens each semester, I make a version for myself and a version for my mentors—as some things are private, and I definitely DON’T want them to know about it. Finally, even if you don’t want to share your reflections, some sort of semester reflection exercise with your advisor is helpful, especially if they evaluate you. Gaining clarity on your progress through your mentor’s eyes is just as important as you getting clarity for yourself.
Detailed reflections like this can be done at any natural breaks in a yearly routine. For some, this type of reflection can be done quarterly while for others it might make sense at the end of a major project. Regardless of the timeframe, give the reflection exercise a try!
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