In Japan the last weeks of the year are busy in a particular way. The house is cleaned, the New Year food is prepared, and there is a strong sense that the old year should be properly finished before the new one begins. Even the year-end parties with colleagues have a name, bonenkai, which means something like forget-the-year gatherings.
Forgetting is one way to end a year. Reading it back is another, and it is more useful.
Why the last week
The days between Christmas and the New Year are the quietest of the year in many countries, and in Japan the twenty-eighth is traditionally the last working day before the holiday. It is a natural moment to sit down for an hour with a notebook, a cup of tea and the questions below.
Answer them in order. Write short answers. The point is not a verdict on the year; it is an honest record of it.
What happened
What made this year worth it? Not the achievements: the ordinary things that made days good.
What surprised me? Something that went better or worse than expected, and why.
Who mattered most this year, and did they know it?
What did I learn to do that I could not do in January?
What got harder than it needed to be
This is the kaizen question, the Japanese practice of small improvement.
Where did the same friction come up again and again?
What is the one change that would remove most of it?
What did I start and stop, and what stopped it?
Where the money went
This is the kakeibo question, from the Japanese household ledger.
How much do I have now, compared with a year ago?
Where did the money go that I would not choose again?
What did the culture column pay for: the books, the music, the places that made the year larger?
What I am carrying
This is the danshari question, the Japanese practice of refusing, releasing and detaching.
What am I carrying into next year that I do not need, objects, commitments or grudges?
What one sentence do I want to be true about next year?
After the questions
Read the answers once, then close the notebook until January. On January 2, the day of kakizome, the first writing of the year, take the last answer, the one sentence, and write it out again on a clean page. That page is the year’s plan. Everything else can follow from it.
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This article is part of a series exploring Japanese philosophy and intentional living: