If you don't use review well, you will be caught in low-level work.

90% of adult learning comes from sources outside of textbooks.

For adults, 10% of learning content comes from formal training and education, 20% from communication with others, and 70% from practical work on the job.

However, the accumulation of practice does not necessarily lead to an improvement in ability.

The author of deliberate practice believes that a person may immerse themselves in a field for years without much improvement because they are only practicing naively.

What is 'naive practice'? It is practicing aimlessly and mechanically, rarely seeing problems in practice, and therefore rarely being able to make improvements. As a result, little by little, it becomes low-level repetition.

To go beyond low-level repetition, you need to review on your own.

2. Review, so that the success and failure of the team are meaningful.

In the 1990s, when Liu Chuanzhi read the book 'Zeng Guofan', he spoke highly of Zeng Guofan's review methods. He not only applied reviews to the company, but also put reviews into Lenovo's three major methodological systems. (The three major methodological principles of Lenovo: strong purposefulness, phased implementation, and review.) Request small team matters to be reviewed in a timely manner, significant matters to be reviewed in stages, and comprehensive reviews after the fact.

Lenovo believes that review can test a person's learning ability, which is also an important reference standard for selecting cadres--when doing anything, in addition to looking at the results, we should also see whether the person doing things can learn from it.

If you can find the reasons and improvement measures from failure, this kind of failure is worth tolerating. Conversely, if you succeed but don't know why you succeeded, this success is not replicable and meaningless.

Without enough pain, reviews often remain superficial.

So, how should we review our daily lives?

1. Review triangle.

The 'review triangle' refers to the three actions of recording, reflecting, and extracting.

Step 1: Recording.

After a whole day has passed, record the main events of the day or the past day, who you met, what you talked about, what you did, your emotions...

At the beginning, it's best to record everything you can record in a day as a deliberate exercise and as a basic training.

Many people doubt that recording will waste time. The underlying meaning is actually to find a clever way to reflect without spending time, but in my opinion, don't overthink it and just work hard.

Why record truthfully? Because our brains may not be reliable, and our brains may fabricate facts on their own, which later become 'I thought'. In fact, it is not the truth. Memories can sometimes deceive people.

When we encounter situations that we cannot accept, if we are in pain, our brains tend to erase or cover up and rewrite a part of it to make ourselves feel comfortable.

Step 2: Reflection.

Gradually analyze a certain point or thing, such as why there is this emotion? Why unhappy, what happened? Why did it happen? What is my determination? Why do I have this determination? Is this judgment temporary or an inherent pattern? How to avoid?

Step 3: Refinement.

At the end of the review, refine it into an action guide to guide your actions.

Refining is simple, just form a sentence. At the end of the review, you need to find a sentence that you can use as your action guide, as your methodology, as your principles and values, and then put it into practice.

Refining is not easy, this sentence requires a triggering effect, which can effectively guide yourself in a scene. When you think of this sentence, it will make your behavior change.

Our actions and handling of things must have a set of guidance systems, a set of guidelines. We need to use these things to gradually regulate, intervene and adjust our own behavior, and use these things to reshape a different self.

These guidelines and guides are actually some so-called principles. Stephen Covey's Seven Habits are seven principles, and Inamori Kazuo's Six Improvements are also six principles.

But these principles belong to Stephen Covey and Inamori Kazuo, not yours. Although you agree with them, they may not necessarily guide your practice. You need to transform them into your own and have your own principles.

Just like Dalio pointed out in "Principles", "The most important thing is to summarize your own principles, preferably write them down, especially when you work with other people."

This refining step directly points to the principle, which is to produce the principles for our work and life. The standard for refining is: your own language, specific enough, one sentence, easy to remember, and useful.

2. What does a good review look like?

① A good review is first of all "over the movie"

"Over the movie" means to review the events that have taken place one by one. After a day is over, first go through the main experiences of the day, what happened today, how today passed, and you need to have a clear understanding of it, grasp a certain amount of material, clarify the facts, and then you can sort out the reasons.

② Review yourself

The review needs to point to yourself, if you review it back and forth, find other people's problems, and see other people's problems, it is not called review, it is called criticism conference, complaint conference, and Tucao conference.

So there is still one thing missing, which is self-criticism. There is a term called "reverse seeking for oneself, " which is the true meaning of the review.

③ Review for yourself to see

When you write a review, don't think about writing it for others to see, write it with this mentality, facing yourself.

4. Review your own pain.

The author of "Principles", Dalio, has a formula: Pain + Reflection = Progress. Without experiencing enough pain, without being deeply moved, reflection usually stays on the surface and will not be so profound.

So, when you experience pain, it is best to record the pain. Of course, this is not the best time for reflection, because it is difficult for you to stay clear-headed. It is best to review and reflect after the pain.

5. A good review will point to and accelerate action.

We determine whether a review is good or not, not by whether your review is well-written, but by whether you have taken corresponding actions and achieved corresponding results after the review. Review is not the goal, but a means to achieve the goal.

6. A good review requires constant questioning.

Reviewing also requires more questioning. What to question? Question your basic assumptions and judgment criteria.

This is the most difficult thing. First, you have to be able to see the principles and standards behind your behavior and decision-making, and second, you have to be able to question these principles and standards yourself. This is not a one-day job, but the most difficult part to break through in reviewing.

3. The three criteria for reviewing.

1) Can review.

After attending a training session, many people will ask themselves to review, but most of the actions they do are actually called review, going through what they have learned again, looking at what the teacher said, what exercises they did, or what touched them the most.

More of what they do is memorization or reinforcement of memory, from the perspective of review, they have only completed one part of the work - looking back.

However, this is not thorough enough, they need to see how they combine what they have learned with their work, how to land and apply it, so as to change their work efficiency and results. They also need to compare and contrast what they have learned and identify their own strengths and weaknesses, find the gap, and then have the opportunity to make up for the gap.

This is the ability to reflect.

2) Can reflect.

In addition to being able to reflect, you also need to be able to reflect. According to Stephen Covey's "Observe-Act" model, ideas determine behavior and behavior determines results. That is to say, "observation" determines "action", and "action" determines "results".

Reflection is to reverse from the result, to see what we did at the beginning, what actions we took, and then go to see the thoughts behind all our actions, why we did it this way, why we had these actions, what is the reason, what are our beliefs, assumptions, and thinking modes behind them.

For example, when guests come to your home, as a parent, you hope your daughter will share toys with the guests' children, but your child's behavior disappoints you greatly. She claims toys for herself and does not want to share at all. You initially tried reasoning with her, slowly turning to verbal threats, and eventually even hitting and scolding her, making the atmosphere at home tense and unpleasant.

Reversing from the result, what happened at home? It turns out you hit your child. Why do you hit your child? Because she didn't want to share, which you felt was very rude.

Going back to the level of "observation", you will find that the child did not cooperate, making you lose face in front of the guests. Sharing toys with others is your need, not your child's need.

Upon backwards consideration, you may find that you are hypocritical while your children are authentic; you may find that children must learn to possess before they can learn to share; you may find that your previous approach to children was problematic, as you allowed them to develop a habit of eating alone and not learning to share; you may find that you have also been like this, unwilling to give more when interacting with others and only taking, so children do not know what giving and sharing is, and so on.

Finally, you will definitely find many problems with yourself in this process, which is reflection, and we use the method of 'getting-observing-thinking' to trace backwards.

③ Reflection

Ordinary replays usually stop here at this point, but, in fact, higher-level replays require reflection.

With reflection, the problems that you reflect and think about will lead to real solutions, and your fixed mode can be adjusted, and your 'Trojan horse program' can be cleared.

Reflection is from practice, back to the heart, to see your own intentions, to remove bad intentions, maintain good intentions.

True growth comes from daily replays.

Whether a person can achieve success depends not only on action, but also on feedback behind the action. The daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly replay system is like a set of evaluation and feedback system that safeguards life and helps us correct our direction, avoid detours, and reach our destination smoothly.

1. Daily Replay

After each day, replay that day, ask yourself 'what did I achieve today?', 'how did I do today?', 'did I gain something today?', 'what did I learn today?', which is called daily replay.

When doing a daily replay, pay attention to the following points:

① Recording≈Replay

Recording helps you find feelings and review the process, like a blurred picture gradually becoming clear.

② Set a fixed replay time

The benefit of fixing something is that you will automatically do it at a certain point. Just like eating at a certain point, you will form a fixed rhythm.

③ Replay Diary vs. Replay Logs

Some people can write replay logs in 5 minutes, while others may take 1 or 2 hours to complete daily replays. The former is called a replay log, and the latter is called a replay diary. Replay logs are mainly in list form, listing some key points, and will not be long and verbose, which is equivalent to a summary that is convenient for you to use in your busy work rhythm.

④ Standardized Replay

Replay is action-oriented, that is to say, replay is for better action. If you do not take action after replay, then the replay loses its meaning. Therefore, we should frequently standardize, jump out from the daily life, to see what our goals are, and to see how our goals are achieved.

To benchmark and review, you need to find a principle and standard for comparison. Many people use Inamori Kazuo's Sixfold Path and Stephen Covey's Seven Habits as a reference standard.

"Sixfold Path": 1. Make efforts no less than anyone else; 2. Be humble and guard against arrogance; 3. Reflect every day; 4. Be grateful to be alive; 5. Do good deeds and think of others; 6. Don't be troubled by emotions.

"Seven Habits": 1. Be proactive; 2. Begin with the end in mind; 3. Put first things first; 4. Think win-win; 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood; 6. Synergize; 7. Sharpen the saw.

Every day, when you review, you can refer to these principles and standards to see how well you have implemented them, where the gaps are, how to adjust, what specific actions to take next, and so on.

2. Weekly Review

Compared with daily trading, the span of weekly trading is larger. Weekly trading is equivalent to a partial panoramic view, looking at the overall situation within a larger time frame, exiting the picture to see the commonalities.

Based on daily review, the following aspects can be added to the weekly review:

① Review of major events this week.

During this past week, what major events occurred, what significant gains were made, what important progress was made, who met up with whom, what important conversations were had, what problems and challenges were encountered, and what was the progress of the work project, and so on.

② Summary of work experience.

Many things happened this week and you have also summarized many principles, methodologies, and action guidance. How to solve a certain problem, how to hold a certain meeting, how to judge and choose a certain type of thing, you always have your own countermeasures. So what are they? From the practice of this week, are they effective enough and do they need further adjustment?

Integrating them together, even picking out the most important ones for you, giving them further refinement and updating, and then adding them to your summary of work experience. These are your treasure trove of wisdom, and they are the guidance for your further actions.

③ Sorting out values.

Humans are creatures of meaning, and things are only a carrier for people to pursue meaning. If we are simply caught up in the pursuit of things, we will gradually lose the motivation to move forward.

Therefore, in the weekly review, we can review and sort out our own mission, vision, and values.

The following questions can help you think better about these topics:

Why are you alive?

What career do you want to engage in or accomplish?

What are you most interested in and passionate about?

What is most important to you?

What are your strengths and core competencies?

Do you enjoy what you are doing now? How can you improve?

Who are your customers or service objects? What do you want to bring to them?

4. Next week's plan

According to the overall progress of last week, arrange the main work plan for next week. You can decompose what you need to do according to your role, goals, and tasks, and prioritize the most important things without being too greedy or seeking for too much.

5. Update the principle library

In our daily review, we extract many principles, but whether these principles are effective and can be implemented needs to be reviewed and updated regularly. Some principles need to be added, some need to be deleted, some need to be expressed in new language, and some principles are repeated and need to be merged into similar items.

In addition, there are differences in the size of principles. Big principles may only be a few, and they are related to life strategies and the fundamental way of living; small principles may have many, and there may even be several principles for doing one thing, involving more microscopic levels.

Which principles are your big principles, your underlying operating system, and you need to spend time figuring out and determining. When updating the principle system, an important principle is to 'remember and use' it.

3. Monthly review

Monthly review serves as a connector, connecting daily review and weekly review on one side and annual review on the other. Therefore, the result of monthly review will be a signal, reminding us of potential risks that need to be followed up and adjusted in time.

The main contents of monthly review include the following aspects:

1. Sort out the major events of the month

2. Find out the best thing and the most urgent thing to improve

In the past month, what is the best thing you have done, that you are most satisfied with and has the greatest harvest? What surprises or experiences did this thing bring you? How did you achieve it? You can break down the best thing you have done into key points, methods, principles and routines.

On the contrary, you also need to find out the most urgent thing to improve, why it is this thing, and where do your concerns lie? What might be the impact of this thing on you?

3. Find the biggest gain

4. Review the progress of various habits

5. Review your emotional and inner states

6. Review the progress of annual goals

7. Sorting out problems and risks What problems have been exposed in the past month? Are these new problems or old ones? Why do they appear or continue to exist? What inherent patterns do you see in these problems, and what are the potential risks these patterns bring to you? In order to solve these problems and risks, what efforts have been made in the past, and what efforts have been made in the past month? What could be the result if these problems and risks are not solved? 8. Find a point of force Based on your performance in the past month, what are your strengths and where should your focus be? 9. Seek feedback Find someone you trust and who is capable of good advice to be your coach, and seek their feedback in a relatively safe environment. 10. Develop an action plan What are the key tasks for next month? Where is the most likely breakthrough point? Which area needs to be strengthened and which area needs to be temporarily slowed down? What new projects can be launched or stopped? Based on this, list a preliminary action plan.

What problems have been exposed in the past month? Are these new problems or old ones? Why do they appear or continue to exist? What inherent patterns do you see in these problems, and what are the potential risks these patterns bring to you? In order to solve these problems and risks, what efforts have been made in the past, and what efforts have been made in the past month? What could be the result if these problems and risks are not solved?

What efforts have been made in the past to solve these problems and risks? What efforts have been made in the past month? What could the consequences be if these problems and risks are not solved?

8. Find a point of force Based on your performance in the past month, what are your strengths and where should your focus be?

Based on your performance in the past month, what are your strengths and where should your focus be?

9. Seek feedback Find someone you trust and who is capable of good advice to be your coach, and seek their feedback in a relatively safe environment.

Find someone you trust and who is capable of good advice to be your coach, and seek their feedback in a relatively safe environment.

10. Develop an action plan What are the key tasks for next month? Where is the most likely breakthrough point? Which area needs to be strengthened and which area needs to be temporarily slowed down? What new projects can be launched or stopped? Based on this, list a preliminary action plan.

What are the key tasks for next month? Where is the most likely breakthrough point? Which area needs to be strengthened and which area needs to be temporarily slowed down? What new projects can be launched or stopped? Based on this, list a preliminary action plan.

4. Annual retrospective To find your life positioning and focal points, and develop a new annual strategy and action plan, you need to conduct a full-scale review of the past, present, and future. This process sometimes requires the use of some questions to help us think and better sort out our thoughts. What are your key achievements and events over the past year? What is the most profound/painful experience or insight you have gained over the past year? (A single point is enough) How can this insight and experience guide your future actions? If today is January 1st of the past year, how would you spend the year? (such as how would you handle certain things) Tell me about your past: Where were you born, where did you grow up, where did you go to school, where did you work, and what were your key growth events and experiences over the years? Return to your ultimate goal and envision what you would do and where you would be when you have everything you want. Finally, if today were the last day of your life on this earth, what would your last words be? Or, what legacy will you leave behind for this world?

To find your life positioning and focal points, and develop a new annual strategy and action plan, you need to conduct a full-scale review of the past, present, and future. This process sometimes requires the use of some questions to help us think and better sort out our thoughts.

This process sometimes requires the use of some questions to help us think and better sort out our thoughts.

What are your key achievements and events over the past year?

What is the most profound/painful experience or insight you have gained over the past year? (A single point is enough) How can this insight and experience guide your future actions?

If today is January 1st of the past year, how would you spend the year? (such as how would you handle certain things)

Tell me about your past: Where were you born, where did you grow up, where did you go to school, where did you work, and what were your key growth events and experiences over the years?

Return to your ultimate goal and envision what you would do and where you would be when you have everything you want.

Finally, if today were the last day of your life on this earth, what would your last words be? Or, what legacy will you leave behind for this world?

What are your strengths?

What is the most important thing you will do in the coming year?

Who are your users? What are their struggles and pains? What will be your core product? Why do they want to buy your product or service?

Summary

In the book "The Little Prince", it is said that only with the heart can one see clearly, what is truly important is invisible to the eye.

Through continuous reflection, constantly looking at oneself and life, our ability to see will gradually improve. This improvement relies not on the accumulation of knowledge or broad insights, but on the strengthening of the heart.

Only with a clear mind can one see clearly. People's perceptiveness and insight do not come from the eyes, but from the heart.

Edited by Jeffrey