Hello friend,

With just 18 days left in 2025, now is a great time to reflect on the year and think about next year.

To help, this weekend's digest has an annual review flavour. I am sharing several doodles, articles, and podcasts from my archive to support your reflection and goal-setting. I hope you'll consider running some personal experiments alongside your goals next year and see how that feels (if you haven't read Tiny Experiments for inspiration yet, now would be a great time).

I also have some content from other fantastic creators to help you prepare for 2026.

Here's your digest...

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✏️ Doodle Essays

First up, I've got four doodle essays for you with that annual review flavour:

• ​The Fresh Start Effect: Why January Can Be a Great Time for Change​
• ​A Short Guide to Choosing Your Word for the Year ​
• ​Traditional Linear Goal-Setting Versus Experimental Self-Development​
• ​How to do an Annual Review, Set Goals, and Plan Experiments​

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🎧 Voice Notes

Here are those voice notes:

• ​Choosing Your Word of the Year​
• ​Reflect and Reset With an Annual Review ​

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🧰 Tools

I've just updated my office tools page if you fancy a look. This is a list of what's in my home office (including links to where I purchased the items). There's everything from my favourite yoga mat and candles, to LEGO kits, shelving, mics, and a rather nifty staple-free stapler. If you are more interested in tech tools, there's page for that too.

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📚 Read

Now for some articles from other creators:

• If you're looking for creative journalling prompts for the end of the year, these from Work Brighter are fun.
• I enjoyed this article from Chris Guillebeau's archives about his annual review process.
• If you enjoy Susannah Conway's work, you'll love her free Unravel Your Year workbook.

If you're curious about the books I'm reading, you can see my library in Tana here: Library. You might notice it looks a little different. I publish my library from Tana, my note-taking tool. This new version of my library looks more like the view I see in Tana.

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📺 Watch

Last weekend, I set up my 2026 budget spreadsheet (admittedly, not the most exciting weekend project, but I am thrilled with the results).

Previously, I have purchased templates from Hayes Creatives; this year, I decided to build my own in Google Sheets. I'm not an advanced spreadsheet builder, so I followed the videos below from Laura at You Are Loved Templates. Now I have a spreadsheet I am excited to use (and know how to fix it when I break it). I learned a great deal about Google Sheets from the building process.

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Incidentally, if you would prefer to buy pre-made templates, Laura has an online store for that. I also recommend Hayes Creatives. If you prefer Excel to Google Sheets, hop over to Etsy, and you will find lots of aesthetic Excel budget templates there.

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🎧 Listen

I'm taking lessons from this episode of the Liz Earle Wellbeing Show into the new year: Future-Proof Your Health in 2026 with Dr Ayan Panja.

I listen to podcasts in the Snipd app, but you can find shows and episodes I recommend on your preferred podcast platform. Use my referral link to get a month of Snipd Premium for free.

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That's all from me today. Have a great week, and I will be in touch again next weekend.

Best wishes,

Martine

P.S. If you want to start a journalling habit next year, or are considering Dry January, you can access helpful (free) resources in my online shop.

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