Summary
- It is important to take the time for self-reflection personally.
- While techniques like KPT are often seen as team activities, it's equally beneficial to perform self-reflection individually.
- The key points for individual retrospection are:
- 1: Regularly recording logs in a designated format
- 2: Routinely reviewing those recorded logs
- While the format can pose a challenge, I will introduce three, with the latter ones being more effective:
- 1: KPT
- 2: YWT
- 3: 4Y
Background
The Importance of Personal Retrospection
Do you regularly practice retrospection? If you're part of an agile team, you probably do this routinely.
But what about at an individual level?
Since you know yourself best, it's ideal for you to conduct your retrospection. Understanding its importance in an agile context, there's no reason to skip it at a personal level.
How to Achieve This?
This brings us to a significant question.
How should one conduct self-directed retrospection?
Adhering strictly to agile frameworks is excessive, and using closed systems like GTD® can be cumbersome. Crafting a new method from scratch seems even more daunting.
Having observed many individuals as a Knowledge Architect, I've noted that people tend to procrastinate and steer clear of complexity. This holds especially true on a personal level. The issue is not that individuals can't, but they won't. We need a fundamentally simple and sustainable approach.
An Overview of Retrospection
For those unfamiliar with retrospection, here's a brief explanation.
In Japan, retrospection is a well-known concept for practically everyone, though that's not necessarily the case in other countries. Engineers familiar with agile methods may have encountered it, but it may not be ingrained as a lifestyle practice. Hence, here's a quick overview.
What is Retrospection?
Retrospection involves daily logging and periodically (or sporadically) reviewing these logs to gain insights.
The requirements are as follows:
- Regularly maintain logs
- Derive insights from reviewing these logs
For example, you can create a "private thought channel" on Slack to post ideas like on X. Review these posts weekly, perhaps every Sunday. What you gain from reviewing them is entirely up to you. You may spot pending tasks or mine for new ideas and actions you want to explore in the upcoming week. Alternatively, you might decide on one thing to pursue and one to discard.
Likewise, the log format is flexible. You can jot down entries as casually as in a diary or blog, or adopt a more structured format like you would for work.
Benefits of Retrospection
The primary benefit of retrospection is the opportunity to engage in "explicit thinking" based on recorded data.
As humans, we're inherently lazy and perpetually busy, rarely taking the time to reflect. Additionally, memory isn't reliable, so even when we do pause to think, it's often not productive. The only way to counteract this is to write things down properly and review them periodically.
Optimal Conditions for Individual Retrospection
Here are three guidelines to keep in mind:
- 1: Pre-define a format you can easily fill in
- 2: Ensure the process is as hassle-free as jotting down notes locally or posting on social media
- 3: Keep records in plain text for quick and easy review later
In essence, a plain-text format that is both easy to understand and manage while also being fun to maintain daily is ideal.
Anything less structured might not sustain the practice, while anything more complicated risks becoming a rigid routine that ultimately fails. For engineers, this level of simplicity is likely optimal.
※ That said, some individuals may struggle even with this approach due to personal traits or tendencies. If so, consider giving up or developing a system to receive reminders from AI tools…
Retrospection Formats
Let's dive into the main topic. I'll introduce three formats suited for individual retrospection.
1: KPT
KPT stands for Keep, Problem, and Try.
Under Keep, note down "things that went well" or "things to continue." It's a positive focus. For Problem, list the "issues" or "things you're continuing but want to stop." This is a negative focus. In Try, identify "things you want to try next" in response to Keep and Problem. This is action-focused.
Originally, KPT was a team exercise often done with sticky notes. Participants fill out sheets like the one below, sticking comments in the appropriate areas. This can be done with digital whiteboards like Miro or analog methods.
+---------+---------+
| | |
| Keep | |
| | |
|---------| Try |
| | |
| Problem | |
| | |
+---------+---------+
In this context, you'll conduct KPT solo. And since we're using plain text, we won't need sticky notes. Here's an example format:
# 2025-11-25
## K
- Keep-1
- Keep-2
- ...
## P
- Problem-1
- Problem-2
- ...
## T
- Try-1
- Try-2
- ...
However, KPT can be quite cumbersome to use. Here are two main reasons why:
- The term Keep inherently implies a sense of continuation, which makes it tricky to document. Typically, we don't give much thought to what we'd like to continue. It's a difficult task!
- While Problem tends to generate vigorous discussions, it often devolves into a negative venting session, which is counterproductive and disheartening. Moreover, negative issues tend to persist over the long term, leading to a cluttered list of grievances.
2: YWT
In response to the challenges of KPT, YWT was developed. YWT stands for:
| Letter | Japanese | English |
|---|---|---|
| Y | Yatta (やった) | Did |
| W | Wakatta (わかった) | Learned |
| T | Tsugi-ni-yaru (次にやる) | Next |
※ This acronym originally stems from Japanese terms, so in English, it might be rephrased as DLN. We'll use YWT throughout this article.
Under Y (Did), record what you've done. Each Did can have one or several Learned (W) observations attached to it.
As you annotate Did and Learned, what you want to do next will naturally emerge. These become T (Next).
Here's a sample format:
# 2025-11-25
## YW
- Did-1
- Learned-1-1
- Learned-1-2
- ...
- Did-2
- Learned-2-1
- ...
- Did-3
- ...
## T
- Next-1
- Next-2
- ...
While Markdown isn't mandatory, using bullet points helps in organizing thoughts such that each "Did" is clearly tied to its "Learned" observations, making it easier to draft and review.
The main benefit of YWT is that it begins with "Did," making it immensely easier to document. Just listing your completed tasks can naturally lead to insights and subsequent actions.
While YWT is exceptionally effective for personal retrospection, it can become stale and monotonous over time. Thus, having a less predictable format could be beneficial.
3: 4Y
To counteract the repetitiveness of YWT, I've developed a new format: 4Y. 4Y stands for:
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| Yaru (やる) | Will do |
| Yatta (やった) | Did |
| Yokatta (よかった) | Good |
| Yokunakatta (よくなかった) | Not good |
※ This acronym is also derived from Japanese, so in English, it could possibly be referred to as WDGN. For the purpose of this article, we'll maintain the 4Y terminology.
In the "Will do" section, list what you plan to do. This can include tasks, ideas, must-dos, etc. Essentially, think of it as a rough to-do list. Under "Did," document what you've accomplished. Together, these sections encompass both your future plans and past actions. Feel free to jot them down spontaneously or summarise them later.
Once you've accumulated entries under "Will do" and "Did," you can then assess what went well and what didn't. Use "Good" to note down positives and "Not good" for areas that could improve. Importantly, this implies that these are neither inherently "bad" nor failures; they simply haven't met expectations.
Here's a format, although you're free to modify it as desired. While Markdown is showcased here, any format will suffice, provided it suits your reading and writing preference.
# 2025-11-25
## Will do
- Upcoming tasks
- Upcoming tasks
- ...
## Did
- Tasks completed today
- Tasks completed today
- ...
## Good
- Positive aspects of today
- Positive aspects of today
- ...
## Not good
- Less favorable aspects of today
- Less favorable aspects of today
- ...
The primary advantage of 4Y, like YWT, is that it starts with completed tasks, making it significantly easier to draft. Moreover, reflecting on "Good" and "Not good" prompts you to evaluate experiences, preventing monotony. While there are no absolute answers to what constitutes "good" or "not good," it's about your individual interpretation. Naturally, without recordings of "Will do" and "Did," insights might not readily surface.
Although 4Y may present more complexity initially, it fosters sustained practice by warding off boredom. If formulating "Good" and "Not good" becomes tiresome or unnecessary, reverting to the simpler YWT format may be advisable.
Conclusion
This article focused on "personal retrospection," where individuals engage in self-reflection and covered three different formats.
You're likely already recognizing the value of retrospection in professional settings, despite it seeming tedious at an individual level. Embracing a simple format in plain text for casual use affirms its feasibility. Even on a personal level, you can harness the benefits of retrospection, which can be an enjoyable activity in its own right. Give it a try.
Until next time.
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