I used to work on multiple projects in a tech company. Every quarter, we took a day to plan our goals and what we need to do to achieve them. We always practiced this exercise called the “start stop continue retrospective“. It was a brainstorming activity that required us to assess what we need to start doing, what we need to stop doing, and what do we need to continue doing in order to reach our goal.
I imagine that this has been around for quite some time since my team had been using the technique before I joined the company in 2011. And it has recently been popularized by Netflix as a way of providing feedback to their colleagues.
Typically, the start stop continue review is a group effort. For Netflix, they used this template to provide feedback. In some companies, they use the process in their project planning.
However, I feel that this technique would be good journaling template when you are assessing yourself too. Of course, there are other ways to go about it – but this technique might help you the way it did with me.
How does the Start Stop Continue exercise work?
It’s pretty simple. You can go about it two ways: general or specific. This exercise is meant to be done repeatedly and as frequently as you can. Take me for example, I try to evaluate myself every month so that I would be able to check in on myself.
You can treat each module as a “bucket”. List at least 3 things that you want to: start, stop, and continue doing.
The content on this list is pretty broad and mixed with both personal goals and business goals.
If it’s goal-specific, you will answer the following questions:
- What should you start doing to achieve this goal?
- What should you stop doing? If you failed to do something to achieve this goal, what is it?
- Is there an activity that has been working for you to achieve this goal? What will you continue doing?
Let’s say your goal is “lose 10 pounds by the end of the month”.
- Start: Exercising
- Stop: Eating junk food at night
- Continue: Diet (if this is a new goal, you can leave it blank)
Why use this template?
Sometimes we just need structure! It helps to have a guide because it can help us visualize our thoughts.
| Start | Stop | Continue |
|---|---|---|
| What do you want to start doing? | Things that you will stop doing next month | What worked this month and will I continue it next month? |
| 1. 2. 3. | 1. 2. 3. | 1. 2. 3. |
Where to Use It?
Anywhere. You can just write this on a post it or a piece of paper.
If you’re already using a bullet journal, then create a collection page for it and simply list down the things you want to start, stop, and continue.
If you journal everyday longhand, then you can keep this template in mind as you write your pages. I find this useful when I have nothing to write in my morning pages. Because I use this, I’m able to quickly brainstorm the things I need to do to achieve the things on my start stop continue list.
If you want a guide, you can download the printable here!
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