Self-reflection questions to answer in your journal
Twenty-four questions to know yourself better, grouped by theme, and one way to use them: answer today and again in a few months to see what changed.
2 min read
In this piece
A good self-reflection question isn't one with a nice answer. It's one where what comes out surprises you a little. And a journal is the right place for them for a reason almost nobody uses: you can answer the same question again, months later, and compare.
How to use these questions
- One at a time. Answering ten in a row turns into a survey and the answers get shallow.
- Answer with an example, not an adjective. “I'm patient” says little; the last time you were patient says a lot.
- Don't polish the answer to look better. Nobody will read it.
- Write the date and come back to the same question in three or six months.
About your everyday life
- At what time of day do you feel most like yourself?
- What do you do when nobody is asking anything of you?
- What task do you always put off, and what does it have in common with the others you put off?
- What tires you more than it should?
- What gives you energy even when you're tired?
About people
- Who do you leave a conversation with feeling lighter than when you started?
- Who do you miss and haven't talked to in a while?
- What kind of person annoys you right away, and what does that say about you?
- Who do you call when something goes well? And when it goes wrong?
- Which conversation are you avoiding?
About what matters to you
- What won't you give up, even when it costs you?
- What advice do you give others and not follow yourself?
- What would you do differently if nobody would ever find out?
- What compliment did you get that you never forgot?
- What are you proud of and almost never mention?
About fear and change
- What are you afraid of finding out about yourself?
- Which of your opinions has changed in the last few years?
- What do you still do only because you always have?
- When was the last time you did something for the first time?
About the future
- What would a good ordinary Tuesday look like a year from now?
- What do you want to have stopped doing by then?
- If you could send a message to yourself five years from now, what would you ask?
- What do you want to remember about this stage of your life?
- Which question on this list did you skip, and why?
The part worth the most: answering again
The first answer shows how you see yourself today. The second, months later, shows what changed without you noticing. That's why it's worth keeping your answers somewhere you can find them again, with a date, and not on a loose sheet of paper.
If writing tires you, answer out loud. Spoken, the first answer tends to come out more honest, before there's time to polish the sentence.