Free tool
Reflection Starters
Twenty-five questions for the moments worth thinking about. All of them are on this page. The PDF is there if you want to keep it.
Reflection goes wrong in two directions. Either it turns into a model with five stages that nobody finishes, or it stays at "that went fine" and you learn nothing. What sits in between is one good question at the right moment.
These twenty-five are grouped by moment, not by theme, because the moment is what you actually recognise. You do not think "I need a growth question". You think "that meeting was strange and I do not know why yet".
Use one at a time. Write three lines, not three pages. An honest short answer beats a thorough one you never write.
After taking action
Right after a meeting, a presentation, a decision, a conversation that mattered.
- What motivated me to act the way I did?
- How did it feel to take that action?
- What result did I hope for, and what actually happened?
- What did I avoid doing, and why?
- Who else was affected by this, and would they describe it the way I just did?
In moments of doubt
When you are stuck between doing it and not doing it.
- What fear or belief is underneath this hesitation?
- Have I faced something like this before, and what helped me then?
- If I trusted myself fully, what would I do now?
- What am I telling myself right now that I would not say out loud?
- What is the smallest step I could take that I would not regret?
Reflecting on growth
Once a month, or at the end of a project.
- What do I handle differently now than I did six months ago?
- What is one thing I have outgrown?
- Where do I already see signs of progress?
- What feedback did I once resist that I now agree with?
- What am I still doing out of habit rather than choice?
When facing feedback
In the hour after someone told you something you did not want to hear.
- What part of this feedback feels true?
- What is my first reaction, and what might be behind it?
- How can this feedback help me grow?
- What did the other person risk by telling me this?
- What would I want to hear if I were in their position?
Before a challenge
The evening before, or ten minutes before you walk in.
- What strengths can I bring into this moment?
- What would it mean to show up fully here?
- What do I want to learn, regardless of the outcome?
- What am I assuming about the other people in the room?
- How will I know afterwards whether this went well?
How people use these
Coaches and teachers use them as opening questions in a session, so the conversation starts somewhere real instead of with "how are things going". Teams use one per retrospective. On your own, the simplest version is one question at the end of a week, written in whatever you already use for notes.
You do not need all twenty-five. Most people end up with four or five they return to.
Want the PDF?
All twenty-five questions on one page, laid out to print or keep on your phone. Leave your email and it lands in your inbox.
One email with the PDF, and the occasional note when there is something worth reading. Unsubscribe whenever.
If you want to go further
The Reflection GPTs take the same idea and keep asking. They walk you through a full reflection method instead of handing you one question. And if you teach, the education page covers how this works with students and teaching teams.