A poem to reflection

Oh Reflection, 

You are a friend of mine. 

Even when I resist doing you, 

I’m always incredibly happy that I did. 

Fin

OK, I’m not a poet but I do love me some reflection. I’m writing this after finishing up reflecting on the month of September. 

The Sprouted Reflection Booklets are guided reflection journals designed to help you look back on each month, recognize what mattered, learn from your experiences, and plan for the months ahead. The 2027 edition includes monthly, quarterly, and year-end reflection questions, along with space for notes, memories, and planning.

But these booklets didn't start out as standalone products. They've gone through quite a few iterations over the years, and their story is closely tied to the reason I started building reflection into Sprouted Planners in the first place.

Why Reflection Became One of the Pillars of Sprouted Planner

The Sprouted Planner reflections have gone through many iterations over the years but they have always been there because they are part of the Sprouted Planner pillars. 

When I was going through my hardest season yet, I had a planner that did not serve me well at that time, with the exception of reflection. That planner had monthly reflection questions that I decided I would indeed fill out, even though I lacked some serious time and energy to do them. 

I could not be more grateful for doing this practice during that time. While self reflecting does have some serious science to back up its greatness (that’s for a different blog),here’s what it meant to me: 

1. It helped me remember. We live life so fast and distracted, especially during the hard seasons, that it can feel like we miss out on it. It’s almost like I got to live it out twice during my remembering of it.
   
   

2. It honored my lived life. These were the first years of my daughter’s life, and the last years of my dad’s life. I was able to honor the time I got to spend with them in these critical stages.
   
   

3. It helped me be more intentional about my future time. Answering a question like, “are you happy with how you spent your time?” will help you decide how you want to spend your precious time in the future. 

The lessons I learned in this time are what became the pillars of Sprouted Planner: Intention, Reflection, People, and Simplicity. 

How Reflection Questions Have Evolved in Sprouted Planners

The reflection questions have changed and morphed throughout every planner. 

2021–2022: The Original Monthly Reflection Pages

The first reflection pages and questions in Sprouted Planners were presented as a two-page spread with the following questions: 

1. Review your calendar from the month. What stands out as memorable. 

2. Did you live out your intentions this month?

3. What am I proud of? What did I struggle with?

4. This question changed every month.

5. This question changed every month. 

6. What are you listening to? 

7. What are you watching?

8. What are you reading?

9. What are you looking forward to?

10. What are you feeling challenged or worried by?

Many of the questions remain today! 

2023–2024: Making Reflections Easier to Keep

The reflection questions remained on 2 pages but instead of a spread, I made them on one sheet of paper, front and back. This way, people could tear out that sheet and keep their reflections, even if they didn’t keep their planner. OR if they didn’t reflect at all, they could tear out the questions and recycle that page. 

The questions, more or less, remained the same. 

2025: Expanding the Reflection Experience

The reflection section doubled in size! It covered 4 pages instead of two. The cadence went a little something like this:

• Page 1: Reflections on the month

• Page 2: Currents & favorites from the month

• Page 3: Intentions from the month: what were they and how’d it go? What’s working and what’s not working?

• Page 4: Looking forward [to the month ahead]

Obviously, this took up a lot of real estate in the planners, and doubled the time it takes to reflect on the month. But I liked the idea of checking in on your intentions, along with a page dedicated to reflecting forward. 

2026: Moving Reflections Into Separate Booklets

Big change! Given how much real estate these 4 pages took up, I decided to move the reflections out of the planners and put them into their own booklets. These booklets were included in the sale of the Daily, Weekly, and Hourly Planners. They could not be sold separately. 

The questions and format remained largely the same as the 2025 reflections. Four pages of questions, with 3 of them looking back and 1 of them looking forward. 

When I sent out my annual survey to my customers, the answers were split almost perfectly into thirds:

1. Loved having their monthly reflection in their own booklets separate from their planners. 

2. Hated it and wished it was back in the planners. 

3. Do not reflect so they discarded/donated/gifted their reflection booklets.

Interesting. 

From a logistics standpoint, the separate booklets were a fulfillment nightmare since they did not have their own SKU. The way we had to set it up on the back end was all wonky, and it was just a mess. 

Also, from a cost perspective, you are telling me that two-thirds of my customers either hated this setup or didn’t use it at all? What a waste of money. 

Back to the drawing board, which is where I landed with our latest iteration. 

2027: Bringing Reflections Back to Planners—and Expanding the Booklets

Two big changes are happening with reflections in the 2027 planner. It’s the best win-win-win solution I could think of. 

What's New in the 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklets?

The 2027 edition makes room for two different ways to reflect.

First, monthly reflection questions are back inside the Sprouted Signature Planners.  The Daily,  Weekly,  and Hourly  Planners each include a condensed, one-page monthly reflection with six questions and a separate two-page year-end reflection with four questions.

Second, the Reflection Booklets  are now a standalone product. They're sold separately and include six pages for each monthly reflection, quarterly reflection and planning spreads, and a six-page year-end reflection section..

This way, you can choose the amount of reflection that works for you.If you want a quick monthly check-in, use the pages inside your planner. If you want more space to remember, reflect, and plan ahead, the Reflection Booklet offers a deeper experience.

Let’s deep dive into what the reflecting experience will be this year. 

What Reflection Pages Are Included in the 2027 Sprouted Planners?

Monthly Reflection Questions

This year, a condensed version of the monthly reflections have been added back into Signature Sprouted Planners (Daily, Weekly, Hourly). It will be one page with 6 of the same questions:

1. What stands out as memorable?

2. What were your wins or things you’re proud of?

3. What was hard/challenging?

4. Are you satisfied with how you spent your time?

5. What was occupying your senses?

6. What and/or who gets your focus next month? 

Year-End Reflection Questions

There is also a two-page year-end reflection included in the planners, with 4 questions:

1. Review your monthly reflections over the last year. What stands out as memorable and/or significant?

2. What am I most proud of? Why?

3. What challenged me the most? What was hard about it?

4. What was my biggest lesson? How am I taking it into next year?

How to Remove the Monthly Reflection Page if You Don't Use It

These monthly reflections will always be on the right-hand side of the spread, with a dot grid page on the left-hand side. I’m telling you this for a reason…

…if you flip the monthly reflection page over, there’s another dot grid page on the back side of the reflections (which is now the new left-hand side). On the right-hand side is the monthly dashboard. 

If you don’t want to do the monthly reflection questions, you can simply tear that page out, and you will still have your dot grid page opposite your monthly dashboard. WHEW. Maybe a visual will be better.

What’s Inside the 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklets?

Monthly Reflection Pages

Each month has 6 pages devoted to it. The layout of the pages is the same, and there are 2 questions that change each month. 

Pages 1-2

Page one has a calendar for that month, with a dot grid underneath it. You can use this calendar however you like, but I intended it as a space to write down the things you may want to reference back to in years to come. If you keep your Reflection Booklet and not your planner, this can be the thing you grab to see who’s house you were at for Thanksgiving in 2027. 

(As a married child of divorce, we’re rotating houses/families for the holidays more than a rotisserie chicken, and I can never remember where I was the year before.)

In the dot grid space below, I like to write a quick paragraph about the month as a whole. Was it crazy? Slow? Was everyone sick? How was the weather? What world event happened this time? 

Page two has the same prompt that has been there from the beginning: Review your calendar from the month. What stands out as memorable?Followed by lines the rest of the page. I literally bullet-point out things that stood out as memorable to me. Bonus points that these are easy to review at the end of your year, too. 

Pages 3-4

Page three has 4 questions that remain the same every month: 

1. What am I proud of?

2. What did I struggle with?

3. What brought me joy?

4. What did I spend too little or too much time on?

Page four has one repeat question and one changing question, along with a fun little table about what you were up to that month. 

1. I have a lot to be thankful for. Here are 3 of them from the month. 

2. Changes each month. 

3. This month I was…

1. Reading

2. Watching

3. Listening to

4. Making/Tending

5. Loving

Pages 5-6

Page five has us looking forward to next month. There are 2 unchanging questions, 1 changing question, and one table to help with an upcoming focus, which is the one of 2 nods/connections to Sprouted Planner prep pages, but can absolutely hold its own without a planner. 

1. What am I looking forward to?

2. What am I feeling challenged or worried by?

3. Changes each month.

4. Upcoming focus…

1. Values

2. People

3. Year List

4. Seasonal

5. What’s the priority?

Page six is a blank/lined page. You can use this as extra space for extra long answers. You could use it to set goals for the month. You can add pictures here. You could ask & answer your own reflection question. Whatever!

Quarterly Reflection and Planning Pages

After each quarter, you’ll find a 2-page spread with quarterly reflection questions on one side, and a dashboard on the other. The dashboard is the same layout as the monthly dashboard in the planners. 

The left-hand side of this spread has the same 4 questions each quarter:

1. What am I proud of? What were my wins?

2. What was hard? What made me feel stressed and drained?

3. What did I learn?

4. Who did I show up for? Who showed up for me? 

The right-hand side holds the dashboard for the upcoming quarter. When I designed this space, I first started with questions, but ultimately decided to make it wide open to accommodate people in different seasons of life. 

There is a header bar for themes for focuses that quarter. Or a cute washi tape strip. 

There are 24 lines down the left-side of the page. On the right-side of the page is a long, blank box (approximately 4x2 inches). Underneath that is a 7x7 grid (7mm). Use these spaces however your heart desires. Significant events, tracking, goals, decorations. 

A quick note about the quarterly pages: The booklet is designed around the 2027 calendar year, so it doesn't include reflection questions for Q4 2026 or a planning dashboard for Q1 2028. If you’re starting the booklet before January 2027 or hoping to plan beyond December 2027, keep that in mind.

Year-End Reflection Questions

The 2027 Sprouted Planner Reflection Booklets include six pages for year-end reflection. Many of these questions reference the monthly questions so you can easily see themes and what mattered most to you throughout the year. 

Pages 1-2

These two pages are devoted to writing down what stood out the most to you this year. The prompt is: Review the calendar and reflections from each month over the last year. What stands out as memorable and/or significant. 

Remember how I said I bullet point these each month? This is where I read through all those bullet points and decide what was most significant for me for the year. I then list those things as bullet points in this section. If you’d rather write out sentences and paragraphs, go for it! 

There are also 3 extra lined pages in the back(aka, directly after the year-end reflection questions) if you need more writing room. These are technically separate from the six pages of year-end reflection, so you could use them at any point throughout the year. 

Pages 3-4 

These are straight-up questions with lines underneath to answer. Here are the questions:

1. What am I most proud of? Why?

2. What challenged me the most? Why?

3. What brought me the most joy? Why?

4. Did your hopes for the year come to fruition? Write about it.*

5. How am I different from this time last year?

* This is the only other place that ties back to Sprouted Planners. In those prep pages, you write about your hopes for the year ahead. However, this question is still easily answerable without having done this.I think we all have a notion/hope of how the year will go deep in our heart that we remember, even if we didn’t write it down.

Pages 5-6

Page five has two questions that directly tie back to the monthly reflections.I LOVE answering these questions. It’s incredibly insightful. The third question can easily tie back to the monthly question, too. 

1. In each monthly reflection, you listed what you struggled with. Are there recurring themes? Any personal insight?

2. Review what you were feeling challenged or worried by from each month’s “Looking forward.” How did it all turn out? 

3. On average, did you spend your time on what matters most to you (your core values)? Write about it. 

Page six has our favorite from the year. I love these fun “rapid fire” questions. This year, what was your favorite:

• Movie

• Show

• Book

• Song

• Podcast/Audio

• Thing you made

• Thing you ate or drank

• Place

• Memory

• Thing that made you laugh

• Adventure

• Purchase

Can You Use the Sprouted Reflection Booklet Without a Sprouted Planner?

Yes! The 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklet can be used on its own or alongside any planner. You don't need to own a Sprouted Planner to answer the reflection questions, record memories, or use the quarterly planning pages.

As you read above, I’ve slightly redesigned the Reflection Booklets (and beefed them up) so it can stand its own without a Sprouted Planner. If you use a different planner (how dare you), you can absolutely use this booklet with it with zero problemo. 

Alternatively, you can add it to your Sprouted Planner as well. Some of the questions are redundant, but you’ll have a far more robust reflecting experience with the booklet. 

Are the 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklets Right for You?

That depends. If you have more time available to you, and you enjoy the practice of reflecting overall, these booklets will be great for you. 

Reflection can be valuable for many people, but the right amount looks different in every season of life. 

These Reflection Booklets are going to take you 20-30 minutes to complete each month, and the year-end reflection will take you much longer. At least it does for me. 

If you can swing this right now, then of course I’d recommend it. It’s like a guided journal practice.

If you are in the thick of it - for whatever reason - this may not be the best thing for you right now. You may need fewer questions (and thus, less time) while you navigate this time in your life. The questions in the planners would be more ideal for you. 

Where to Buy the 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklets

Ready to Make Space for Reflection in 2027?

If you're ready for a guided way to remember your year, recognize what mattered, and think intentionally about what's next, the 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklets are here for you.

Choose from four cover designs and make reflection part of your year—whether you use a Sprouted Planner, a different planner, or no planner at all.

Shop the 2027 Sprouted Reflection Booklets

Check out the cover-to-cover walkthrough of the 2027 Reflection Booklets here.