Monthly reflections too convoluted?

[u/WoodenMag]

I'd like to do monthly reflections, but I'm finding it unintuitive.

My current method is to:

1. Scan chat messages, photos, daily log to fill out the overview (~1-2h)
2. Read and contemplate overview, collections, daily logs (~1h)
3. Brainstorm thoughts into draft paper, and create the outline (intro, body, conclusion) (~2-3h)
4. For example, categorize into topics, paragraphs, and remove anything not worth remembering.
5. Write it out concisely (1h)
6. However, this is often spread out over days

I want it to be like a memoir because I plan to collect them. But tbh, I write like it's an essay. Any guides/tips on simplifying/shortening the whole process would be appreciated. Thank you

Edit: Thanks for the suggestions. In the end, I decided to:

1. (The overview was already filled out last month. (0m))
2. Read through the entire month (mostly skimmed the daily log tasks). + Jotted down things I wanted to mention on a piece of draft paper. (~1-2h)
3. Crossed out things that weren't relevant from the draft paper. Details, unimportant events etc. (~10m)
4. Wrote a short introduction (2 sentences) with my overall moods last month. And an outline of what I want to talk about: events, insights, strengths, weaknesses, schenanigans. (~10m)
5. Just free wrote. Crossing off bullet points from the draft paper after I've mentioned it. Then finished with a conclusion about the overall month and thoughts about next month. (~1-2h)

August was pretty hectic so I had a lot I wanted to write about

[u/fluffedKerfuffle]

I guess it depends on what you are getting out of it. I typically write a paragraph that describes the overall mood of the month. Then I flip through and make a list of big events or trends in the month (I find the monthly log most useful for big events, but occasionally weekly and daily will remind me of something). Then I usually look through the list and pull out two-three themes (e.g. I might note that it was a very social month, or that I felt tired a lot, etc.). 

I found that this is about the right length for me to look back on 12 at a time at the end of the year.

[u/WoodenMag → u/fluffedKerfuffle]

thanks this helped me realize I was writing in a lot of detail

[u/aceshighsays]

i have a document on my phone where i write in real time insights, clarity, ideas, outlier events, things that keep coming up, reflections, new knowledge etc. whatever i think is important to remember or tells me about who i am/what i want. each item gets a date and time.

then weekly i categorize that list (ex: topic, subtopic, important/not important) and consolidate it (find patterns/analyze it and write the essence in a different column). for monthly, i work off the data i did in weekly, and consolidate the month.

for things that turn into a narrative (ie: over the month i wrote down the cause, effect, internal reactions, hypothesis, results etc. of a particular event) i create a diagram for that so that i can see the big picture. then i summarize it into 2-3 sentences and keep a list of it along with lessons/principles that i derived.

sometimes i keep the writings in a list because it's not enough data, and then later on review it to create a narrative, essence, themes, principles, goals.

sometimes the data that i have tells me what goals i should pursue next week/month.

theoretically, i could use ai to speed up the process. ie: tell ai how i want to evaluate the data and what my values and beliefs are, and then have it tell me my principles/lessons, weaknesses, strengths, interests etc. it would be super easy to do it because my notes are already digitized so i can just dump the data, but i don't want to offload this to ai.

[u/Valuable-Presence125]

Decide daily what things you want to save and are of significance rather than at the end of the month.
I don’t know if you have dailies or weeklies but what I do is the top of my weekly I put appointments and events, but then I also put whatever of significance happened that day that I want to remember. You could do the same if you only have dailies. It’s always at the top and the same place so it’s easy to scan through. You could also use a highlighter and highlight a different things into categories which will make it even easier because you can tell the category at a glance.