January Coffee Chat: My Favorite New-Year Reflection & Goal Planning Tool

I L-O-V-E new year energy. It’s cliche and I don’t care! While there truly is nothing special about January and you can restart and do new things any month of the year, there is something about a new year that feels like a blank canvas and I love the wonder of what it will look like at the end of the year. I have always loved tools that help guide a process of reflection from last year, and planning for the coming year. My top 3 are below! None of these are sponsored or have affiliate links, just my favorites and why I love each of them.

Tool: Jennie Allen’s Annual Dream Guide
Cost: FREE
Why I love this: A friend recommended this years ago and while they’ve evolved a bit since then, they are simple. This is broken into categories: Spiritual, Relational, Personal, Emotional and Work. I like the buckets because the truth is that we can think we’ve had a hard year, but it may only have been hard for Work, and great personally. Or vice versa. It helps discern where you need to pay attention in various areas, and then where you should be celebrating as well!
Great for Groups: This would be a great one to do as a Bible Study group or a group of friends - conversation cards are included and processing with others helps. Just be sure that you do your own work first so you aren’t overly-influenced by others’ ideas.

Tool: Lead Stories Media Hello/Goodbye Resource
Cost: $4.99
Why I love this: This is a newer to me resource that I’ve seen for years and just this year hit the purchase button on. That said, I love all things Jo Saxton does so it was a win before I hit download! I appreciate the verbiage the most on this one. Words matter and the way they ask you questions in this feels very intentional to me. There are specific questions that dial into some deeper thinking and reflection. While I love to look forward, I also understand that without grasping what’s already happened, it’s hard to move into new things. I love how this dug deeper in a guided process. This one may take you a little longer because of that depth, but you can do it in chunks or one hour a weekend until you’re done. It is well worth the time!
Great for Individuals or Couples: Great for anyone, but I was able to attend an in-person seminar for this one with my husband and it was really great for us to learn from each other what last year looked like or what we had in mind for the coming year. My favorite quote from the time in the workshop was “Let’s not think of giving advice, but instead ask generative questions.” A great note for any group discussion!

Tool: Powersheets by Cultivate What Matters
Cost: $48 (2026 one-year planners are currently discounted from $64)
Why I love this: I have long-used these. I love the process they walk you through. You begin with a lot of reflection on the past year and it can feel repetitive as you do various pages with similar intents, but trust the process! Eventually you look for themes, and then use your reflections to build intentional goals for the year. The set come with a way to keep up with these throughout the year, but I tend to just use the reflection pieces and then the goal setting pieces, then work my own loose process for tracking the goals throughout the year. And by “process” I mean, I look at them often enough to keep them top of mind and priorities movement for each one.
Great for Individual Growth or Work Goals: I love this for personal growth goals, but it’s also especially helpful for a solo-leader looking to do intentional work without the benefit of having a team. You can also use this with a team, and I’ve gifted these to my own teams or clients before.