A 5-Minute Weekly Check-In With Yourself: 7 Questions
A weekly check-in is seven plain questions you answer once a week, one sentence each, in about five minutes. It is for anyone whose weeks blur together and who wants to notice what happened before the next one starts. No scores, no app, no streak. Sunday night works. So does Monday on the train.
Most weekly reviews are built for work: what shipped, what slipped, what is next. This one is built for you. It does not ask what you achieved. It asks what the week took, what it gave, and what you would like a little less of. The questions stay the same every week on purpose. The answers are what change, and after a month the change is the interesting part.
How to use these questions
- One at a time, in order. The order matters a little. The first questions look back, the middle ones look sideways, and only the last one looks forward.
- Write one sentence, not a paragraph. If a question gets a long answer, that is fine, but it is not required. The sentence is the practice.
- No scoring. No "6 out of 10 week." No comparing this week's answers to last week's until you have at least four weeks on paper.
- It is fine to skip. A question that does not fit this week gets a line through it, and you move to the next one.
The seven questions
Each question comes with a short note on why it is here and an example answer. The example answers are invented to show the size of an answer, not the right one. Yours will be shorter, longer, or stranger, and that is correct.
1. What took the most out of you this week, and on which day?
Why this question. Tiredness has an address. "This week was a lot" is true and useless. "Wednesday, the 3 p.m. meeting that ran until 5, then the drive home in the rain" is something you can see. Over a few weeks the addresses start to repeat, and that is information you did not have before.
Example answer. "Thursday. The call with my sister, and then pretending for the rest of the evening that it had been fine."
2. What did you say yes to this week that you wanted to say no to?
Why this question. Most weeks hold one or two yeses that were really a shrug. Noticing them is not the same as taking them back, and this question does not ask you to. It is a record of where the week was not quite yours.
Example answer. "Covering Lena's shift on Saturday. I said yes before she had finished the sentence."
3. Which moment this week did you actually enjoy, even for ten minutes?
Why this question. Not "what was good." Enjoy, in the moment, at the time. It is often small and often not on the calendar: a parking spot, a text thread that made you laugh, a song in the kitchen while the pasta cooked. If the honest answer is "nothing," write that. It is a real answer, and it is worth having on paper.
Example answer. "Tuesday, eating lunch outside on the loading dock because the break room was full."
4. What did you keep putting off, and what did you do instead?
Why this question. The second half is the useful half. "Instead" is where the week actually went. It is usually not laziness. It is a trade you did not know you were making, and seeing the trade is enough for now.
Example answer. "The insurance form. Instead, I reorganized the spice drawer and answered emails that could have waited until Monday."
5. Who left you with more this week, and who left you with less?
Why this question. This is not a ranking of the people you love. The same person can be in both columns in different weeks, and so can you. It is a plain note of where the week's contact landed, so that you can lean a little toward the "more" column when you have a choice about it.
Example answer. "More: Dana, twenty minutes in the parking lot after pickup. Less: the group chat, all of it."
6. What did you do this week that no one saw and that you are quietly glad about?
Why this question. Most of a week is unwitnessed. If the only things that count are the things someone noticed, your week looks much thinner than it was. In the groups I facilitate, this is the question people skip, and the one I would ask you not to.
Example answer. "I did not reply to the email that was fishing for a fight. I just closed it and made tea."
7. What is one thing from this week worth keeping, and one thing you would rather not repeat?
Why this question. This is the only question that looks forward, and it stays small on purpose. Not a goal. Not a plan. One thing to keep, one thing to leave behind, and next Sunday you will see whether either of them happened. If neither did, nothing is wrong. You just have the same answer again.
Example answer. "Keep: the walk after dinner on Monday. Not again: reading work email in bed on Sunday night."
If you only have five minutes
Five minutes is the whole check-in, most weeks. Set a timer. One sentence per question, about forty seconds each. Do not reread until the timer ends. If you are new to this, or the week has left you with less than five minutes of attention, start with three:
- What took the most out of you this week, and on which day? (question 1)
- Which moment this week did you actually enjoy, even for ten minutes? (question 3)
- What is one thing worth keeping, and one thing you would rather not repeat? (question 7)
That is enough to call it a check-in. The other four will be here next week.
When a week was hard
Some weeks the seven questions above are the wrong size. Nothing was enjoyed. Everything took the most. Asking what you would keep feels like a joke at your expense. For those weeks, use these seven instead. They ask less of you, and they are not interested in whether you handled it well.
- What was the hardest hour this week, and what did you do right after it?
- What did you still manage to do this week, even badly?
- Who or what helped, even a little (a text, a nap, a colleague who covered for you)?
- What did you need this week that you did not ask anyone for?
- What are you telling yourself about this week that you would not say to a friend who had the same week?
- What did you drop this week that can stay on the floor for now?
- What is the smallest thing that would make the next seven days a little easier?
If a hard week turns into a hard month, and then another, the questions are not the answer. See the section below, and please take it seriously.
A small practice to go with them
The Sunday page. Five minutes, the same notebook each week, any pen.
- Write the date and one word for the week at the top of the page. Any word. "Long." "Fine." "Rain." Do not think about it.
- Answer the seven questions, one sentence each, in order. If one stalls, write "skip" and move on. A skip is an answer.
- Read the page back once, without a pen in your hand, so you cannot edit it.
- Underline one thing. Not the most important thing. The thing you would like to remember on Wednesday.
- Close the notebook and put it where you will see it next Sunday.
What to notice: the one-word summary at the top and whether it still fits after the seven answers. Often it does not. "Fine" turns out to have a Thursday in it.
Here is a composite example, drawn from many conversations and changed enough that it is no one in particular. A man in his late thirties, a shift job and a long commute, started the Sunday page in the fall. The first three weeks, his word at the top was "fine" every time. In week four, after answering question 1 with "Friday, the second half of the shift, every week," he crossed out "fine" and wrote "Fridays." He did not change his schedule. He did stop planning anything for Friday nights, and said that was the first thing in a while that had felt like his own decision.
You can stop here. No new goal, no purchase, no sharing required.
When this is not enough
A weekly check-in is good at noticing a pattern. It is not good at fixing one, and it was never meant to. If several weeks in a row come back with the same heavy answers, or if the hard-week version has become the only version, that is the pattern telling you to talk to someone, not to keep writing.
This is a reflection practice, not medical care or therapy. If things have been heavy for weeks, please talk with a doctor or a licensed therapist. In the US, you can call or text 988 at any time.
Questions people ask
What are good weekly check-in questions to ask yourself?
Good weekly questions are concrete, the same every week, and small enough to answer in one sentence. Ask what took the most out of you and on which day, what you said yes to that you wanted to decline, which moment you enjoyed, what you put off and what you did instead, who left you with more or less, what you did unseen, and what is worth keeping. Seven is plenty.
How often should you check in with yourself?
Once a week is a good rhythm for most people, because a week is long enough to have a shape and short enough to remember. A daily check-in can sit alongside it, but it is a different, lighter thing: one or two minutes, one word, no review. If weekly feels like too much, every other Sunday still counts. The point is a fixed time you can keep, not how often it comes around.
What is the difference between a weekly check-in and a weekly review?
A weekly review is about tasks: what got done, what is due, what moves to next week. A weekly check-in is about you: what the week took, what it gave, where it was not quite yours. Both are useful. They answer different questions, and mixing them usually means the task list wins and you disappear from your own Sunday.
Seven questions, one sentence each, once a week. What took the most, what you said yes to, what you enjoyed, what you put off, who left you with more, what you did unseen, and what to keep. Five minutes on a Sunday night, no scores, and a different seven for the weeks that were hard.
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Start with what is on your mind. The Energy Map asks five short questions and gives you a personal reflection and one small practice. Free, no email, no account. Try the Energy Map. This month's theme: Energy: Make Room for What Matters.
Anna Smirnova is the author and facilitator of YOUR YEAR at Wonder Bend: twelve monthly themes, written reflections, small practices, and group reflection sessions. About Anna. Published 2026-10-18. Updated 2026-10-18.