Looking back at last week

Two weeks in. The first check-in is in the past now. That’s worth spending a minute on, because Echo Diary is most useful when you go back and read the thing you wrote.

The prompts

1. Reread last week’s entry

Pull it up. Audio or text, whichever you used. Listen or read it once, all the way through.

The goal isn’t to react. It’s to be with last-week-you for a few minutes. Notice how it feels. Notice what you skipped over, what you emphasized.

2. What did last-week-you know that you’ve already forgotten?

There’s almost always something. A feeling you noticed but didn’t act on. A pattern you named and then stopped noticing. A worry that resolved itself.

Write down one thing. The point is to see how much changes in a week, and how much stays the same.

3. The leak

What’s the thing quietly draining you this week? It’s usually small — an unanswered message, a slow-loading tool, a decision you’re not making. The bigger drains are usually hiding behind smaller ones.

Name one. Don’t fix it yet. Just see it.

4. The sentence you’d send to a friend

If a friend asked you how are you, really? — not the polite version, the real one — what would you say?

Speak the answer out loud. The actual words you’d use, in the actual tone of voice.

5. One thing that’s working

It doesn’t have to be big. A morning routine that held. A conversation that went better than expected. A meal you actually enjoyed.

Naming what’s working is harder than naming what’s broken. Do it anyway.

The meta-prompt

You’re two weeks in. Is this format working for you? If yes, keep going. If something about it isn’t clicking — the time of day, the length, the prompts themselves — say so out loud. The format serves the practice, not the other way around.

See you next Sunday.