A completed example
This fictional example shows the level of detail to aim for. It is not a customer's work history.
Performance self-review Name: Priya, Product Designer, Growth team Review period: January to June 2026 Manager: Tomas What I accomplished - Redesigned the Harbor checkout flow. Shipped March 18 after two rounds of usability sessions. Support tickets about failed card entry dropped noticeably in April. - Led the Lantern design system audit. Merged duplicate button styles into six shared components that engineering now uses by default. - Wrote the onboarding guide for the two designers who joined in May and ran their first-week walkthroughs. What did not go to plan - Harbor mobile slipped from April to July because I underestimated QA time on older Android devices. Still open: the saved-address screen. - Lantern documentation is half done. Color and type pages are written. Spacing and motion are not started. How I worked with others - Paired weekly with Dev on front-end handoff, which cut the back-and-forth on specs. - Reviewed Marco's onboarding screens twice before launch. Where I want to grow - Presenting to leadership. I under-rehearsed the Q2 review and lost the thread when asked about timelines. Goals for next period - Ship Harbor mobile by July 31. - Finish Lantern docs by August 29. - Run one research session per month without a researcher present. Support I need - Two days of QA time from the Mobile team in July. - Feedback from Tomas on a practice run before the Q3 review. Self-rating: Meets expectations overall, above on Harbor checkout.
Make it yours
Your draft
The example is fictional. Edits stay in this page and disappear when you leave. Copy or download your work to keep it.
How to fill it in
- Collect evidence for the review period before you write anything, using your calendar, closed tickets, releases and notes.
- For each accomplishment, name the project, the date it shipped or ended, and one concrete outcome your manager could verify.
- List at least one thing that slipped or is unfinished, with the reason and what is left to do.
- Write each goal for the next period as a deliverable with a date, so it can be checked at your next review.
- Read the finished review as your manager would and delete anything they do not need to judge your work.
Start from your actual work
On a Mac, Dayflow can help you remember the work behind the update. It drafts a timeline from screen activity. Export a date range as Markdown from Settings → Export. Review that record alongside your calendar and task tracker, then fill in the template above.
For a guided walkthrough, see exporting your work history or drafting a report with Claude Code. Check the assistant's draft before sending it.
Local AI keeps screenshot analysis on-device. Your own cloud provider or Dayflow Pro processes selected screenshots off-device. An assistant can receive the Dayflow data it retrieves in your conversation. Local storage does not make a cloud assistant conversation local. Read the data-flow guide before choosing a workflow.
Questions about this template
What should I write in a performance self-review?
Cover what you delivered with dates and outcomes, what slipped and why, how you worked with others, where you want to grow, and goals for the next period. Be specific: name the project and what changed because of it. Include misses honestly, since your manager likely knows about them already and will trust the rest more.
How long should a self-review be?
Most fit on one page, with three to five bullets per section. Your manager may read many of these in the same week, so lead each bullet with the result and cut background they already know. If your company's form has word limits, paste from this template and trim to fit rather than rewriting from scratch.
Should I give myself a rating in a self-review?
Only if the form asks for one. If it does, pick the level you can support with evidence from the review and say where you think you exceeded it. Your self-rating is input, not the final decision. Your manager and any calibration process set the official rating, and it may differ from yours.
How do I remember what I did six months ago?
Start with your calendar, sent email, closed tickets and shipped releases for the period. If you use Dayflow on a Mac, it drafts a timeline from your screen activity that you can export as Markdown, but check it for mistakes and add meetings, calls and other offline work yourself. Brief monthly notes make the next review easier.
How do I write about mistakes in a self-review?
State what happened, the cause you own, and what you changed afterward. Saying a project slipped because you underestimated QA, and that you now estimate QA before committing dates, reads as judgment rather than weakness. Avoid blaming teammates, and do not leave a miss unexplained if your manager is likely to raise it anyway.
Use the right format for the next step
- Weekly status report for a concise progress update.
- Daily work log for a record you can come back to.
- Daily standup template for yesterday, today, and blockers.
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