🤖 How to Write Your Year in Review in 20 Minutes with AI
· 4 mins read
Year in reviews used to take me three hours. Staring at a blank page, trying to remember what I did in March, feeling awkward writing about myself. This year, I cut that to 20 minutes by letting Claude Code interview me instead.
Here's the exact workflow I used.
## The Problem With Writing About Yourself
If you've ever written a year in review, you know the pain. You open a blank document. You stare at it. You try to remember what happened in January. Was that project in Q1 or Q2? Did that trip happen this year or last?
Then there's the writing itself. Describing your own accomplishments feels strange. Too humble and it's boring. Too confident and you sound arrogant. Finding the right voice takes forever.
## Let AI Interview You Instead
Here's the insight that changed everything: I don't need to write my year in review. I just need to answer questions about it.
I pointed Claude Code at my blog, gave it my previous year in reviews to learn my voice and structure, then asked it to interview me. It asked 12 targeted questions, one at a time:
- What word or phrase captures 2025 for you?
- What was your biggest win this year?
- What would you do differently?
Instead of staring at a blank page, I was having a conversation. The answers came naturally because I wasn't "writing," I was just talking.
## The Three-Step Workflow
**Step 1: Give it context.** Point Claude Code at your previous posts so it learns your voice. If you don't have previous reviews, share a few blog posts or even emails that sound like you.
**Step 2: Request an interview.** Tell it: "Interview me one question at a time to create this year's review." The one-question-at-a-time format is key. It keeps you focused and prevents overwhelm.
**Step 3: Refine the draft.** Once you've answered all the questions, Claude creates a draft in your voice. Review it, ask for tweaks ("add links to my previous posts"), and publish.
## Why This Works
The interview format solves both problems at once. You don't have to remember everything because the questions prompt specific memories. You don't have to worry about voice because you're just answering honestly, and the AI matches your existing style.
I dictated my answers using a voice tool, which made it even faster. Stream of consciousness responses, cleaned up by AI into polished prose.
## Beyond Coding: What Claude Code Actually Does
Here's what surprised me: Claude Code is marketed as a coding agent, but it's really a general-purpose assistant that can browse the web, read your files, and execute tasks.
For this project, it browsed my website's sitemap, pulled my old posts, analyzed my writing style, and then conducted an interview. No coding involved.
If you've been thinking of Claude Code as just a programming tool, you're missing out.
## Try It Yourself
The next time you need to write something personal, whether it's a year in review, a bio update, or a reflection piece, try the interview approach:
1. Share examples of your writing style
2. Ask to be interviewed one question at a time
3. Let the AI draft based on your answers
4. Refine until it sounds like you
What used to take me three hours now takes 20 minutes. And honestly? The result is better because I'm not overthinking it.
