How to Use ChatGPT to Review Your Year and Plan for 2026

December always sneaks up, doesn’t it?

One minute you’re cruising through projects and the next you’re thinking, how did we get to the end of the year already?

If you’re anything like most small business owners, this is usually the time when you start reflecting on what worked, what didn’t and what you want to do differently next year. But doing a proper year-end business review can feel heavy and time-consuming.

That’s where AI steps in. ChatGPT is brilliant at pulling clarity from chaos, especially when you feed it the right prompts. If you want to step into 2026 feeling organised, lighter and more intentional, this is your reset moment.

Today we’re walking through a simple way to review your year using AI, plus how you can use that insight to set yourself up for an easier, more automated 2026.

A proper review gives you:

💡Clarity on what actually moved the needle

💡Insight into what drained your time or energy

💡Data to make better decisions for the new year

💡Confidence going into January instead of overwhelm

This is where AI shines. Instead of manually sorting through notes, platforms and numbers, you can get ChatGPT to summarise, compare, highlight patterns and even recommend improvements.

You don’t need to dig for every stat. For a simple but powerful year-end business review, gather:

✅Revenue and monthly trends

✅Website or sales page traffic

✅Email list size and growth

✅Social reach and engagement

✅Your top-performing content

✅Wins, challenges, lessons and surprises

✅Anything that felt “heavy”

Once you’ve got this, ChatGPT becomes your analysis buddy.

Here’s a prompt you can paste straight in:

Prompt:
Here is my business data for 2025:

• Revenue and growth highlights: [insert key numbers or trends]

• Content, offers, or services that performed best: [insert details]

• Areas that underperformed or stalled: [insert details]

• Activities that felt heavy, draining, or inefficient: [insert details]

Please:

• Summarise the key themes and patterns you see in my 2025 data

• Clearly identify what worked best and why

• Recommend what I should stop, start, and continue next year

• Create a simple 3-step plan for 2026 that focuses on outcomes, not busywork

ChatGPT will take your messy notes and turn them into clarity.

You’ll see immediately where your time and energy went, what drove results and what should quietly retire in 2026.

Once the review is clear, move into planning. ChatGPT can help map out your:

🚀Goals

🚀Offers

🚀Content topics

🚀Marketing flow

🚀Automations

🚀Lead generation plans

Here’s another ready-made prompt:

Prompt:

Based on the insights from my year-end review, help me map out a simple and focused plan for 2026.

Please:

• Define three core business goals for 2026 that are realistic, measurable, and time-bound

• Break each goal into quarterly action steps with a clear outcome for each quarter

• Suggest specific tasks I could automate or simplify using AI or basic systems (e.g. admin, content, reporting, customer communication), explaining how this would reduce workload

Assume I want clarity, consistency, and progress — not complexity or pressure.

You’ll come out with a high-level roadmap that feels achievable, not overwhelming.

Let’s not take old chaos into a new year.

Here are two easy Systeme automation ideas you can set up in under an hour:

1. Year-End Reflection Automation

Triggered when someone downloads the Year-End AI Review Checklist.
It sends:

• A 3-day nurture series

• Your top 2025 lessons

• A prompt to help them plan their own 2026

• A CTA to join the Skool community

2. 2026 Planning Prep Automation

Triggered on 20 December.
It delivers:

• A reminder to complete their review

• A fresh 2026 planning roadmap

• An invite to the Facebook group or Skool community

These feel helpful and human, not spammy.

If you’d like a simple, beautifully structured way to do all of this, download the Year-End AI Review Checklist.

It includes prompts for:

• Reviewing your wins

• Understanding what worked

• Naming your 2025 lessons

• Planning your 2026 focus

It makes this whole process easier and gives ChatGPT better context.

You don’t have to go into 2026 unsure or overwhelmed.

A bit of structured reflection, a few powerful AI prompts and a couple of smart automations can completely reset your energy and direction.

If you want more support using AI to plan and grow your business, join our ChatGPT Advantage community on Skool for only $4.99 per month. You’ll get daily prompts, live sessions and a friendly group to keep you moving.

👉 Join the community here.