Why You Should Check In With Yourself As Often As Companies Check In With You
Why personal reflection should be as routine as your company’s performance reviews
Every few months, like clockwork, companies across the world engage in a ritual: the performance review. It might take the form of a formal one-on-one, a quarterly KPI report, or an engagement survey. The goal is simple: track progress, measure alignment, course-correct if needed.
But here's a question we rarely ask:
When was the last time you checked in with yourself?
We build entire systems to track how a business is doing — but what about you, the human behind the output? If your company deserves regular reflection and optimization, so do you. In fact, you might need it more.
The Double Standard We’ve Accepted
In most organizations, performance is treated like science: data is collected, trends are analyzed, and goals are adjusted. There are team retrospectives, stakeholder updates, dashboards, benchmarks.
And yet, most professionals move through their careers with very little structure around their own emotional and professional well-being. We wait until we’re overwhelmed, disengaged, or burned out to take stock… and by then, the damage is already done.
The truth is, we've normalized external evaluation and ignored internal reflection.
That needs to change.
The Burnout Crisis Is Real and Widespread
You’re not imagining it. The world of work has become increasingly demanding, and people are feeling the effects:
85% of workers report experiencing burnout symptoms, including exhaustion, cynicism, and a drop in effectiveness.
Nearly half say burnout has affected their productivity or even forced them to take time off work.
Only 23% of employees feel engaged at work today. That means over 3 out of 4 are somewhere between coasting and checked out.
Globally, the cost of disengagement and burnout is estimated at a staggering $8.8 trillion in lost productivity.
These aren’t abstract numbers. They point to a collective, growing fatigue, one that affects decision-making, creativity, and mental health.
And here’s the hard part: most people don’t notice the shift until it’s already serious. Why? Because we’re not trained — or encouraged — to check in with ourselves regularly.
Emotional Self-Check-Ins Aren’t Optional
Think about how your company would perform if it only reviewed progress once a year. Or if your manager only asked for feedback when things were already falling apart.
That's what many of us do with ourselves. We treat emotional health and career clarity as “nice-to-haves”, when in reality, they’re core drivers of satisfaction, retention, and growth.
Regular self-check-ins can help you:
Detect signs of burnout before they spiral
Understand what’s energizing you or draining you
Reconnect with your values and long-term goals
Feel more in control, even when your environment is chaotic
This isn’t about overanalyzing every mood swing. It’s about creating a space to reflect — intentionally and consistently — so you can navigate your career with clarity, not confusion.
Keepliv: Your Career Reflection Framework
That’s exactly why we built Keepliv.
Keepliv isn’t just a another journal or another app: it’s a structured system designed to help you develop the habit of personal insight.
We give you two main tools:
Pulse Check: A quick, recurring check-in to see how you're feeling about work right now. You rate your mood, select a few emotion and theme tags, and have the option to jot down a reflectionm, all in under two minutes. Over time, this builds a clear picture of your emotional patterns.
Reverse Keeper Test: A deeper reflection done less frequently (monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly). It asks a powerful question:
“If you got an amazing offer elsewhere, would you fight to stay?”
This flips the usual script and gives you valuable insight into how committed you truly feel and why.
Over time, Keepliv helps you track how things are shifting. Are you stuck in neutral? Growing more energized? Starting to check out? The goal is to give you the kind of insight we usually reserve for companies — but centered on you.
It’s Time to Flip the Narrative
We’ve been conditioned to treat company data as critical and personal data as optional. But it’s your well-being, motivation, and clarity that fuel every goal your company sets.
Let’s normalize asking ourselves:
How am I really feeling about my work?
What’s been lifting me up or dragging me down?
Is this role still aligned with who I want to be?
These aren’t indulgent questions. They’re responsible ones. And when asked consistently, they create the emotional literacy that supports better decisions, healthier boundaries, and more meaningful careers.
Make Yourself the Stakeholder
You don’t need permission to reflect. You don’t need a crisis to check in. And you definitely don’t need to wait until your next performance review to ask if this job still fits your life.
You are the most important stakeholder in your career.
Start treating yourself that way.
Take two minutes today to do your first Pulse Check.
Set a quiet reminder to revisit it next week, next month.
Track the trends that shape your well-being, not just your output.
Because what’s the point of hitting every KPI if you’re slowly burning out behind the scenes?
Ready to check in?
Start with a Pulse Check → Keepliv