Evening Inventory

Seneca describes the custom of Sextius: when the day is over, inquire what bad habit you cured, what vice you checked, in what respect you are better. He adds his own use — pleading his cause before himself after the lamp is out — and emphasises the sweetness of the sleep that follows examination without the spirit of punishment.

Tone is not decoration. The same three questions asked as prosecution produce dread and avoidance; asked as inventory they produce learning and closure.

Closure is mandatory. A review that cannot end is rumination wearing a toga.

Without a nightly return, the day's errors compound silently and the day's decent acts leave no trace you can use.

With prosecution tone, people quit the only instrument that would have helped.

Sleep after honest inventory is itself evidence the instrument is correctly tuned.

Keep a dedicated thin notebook. Phone notes invite scrolling into the review.

Include at least one thing that went well — accuracy about competence matters.

Convert one finding into tomorrow's morning prep input.

If the same fault appears five nights running, change the system around it rather than increasing self-contempt.