Every two weeks I sit down and basically interrogate myself about the last sprint. What went well, what didn't, what was I doing that was a waste of time. Nobody asked me to do this, there's no template, no Confluence page, no retro board. Just me and a document. Very therapeutic honestly, 10/10 would recommend.
Why? Because performance reviews exist and trying to remember what you did 6 months ago is a joke. You sit there going "I definitely did important stuff... I think?" and then you undersell yourself because your brain decided to only keep that one time you spilled coffee on your keyboard. So now when review time comes I just... read my notes. Revolutionary, I know :D
But also, if I notice two sprints in a row that I underestimated stuff, or I keep forgetting follow-ups, that's a pattern. And you don't see patterns unless you actually stop and look. The retro forces me to do that.
Table of Contents
The Retro Itself
What went well, what didn't, what should I do differently. That's literally it. Sometimes the answers are boring ("shipped the thing, all good"), sometimes they hurt a little ("I dodged that hard conversation and it came back to bite me"). Both useful. Nobody's reading this but you so you might as well be honest.
I Write Down Everything
OK this is where I sound a bit unhinged but hear me out. I write notes about everything. Meetings, decisions, follow-ups, you name it. If it happened at work and there's even a 1% chance it's useful later, it's going in the notes.
Tickets? I comment on them like crazy. "Went with X because Y was too risky." "Talked to [person], they said Z." People might think it's overkill until someone goes "wait why did we do it this way?" and I just drop the link to the comment
Same with meetings, I write down what was decided and who's doing what. Takes 2 minutes. Saves you from that "didn't we already talk about this?"
Side effect: you become the person who always knows what's going on. Not in an annoying way, just in a "oh yeah hold on I have that somewhere" way. Turns out people like that.
Just Try It
Next sprint, take 15 minutes, write down what went well and what didn't. Next time you make a decision on a ticket, leave a comment saying why. That's it. Baby steps. And when your manager asks what you've been up to the last quarter, you won't have to improvise.
Good luck! :)