# Self Evaluation for a Performance Review: Examples and Format > Turn a year of notes into a year-end self evaluation: answers to the usual questions, how to write about a weak spot, and what reviewers skim past. Source: https://hidengpt.com/write/self-evaluation-for-performance-review # My annual review is coming up and I have to write my own self evaluation. Bring your notes from the year: projects, numbers, praise you got and one thing that went badly. HidenGPT's Anything format turns them into answers for each question on your form, written as you, and in your voice if you add samples. You get evidence instead of adjectives, with no invented results to defend. Updated October 15, 2026 · by the HidenGPT team Try it with your own details Enter to send · Shift+Enter for a new line ## How to do it in HidenGPT - 01 Open your review form and copy its exact questions, then go through your calendar, sent mail, finished tickets and any thank-you messages from the year and write down every result you can put a number or a name on. - 02 Pick Anything under “Use it for”; this page sets Length to Enter a word count with 450 and Tone to Professional, so paste the questions and your notes into the main box and say how long each answer should be. - 03 If you are on a plan, pick a voice built from two to five things you have written at work, such as status updates or emails, so the answers sound like your normal writing. - 04 Check every figure against where you got it, cut any claim your manager would not recognize, and make the growth answer about something real you are already working on. - 05 Paste each answer into the right box in your review tool, read it once more in that box, and keep a copy of your notes for the conversation itself. [Anything](https://hidengpt.com/tools/freeform): Describe what you need; it works out the format and writes it. ## Example: three answers from one year of notes These answers come from the example request above. The names and numbers are made up; yours come from your own notes. Key accomplishments (about 100 words): “The change I am proudest of is the weekend rota I set up in March. Before it, a ticket sent on Friday evening waited until Monday, and our average first response was 9 hours. Since April it has been under 3. I also wrote 22 help articles, mostly about billing, and billing tickets fell by about a third in the months after they went live. Two people joined the team this year. I trained both on escalations, and since September they handle them without me. That freed about a day a week, which I used to start the article work.” Area for growth (about 75 words): “The July migration is the one I would do differently. I knew the date two weeks ahead but told the team four days before, and we ended up with a backlog of around 400 tickets that took a week to clear. The lesson for me is to share dates as soon as I have them, even when details are still moving. Since then I post a weekly ‘what is coming’ note in our channel.” Goals for next year (about 50 words): “Set up an alert when open tickets pass 150, so a backlog shows up on day one instead of day three. Start a monthly review of our five worst tickets with the product team. Get one of the two newer team members ready to cover for me during leave.” ## Where the evidence hides, and how to use it Most people sit down to a self evaluation and remember the last six weeks. The rest of the year is in places you can search in ten minutes: - Your calendar: launches, workshops you ran, interviews you sat in on, customer calls. - Sent mail and chat: search for “done”, “shipped”, “live” and “thanks”. - Your ticket or project tool: filter by closed and assigned to you. - Praise: save every thank-you message in one folder from now on, so next year is easier. - The goals from your last review, if you had any. Reviewers often check those first. Then turn each item into one sentence with three parts: what the situation was, what you did, and what changed. “Helped with onboarding” becomes “trained two new hires, who now handle escalations on their own.” If you have no number, a before and after works: “tickets waited all weekend; now someone answers on Saturday.” A note on what you paste: notes for a review can include customer names, revenue and colleagues' details. Check your company's policy on AI tools before you put internal data into any of them, and replace names you do not need with roles such as “a large customer”. ## The weak spot, the rating and the length The growth question is where self evaluations go wrong in two directions. One is the fake weakness (“I care too much”), which reviewers read as a dodge. The other is a confession with no fix attached. The shape that works: one real thing, what it cost, what you learned, and what you already do differently. Pick something your manager already knows about. A self evaluation is a bad place to reveal a problem for the first time. If your form asks you to rate yourself, rate the work, not your effort. Most managers expect the rating to match the evidence you wrote underneath it. When you are unsure between two levels, pick the one your best two examples support and let the examples argue for it. Length is a rule of thumb, not a requirement: 80 to 200 words per question reads well in most review tools. Some forms cap the characters in each box; if yours does, ask for a shorter draft and paste it in before you edit, so you see where it cuts off. Cut these on the way through: “team player”, “went above and beyond”, “passionate about”, and any sentence that would fit anyone's review. If a line could be pasted into a colleague's form unchanged, it is not doing anything for yours. ## What the Anything format does with your notes The Anything format reads your request, works out that it is a self evaluation and follows the questions you paste in, one answer under each. At 450 words it splits the length across the questions unless you say otherwise; change the word count if your form is shorter. It is told not to invent facts, so a result you did not give it stays out, and a missing figure shows up as a placeholder such as [number] for you to fill or delete. A light red pen pass then removes stock phrases and evens out flat rhythm, and you see what it changed. With a saved voice, the answers follow your own sentence length and word choice, which matters when your manager reads your emails every day and will notice a sudden change of style. ## Not the right tool if - A response to a performance improvement plan or a formal warning. Those can have consequences for your job; talk to HR, and in a dispute consider an employment lawyer, before you write anything back. - A year with no notes at all. The draft only uses what you give it, so spend the ten minutes collecting evidence first. - A review of someone else. For a colleague use the peer feedback page, and for your own staff the manager's review comments page. ## Other ways to do it Writing it yourself from the three-part sentence Situation, what you did, what changed. Once your notes are in that shape, the answers often take under an hour. Your review tool's built-in writing help Some companies switch one on. It sits next to your form, but it only knows what you type into it, so the evidence work is the same. A colleague who saw your year Ask them what they would say you did best. People often remember results you have already forgotten. ChatGPT or another chatbot Quick for a first pass, but expect “went above and beyond” and confident numbers you never gave it, which you must remove. ## Questions ### What should I write in my self evaluation? Write three to five results from the year with numbers or names, one honest area for growth with what you are doing about it, and two or three goals for next year. Answer the exact questions on your form, in first person. ### How long should a self evaluation be? Usually 80 to 200 words per question, or about one page in total. That is a rule of thumb; follow any character limit in your review tool, and remember your manager may be reading a dozen of these in one week. ### How do I write about my weaknesses without hurting my rating? Pick a real one your manager already knows about, say what it cost, and show what you changed afterwards. A specific fix reads as maturity, while a vague or fake weakness reads as avoiding the question. ### Should I rate myself high or low? Rate yourself where your evidence points. If your two strongest examples clearly meet the description of a level, choose it and let the examples make the case; overrating with thin evidence tends to start the conversation on the wrong foot. ### Is it OK to use AI to write my self evaluation? Yes, if the facts are yours and your company allows AI tools. HidenGPT drafts from the results you give it and leaves a placeholder where something is missing; you change what is not accurate and submit it as your own account of your year. Check your employer's policy before pasting internal data. ### What if I had a bad year? Say so briefly and specifically, then put the weight on what you did about it. Name what got in the way without blaming others, list what you still delivered, and make the goals concrete enough that next year's review can check them. ### Can I try it before paying? Yes. The homepage lets you try 2 drafts a day without an account; writing in the studio, with your saved voices and history, needs a plan. ## Related - [I manage nine people and have to write review comments for every one of them by Friday.](https://hidengpt.com/write/performance-review-comments-for-employees) - [Three colleagues picked me for peer feedback and I don't know what to write about them.](https://hidengpt.com/write/peer-feedback-examples) - [I want to email my boss to ask for a raise without sounding like I'm begging or threatening to quit.](https://hidengpt.com/write/email-asking-for-a-raise) - [I have bullet points from a meeting and I need them as a short report.](https://hidengpt.com/write/bullet-points-to-short-report) - [Does my writing sound like AI?](https://hidengpt.com/tools/ai-cliche-checker) - [Essays, homework and everyday writing that sounds like you](https://hidengpt.com/write) [Prefer HidenGPT on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=hidengpt.com)