When preparing for an annual review, you'll want to compose a self evaluation that includes both your strong points and areas in need of improvement. This exercise is meant to help you evaluate your strong suits, as well as identify areas in need of improvement. To devise such a document, you'll need to include certain key points that will help you come up with an overall performance improvement strategy.

My Daily Work Ethic: Ask yourself what motivates you to do a good job. What drives you to succeed in your given field? Make a list of one-word items that describe your work ethic. Next, come up with examples that quantify the application of these words. Examples of the words might be: driven, hard-working, determined or highly motivated. Examples of the results might be: signed contracts with three new customers last quarter or oversaw implementation of a new system last year.

My Goals: Define your workplace goals. What is it that you want to accomplish in the next 18 months? Do you want a promotion? Are you striving to climb the corporate ladder? Where do you see yourself in five years? Use the answers to these questions to come up with your workplace goals.

Next, evaluate the steps you are taking to reach these goals. Are you working daily toward your goals? A good method for self evaluation when it comes to inching your way toward a specific goal is to rate your job performance in relation to daily activities that pertain to your goal.

Give yourself a score based on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest score, in order to figure out if you are making strides toward your ultimate workplace goal. In those areas where you rank low, whether industry networking or acquiring new skills, make a plan to improve.

My Job Performance: One of the biggest parts of a self evaluation is to measure your job performance. Are you fulfilling all your daily job functions? Do you put all your effort and time into a project? Do you stay late when necessary to meet deadlines? Answer these and other introspective questions that will help you properly evaluate your job performance. You may want to draw two columns on a page and list the strong points of your job performance, and weigh these against your negative attributes. An example of a pro/con of your work performance is: you work hard and go the extra mile to secure a client, but you often arrive to work late.

My Position: Part of a self evaluation should be seeing how you fit into your current position. How long have you been doing the same job? Have you outgrown your current position? Do you still enjoy it? Are there job responsibilities that can be added to your current position that would demonstrate your enthusiasm about your job or company? List ways you think you could do better in your current position.

An example of a self evaluation relating to your position would be: After being in the same position for five years, I feel I need a new challenge. I feel ready to delegate the grunt work part of my job.

My Ability To Be A Team Player: After you evaluate yourself in your current position as an individual, also look at yourself as part of a team. The team could be your company as a whole, or your individual department. Evaluate how you perform as a member of this team. Are you vital member of this group who helps it reach its goals? Do you work well as part of a team? Do you have the potential to be the team leader?

If you don't think you work well in a team environment, ask yourself the following: How can I best contribute to this group? What are my strong points that can be applied to a group project? What is stopping me from working within the group? Make a plan to overcome this and set a time frame.

My Desire to Succeed. How important is it for you to do well at work? Is your job just a job to pay the bills, or is it the career that you had long strived for when you were in college? Evaluate your drive to be successful. Ask yourself: What makes me want to be successful? Do I want a job promotion? How can I go about getting that promotion? What motivates me to do a good job? How can I succeed at this job?

Naturally, every answer to the questions raised in this self-evaluation won't find its way into a document that you give to your boss. But as you review your past performance and your goals, you should come up with enough positive points to make your annual performance review shine.