How often do you review your own chart?

Each astrologer has his or her own style and preferences when looking at any chart.  I've known astrologers who, first thing every morning while they're having their coffee, look at all their transits, etc.  Personally, I think that's a little overkill, akin to micromanaging your investment portfolio every day.  If it makes you feel better, fine, but it probably isn't really necessary.

For myself, as well as when I meet with each of my clients, I prepare a 3-year list of significant measurements and an associated time-line bar graph representing the duration and exact peak of each.  For example, a list printed today begins January 1, 2004 and runs through December 31, 2006.  This allows a retrospective of the past year, shows what's happening right now, and provides a preview of the next two years. So I just need to do this  once a year and then refer to it whenever I want some insight.  When I do a consultation, I spend a little time on the past year and generally focus on only a year or so into the future.  

So why a 3-year time frame for the printouts?  I have a couple of reasons.  Frequently there may be a significant measurement that will not peak during the coming year, but will still be within the orb of influence for part of the year.  For example, a Solar Arc measurement lasts a full year.  If the exact date were January 2, 2006, we wouldn't notice it in a shorter printout even though the influence would begin July 2, 2005.  We might not be aware of almost 6 months of the measurement's influential period.

Secondly, if there is a major measurement beyond the next year, we certainly would want to know about it (or make our client aware of it), e.g. a Saturn Return or a Transit of an outer planet to the Ascendant or Midheaven.

If this report included all possible it transits would become very lengthy and unwieldy, so it's absolutely necessary to pare it down to important measurements.  What qualifies as an important measurement is really in the eye of the beholder, or astrologer in this case.  As an example, I rarely find much measurable significance in the transiting inner planets, so I don't mind omitting them from my searches.

For me, the most useful printouts are not more than a couple of pages each.  Beyond that, my brain gets overwhelmed and the tendency is to be caught up in the volume of the data and risk missing something substantial.

Again, everyone has their own individual preferences, so I'm only listing mine here as an example -- yours will almost certainly be different.  I use Matrix Software's Win*Star program because I'm used to it and find that it more that meets my needs.  The specifics I include in the printouts are:

Using these criteria, the 3-year printout easily falls into my self-imposed 2-page limit.  There are exceptions (such as when the timing of an electional event is being chosen) but usually referring to these 3-year printouts provide the needed information for myself and my clients and frees me from obsessive ephemeris fixation.  (That sounds like a condition requiring therapy and/or strong medication).  Also, since I offer my clients a free 15-minute phone follow-up after each full session, I already have the necessary measurements at hand without having to print additional information.