Weekly Review Questions

1

I’ve been doing a weekly review for a while now, but I’m not particularly great at it, at least in terms of how I think it should work vs how I’m doing it.

I use a lot of questions that David Sparks has posted online at one point or another. Things like “what were my biggest accomplishments this week” and “what was the best use of my time” and “what am I looking forward to”.

I find myself blowing through these questions by typing whatever comes to mind, almost as though they’re a journal entry rather than a review of any kind. I do something similar for the “Roles” section. How am I doing as dad? would be answered with “things are going well this week. I’m trying to get the kids to clean up their mess after school and we had a few arguments, but I try to remember they’re young and I need to help guide them on what to do after school without getting too worked up about things”.

To me, that’s useful to write in the moment as it provides an outlet of sorts, but it’s a little tricky to keep at the top of your mind for next week without forgetting what you wrote 10 seconds after the fact.

For things like this if I’m on my game, I’ll put “be more understanding with the kids” into Streaks or Todoist with a reminder set every day when they get home, and that’s great. But I don’t know, it just feels like it’s easy to dump all this trouble and thought onto the page, but much harder to follow-up with after the fact and keep it top of mind moving forward.

How do you all do this?

1 Like
2

This is a fun post. Here is my methodology and my objectives. As a contrast to what I perceive from your description of your weekly review is that mine is much less journal-y (or reflective or introspective) and much more practically focused. Do not not take that as any kind of judgment about the merits of any weekly review approach; I’m just offering an observation that may help explain my system in light of what you described.

For me, the point of the weekly review is to make sure my system is all in order, that nothing is slipping through the cracks, and that I’m attending to the things that are important to me. I have my “review” broken into two major components that I do on different days. On Friday, I do all the inbox processing, collection, and filing type stuff. It’s a very mechanical process. On Saturday, I do the actual review.

My review itself is broken into four components (1) brainstorming (the mindsweep) about what things I need/want to be doing or maybe haven’t been doing that I should be doing; and then reviewing all the items that I’m waiting on others to complete, (2) analyzing my calendar (I go two weeks back for review and three weeks forward for planning), (3) reviewing my next actions by quickly scanning through all my contexts (or tags, as they are now called in OmniFocus) to see if there are things I did but forgot to check off or things I need to do that should be prioritized, and lastly (4) I review my projects list to see if there are any projects that are stalled, need adjustments, or the like. In this last phase, I also spend a little extra time on my work projects – which for me are my cases. So, I’ll read through all the litigation plans and calendars for my cases to evaluate what things I should be prioritizing during the week.

Now, keep in mind that this is just my methodology. I’m not perfect at it, and I don’t always have the time I need to do it thoroughly. But what I’ve found is that just doing what I can–even if it’s 10 minutes on some weeks–tasks do not slip through the cracks, projects get done, and I don’t have to worry that I’m neglecting anything that ought not to be neglected. The process, for me, is very freeing.

Some other items that are in the typical GTD weekly review, I’ve moved to a once-a-month review. For example, my someday/maybes. I look at those once a month. My goals, habits, and other big-picture things also go on my once-a-month review.

Some things that I do that are like yours: I put things like “be more understanding with the kids” in my system with a daily repeat for a while when I’m trying to build a new habit or improve some behavior. I have a special context for that so it does not crowd out the work that I need to do. I also have a context for things that can’t be done in one setting but that I need to work on. I call that one “move it forward” or “MIF.” I agree that those things are not strict GTD Next Actions, but having a reminder of something that is not a task per se has been helpful. For me, though, if I leave them in place too long they just become noise. I use them sparingly, and review them during my weekly review.

My overall approach to all of this “stuff,” is to make sure I have all the things I have to/want to do recorded in a single place where they won’t be forgotten and that is designed to remind me of them when I’m best able to act them. That is the central point of GTD, anyway. I guess I’m not expressing anything new there. My take away: If you work your review to ensure that you are examining your inventory against your priorities, your review is doing everything it should do for you.

8 Likes
3

Your post struck a chord with me. It makes total sense, and in fact - I do this every morning (kind of) when I sit down with Todoist and set my tasks/priorities for the day. I do it to some extent in my weekly review too, but I think because I’m generally on top of things I lean more towards the journaling aspect on the weekly review.

I like your point of view though, and your suggestion offered a change in mindset. It’s to make sure nothing is slipping through and to track what needs to (or I want) to get done.

I like David’s idea of tracking roles too, because it points out areas of your life you may not always consider. I don’t necessarily need to change how I do the reviews but more - how I view them. If I’m writing something about my role as a father that strikes a nerve then boom - I’ll track it somewhere.

Thanks!

1 Like
4

The point is, you are talking about two totally different pairs of shoes.

The “Weekly Review” acc. GTD works as @iPersuade described, and focused on the Taskmanagment.

The “Weekly Review” acc. @MacSparky is a more personal approach, that has nothing to do with Taskmanagment, but with personal development.

3 Likes
5

I follow the below which works well for me.

6

I do the steps mentioned in this article:

1 Like