When I do my Weekly Review - How I do my Weekly Review
I struggled with the best time do do my weekly review for quite a while. Sunday night? Monday morning? Whenever I felt the need to? Mid-week? ...I finally settled on Friday afternoons. Friday afternoon allows me to clean up the loose ends from the week, plan my next week, and go into the weekend with a mind clear of work related issues.
Here is what my weekly review looks like:
First, an e-mail Review -
- Clean out the inbox. Goal: Inbox Zero!
- Review my ..Review and Action e-mail folder. These are things that take more than 2 minutes to complete. Is there anything I can schedule for the next week? If so, I schedule it on my calendar. Is there anything I can delete (e.g. I've already done it)? Is there anything I can delegate?
- Check my Projects e-mail folders. These hold the most recent and pertinent e-mails related to my current projects. Is there anything I should do now? Is there anything I should delegate? Is there anything I can move to my calendar to do or follow-up on? Is there anything I can archive (I don't need it in my immediate project folder)? Is there anything I can delete?
- Check my @Agenda e-mail folders. These are folders that hold agenda items I want to review during a meeting with another team or person. Is anything outdated that I can delete?
- Check my @Follow-Up e-mail folders. These folders hold requests I've made or delegated tasks. I file them by "lastname, firstname". Does anything require that I send a reminder? Is there anything old that can be deleted? Should I ask someone else to fulfill my original request?
- For this phase, I finish with a little cleanup of my online mailbox. I move my Deleted Items and Sent Mail to an Archive folder. Why save deleted items? I talk about this in an article called Don't be Afraid of the Delete Key.
Next, on to my Outlook Task list -
My task list is broken down by just a few categories. I simply review each task category and delete, add or schedule the task on my calendar. My task categories consist of:
- @Action - These are things that take more than 2 minutes to complete. Is there anything I can schedule for the next week? If so, I schedule it on my calendar. Is there anything I can delete (e.g. I've already done it)? Is there anything I can delegate?
- @Agendas - These are tasks that hold notes on agenda items I want to review during a meeting with another team or person. Is anything outdated that I can delete? Is there anything I need to add?
- @Someday - These are those things I want to someday do. Is there anything new to add? Anything I might want to delete?
- @Blogstuff - This is my list of blog topics. Similar drill...Should I add, remove, or change any items?
Lastly, I run through all my paper notes from the week.
- I go through my Moleskine notebook. This is my quick thought repository (slowly being replaced by Jott!). Is there anything I need to make into an electronic Outlook task? Is there anything I need to e-mail someone? Is there a telephone call I need to make? - Once addressed, I cross them out in my Moleskine. I typically process my Moleskine twice daily.
- I review my meeting notebook. My meeting notebook is a simple notebook that I take to meetings for note taking. I typically process my meeting notebook on a daily basis, but I do like to review each week to make sure I have not missed something.
That's about it. That's the weekly review process that prepares me for my next week, organizes my tasks and keeps my mind like water.
6 Responses to When I do my Weekly Review - How I do my Weekly Review
can you tell me how you process your meeting notes? I'm working on implementing GTD and I've worked out all my lists that i keep electronically. i haven't tackled physical stuff yet at work...that will happen this week. But my question is, how do you make sense of meeting notes at work in a way that they are useful later? I keep a meeting notebook but i tend to never be able to find what i need later in them so mainly i take notes out of habit but they don't end up being useful. Have you worked out a good notetaking and reference system?
Johnnymal, my meeting notes tend to be actions for me or actions for someone else. As I move these actions from my physical notebook to my online (Outlook based) task list, I cross them off in my meeting notebook. If a note from a meeting is not something I need to do or something I need to follow-up on, I typically disregard it.
If it is something I want to record for future reference, I will transcribe my meeting notes verbatim into an electronic form and save them to a Project related folder.
Hope this helps!
How long does it take you to complete your weekly review? Mine seems to take me upwards of 3 hours.
sunnyUDEL, I can usually get through my weekly review in about an hour. This assumes I have been up to date on things during the week. If I slack during the week, my review turns into a 4 hour exercise.
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Thanks for tips Tim. I'm starting to read up on GTD and was hoping you could point me to some your personal 'must reads'. (reading your blog of course!) Thanks for sharing the tips, very helpful.
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