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 Is anything outdated that I can delete?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 Is anything outdated that I can delete?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.
4 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.
Something to say?