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Meg Edwards
Doing the Weekly Review, Weekly
I have been working as a coach for The David Allen Company for four years. In that time, one of my areas of interest is the Weekly Review and how to support people in doing it weekly. As one client said to me “Meg, I just finished my monthly Weekly Review.” We all know that the Weekly Review is a critical success factor in Getting Things Done. So why is it so difficult to do? I want to share some thoughts that might assist getting you up and running if you are someone who just hasn’t gotten around to doing your Weekly Review on a regular basis.
First, I want to make a confession. It took me several months before I was doing a Weekly Review in its entirety every week. The first month I only got through the first step which is collecting all the loose papers and processing them to zero. By the time I completed this, the two hours were up and I was toast.
Remedy: The day before my weekly review, I collected all my loose papers and processed them. Then when it came time to do the weekly review, I only needed to spend 10 minutes on that step. As the months passed, I learned how much time it took to process my paper to zero. I am now in the habit of having an empty inbox at least every other day if not every day. Each person will have to determine how often they need to process their paper to stay on top of their job.
Second, I found that when I was trying to implement the Weekly Review I was using that time to do work I wasn’t able to get to during the week or better yet, to chip away at my backlog of work.
Remedy: The purpose of the Weekly Review is to get a current inventory of everything you have attention on. It is not a time to do your work. As stated above, you need to regularly process your collection tools down to zero. Along the same line, you also need to build in time during the week to consistently “do” your work so you don’t have an avalanche of incomplete work when it’s time to do the Weekly Review.
Third, sometimes I didn’t do a weekly review because I never scheduled one. My reason for not scheduling one was because I had such a back log of work from the week, I thought it would be better if I waited until I had enough time to do a whole, complete, thorough weekly review rather than a partial one. Because it seemed so overwhelming, it felt like more than I wanted to deal with on a Friday afternoon.
Remedy: Schedule an hour to do the Weekly Review in your calendar and make yourself important enough to keep that commitment. You may not get through all of the review but if you keep implementing the GTD process throughout the week you will find that it will be easier to do the Weekly Review when it is time to do it and you will be able to incorporate more steps each week. Remember that when you are first installing a new habit, such as beginning an exercise program, it is always easier to find something else to do other than exercise. However once it is a habit, it becomes critical to your health and well being. The same holds true for the Weekly Review. In order to cultivate a relaxed controlled experience with your work give yourself a couple of months to implement the Weekly Review as a habit.
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