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(I had posted about this before the board changed, so please indulge me once again!)
When do you do your weekly review and what kinds of rituals do you have in place to ensure that it will happen for you?
I often have deadlines on Fridays, so it's difficult for me to do weekly reviews on those days. I seem to recall that some of you do your reviews on days other than Fridays. I'd really appreciate hearing about what's working for you all.
Thanks!
Here's mine:
- Friday morning, I receive an email alert (from www.memotome.com) with the subject "weekly review pending, 3PM". The Body of the email contains my checklist for the weekly review
- I try to "zap out" as many things as possible during the day Friday, like getting the inbox to zero, and the filing current
- Around 3PM, I unplug the phone, put on some music and start working through the weekly review checklist. I have the checklist in Ecco and Excel, so I just work through it step by step.
- I place an emphasis on getting through every "item" in my system, and making sure it is still current/accurate/valid. I also place a lot of focus on asking the question, "is this really the next action?" and "breaking things apart" until I have all next actions as physically doable, simple actions that I can take. No room for vagueness. This technique alone makes the learning curve for GTD well worth it. In the weekly review, I apply this to every item in my system, including the someday/maybe list.
Other than that, it's pretty mechanical as described in the book. Takes about 2 hours (used to take 6).
The important thing is to do it every week with consistency, and to make sure your project list is the right set of projects, for your current priorities/needs. And that you don't have *too much* in your active project queue.
My $0.02...
-Steve
The only ritual I currently have is that I listen to one of my "mellow music" albums. Personally, I use a soundtrack that has a lot of piano... no I don't play, just that's what I use.
I will share that when I first started implementing GTD in '97, I used money as my carrot. Each weekly review, I paid myself $50. Of course, it was mine anyway, but boy, when I got that fifty bucks I was excited!
Now, about 5 years later, I'm still using tricks to keep me current.
Jason
jason@davidco.
Jason
I did the math on that $50.00 buck thing and you must be rich by now! You should up it to $500.00 and you would really be cleaning up.
My weekly Review tricks:
#1: I print out all my lists. I usually see everything on screen or on PALM and seeing and working with paper for once is refreshing and different
#2: I usually try to do my reviews out of my normal work environment. Usually go to a coffee house or library, getting out of the normal element really does the trick for me
#3: I try to make my system as "airtight" on a daily basis as I can. My weekly reviews have evolved into a huge "pat on the back session for me" "Yep, did that...that's good...that's moving along" etc.
this is much better than "forgot about that...this fell through cracks...i suck at GTD"
I never put anything off to the review, which I used to do alot.
Jason
I did the math on that $50.00 buck thing and you must be rich by now! You should up it to $500.00 and you would really be cleaning up.
My weekly Review tricks:
#1: I print out all my lists. I usually see everything on screen or on PALM and seeing and working with paper for once is refreshing and different
#2: I usually try to do my reviews out of my normal work environment. Usually go to a coffee house or library, getting out of the normal element really does the trick for me
#3: I try to make my system as "airtight" on a daily basis as I can. My weekly reviews have evolved into a huge "pat on the back session for me" "Yep, did that...that's good...that's moving along" etc.
this is much better than "forgot about that...this fell through cracks...i suck at GTD"
I never put anything off to the review, which I used to do alot
I like Jason's plan a lot. Hey, Jason, if I e-mail you each week when I've completed my Weekly Review, will you send me $50?
Randy Stokes
randystokes@cox.net
I've tried Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and even Mondays. I've found that if I want to have a productive weekend I have to have my reviews on Friday afternoons or night. I usually start processing my electronic inboxes while I'm at work and my paper ones when I get home. People at work usually take off early on Fridays afternoon so I find it to be the perfect time to start review.
This way when I get up Saturday mornings I'm ready to hit the ground running. If I do my review on Saturday mornings I feel it slows me down. Having said that, it's still better than putting it off for later during the weekend because by the time the weekend rolls around I need a review to put things back in order to get anything done. And as for Mondays, forget it, too hectic at work.