Weekly Review - Wow!

[susie]

I must confess -- I have been trying to incorporate GTD into my life for about the last 6 months. However, to date I have been unsuccessful. I tried the weekly review but got caught up in the projects, to do lists, not to mention the various INs. I am sure other folks have various ins (home, work, spouse, organizations) I haven't found a way to catch everything so nothing falls through the cracks. My attempts at weekly reviews are more like scurrying to still try to find my projects and next actions. Any advice would be helpful.

I keep reading the posts and I am inspired. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi, Susie,
I'm not sure how you go about the weekly review, but here are a couple tips I've found useful:

1) Expect it to take a while, and make sure to budget the time (2-3 hours anyway; I've gone 5 or 6 hours setting up, and when I really processed my house). It'll get better with time/practice, but this was the first psychological hurdle I hit.

2) Be really mechanical. Get the weekly review guide from the tips section of this site, and walk through it step by step. Copy into a memo on your palm, or in your computer; print the sucker out if you need to (I often do), or copy it to a new file and delete each step as you go.

3) Use "place holders". Don't try to get everything at once; accept, for short while, that you won't get it all together. You will in time, but for now, you mentioned several "roles" (you called them "ins") in your life. Get one of those completely in control, then move to the next. For example, really try to nail work and get that under control. Then, make a project (for later) called "get home life under control".

4) Practice counts. You'll catch more each time.

5) I know its a "weekly" review, but I find it really helpful to process my "ins" (inbasket, email, etc) daily.

6) Finally, find a copy of the "incompletion trigger list" (chapter 5 of the book) and invest time in running through it, either as part of a weekly review or separately.

Hang in there!