Over the past few weeks we have looked at how to step into the Getting Things Done methodology by using a stripped down system that emphasizes the essence of GTD. In this last article, we look at an often overlooked aspect of the GTD system called the Weekly Review. The Weekly Review is a technique that is used to align priorities and keep your system running with the highest productivity. It is one of the most powerful techniques in the GTD methodology and once you incorporate it into your system, you will see benefits right away. So let’s get into discussing the Weekly Review…

The goal of the Weekly Review is to keep your system updated and running smoothly. Up to this point you have set up your system to handle your day-to-day activities so that you don’t get overwhelmed, but if all you do is work from day-to-day, you will not get ahead on anything but the highest priority things, and you won’t drive any closer to your long range goals. The Weekly Review is going to help you focus your To Do list so that you are as producitive as possible and ensure that you are keeping all your major commitments.

Making The Date

The Weekly Review is an activity that you will perform… well, Weekly. The goal of the activity is to get you ready for for the upcoming week. Before we delve into the steps, you must make an honest commitment to do to the Weekly Review, go to your calendar and find 1 hour at the end of your week and set it aside for your Weekly Review. Any less of a commitment, and this will not work.

I personally like to have my Weekly Review on Friday afternoons while I am at the office. Others like to do it over the weekend. Pick a day and a time at the end of the week that is going to work best for you. It is essential that this day and time is free for your personal use 99% of the time. There will always be the rare time that something will come up, but short of that you need this time to be free if you hope to make the Weekly Review an integrated part of your system.

Setting the Mood

In order for you to get the Weekly Review done you are going to need some place where you can work. It’s best if you can find some place quiet to perform your review. Figure out the best location for you to perform your review and do what you can to make sure that you are going to have peace and quiet. You do not want to be disturbed with people dropping by your office or a ringing phone. Make it known that the time you have chosen is committed. Politely ask people to stop by later, turn off your phone, close your email, and focus on your review.

I have also found it helpful to have some relaxing music picked out. I like a playlist of Denzal Sinclaire for setting my mental focus and getting me ready to start the review.

Steps Of The Review

Now that you have committed some time and have set a place aside to do your review, it’s time to actually get your review started. The Weekly Review consists of the following steps:

• Clear Your Inputs: Before you begin your weekly review, clear all your inputs. The details for how to get control of your inputs was covered in Part 1 of this series. Get everything out of your head, email, and voicemail and put it down on a list. You want to have everything that you may need to work on in your notebook before you start.

• Set Your Priorities: Now that your head is clear, align your mental compass and set your priorities for the coming week. Part 4 of this series covered how to set your priorities. You need to know what your priorities are because they are going to be the guide that allows you to differentiate tasks that you have to have done next week versus tasks that would be nice to do next week.

• Review Your Calender: If you keep a separate calendar, now is the time to look that over as well. See what meetings and appointments you have coming up next week. Now look at your Priorities and your To Do lists. Do you have to do anything for these meetings? If so, do you have a To Do item written down for that? Now look through your calendar and see where you have open time, and when you are going to be busy in meetings. Part of planning out your week is knowing what times are best to work on different tasks. By understanding the time constraints of your week, you can better gauge when you have time for a specific task.

• Review Your Lists: With your priorities in order, look over the lists in your notebook and make some decisions about what you should be working on for the upcoming week. You may need to use a new page in your notebook to write down your list for the week. There are several steps in reviewing your lists:
  • Last Week’s Undone Actions– It’s very hard to finish all your planned To Dos in a given week. There is a good chance you will have some tasks that you picked last week left over. Look them over and decide if they are things that need to be done this coming week. Sometimes a window of action has passed, so a task is no longer relevant, or certain things may have happened during the past week that changed the priorities of certain actions. Go through the list of last week’s uncompleted actions and delete tasks that you no longer need to work on, move ones that are not due next week to another list, and carry over anything that needs to get done for next week.
  • Review Your Next Action List– As you go through your list of next actions keep in mind your priorities. Make sure you put on your list the highest priorities due in the upcoming week. In addition to the tasks that are due for the week, pick a few that do not have due dates, the “nice to haves,” and add them to your list so that you are not just working on things that are “on fire,” and are working to reduce your To Do lists.
  • Review Your Project List– Review your list of projects and see if there are any next actions on which you should be working this week that may advance your projects towards completion. While a given project is not due this week, there may be activities you can be doing that will get this project one step closer to completion.
  • Plot Your Week– Now that you have completed your task list for the week, decide which tasks should be worked on in the context of your calendar. If a task is going to require a long stretch of time to complete, don’t plan to work on it the day you have 4 meetings. Come up with an “ideal plan” for when you will work on all your tasks. Don’t lock these tasks to these dates, but rather keep them as a suggestion. Things are going to change during the week, and you have to be flexible enough to change with them, but by knowing what time constraints you have and the requirements in your task list, you will have a better understanding of how to manage your time.

Keeping Your Committment

Now that you have a Weekly Review, you need to do this weekly. Your GTD system will function without a Weekly Review, but you won’t be as productive as you could be unless you are doing the Weekly Review. Make this review a personal and professional commitment. I have my weekly review scheduled into my office calendar as a meeting with myself, so that no one else can steal this time, and so that I will sit and do it at the same time every week. If you miss a Weekly Review, try to make it up as soon as possible. If you cannot, then make sure you get your Weekly Review in the next week.

Making It More GTD

The Getting Things Done book has an excellent chapter on the Weekly Review that is worth reading, twice. In addition, at the David Allen Website there is a free download for a tip sheet on performing your Weekly Review. I keep a copy of that on my desk every Friday when I do my Weekly Review. It’s a single sheet, very easy to follow, and a good reminder of all the steps you should take. As you expand your system, reread the Weekly Review chapter and adjust your system to accommodate the more formal Weekly Review system.
That concludes my “Stepping Into GTD” series. I hope you have found these articles helpful and perhaps even a gateway into the GTD methodology. My intent was to create for you a simple system for GTD that would get you started and build some success with the system. I encourage you, as you get comfortable with the simple system, to expand your system and customize it to work best for you. The key to being able to work the GTD method is to love your system, so customize and tinker with your system to make it work for you. Good luck, and if you ever have questions, contact me, and I will be glad to help out.