Weekly Review

When I have a hectic week, I’ll go from chaos to focus in 60 minutes when doing a weekly Review. It’s is a simple habit to get closure for the week, gain insights on what works (what doesn’t) and to get back to zero. I’ve been doing Weekly Reviews since 2016 and I love what it brings me.

Benefits of doing a Weekly Review

• Closure of the week: no more guilt when the weekend starts and you didn’t finish everything you wanted to finish. It’s OK and next week is another week. It’s also a great way to celebrate success and be grateful for what you’ve accomplished
• Adds a fire-break, so the chaos from this week doesn’t spread to next week
• You make a deliberate effort to work on your goals. Work on projects that matter, because you’ve prioritised the most important projects
• Less stressed, because all tasks are planned and scheduled, instead of winging it and doing tasks as they come. You are focussed and now what to work on
• Reflection is the only way to improve yourself. It’s part of my philosophy of 1% better everyday

Do the weekly review at the same time every week

To turn this into a habit, I recommend creating a time-block for a weekly review. It should be in your Calendar and you should have time planned for it, otherwise you won’t do it.

I prefer to do this on Friday to close my week. If I have other commitments, I’ll perform it on Saturday Morning. When I don’t have enough time, I do a quick version: just the weekly reflection and rating. Writing a few paragraphs can be done anywhere. When I realise I forgot to do it, I’ll sit down and write for a few minutes. This way I don’t break the habit. One of the most memorable weekly reviews was on the top of a mountain in Spain while I was doing a trail run.

You can make a Weekly Review any size you want. Start small.

No-nonsense version of the Weekly Review

A Weekly Review is not meant to ponder about the meaning of life or reflect on your career in relation to the vastness of the Universe. My Weekly Review is no-nonsense. That means you won’t have to meditate or ‘ohm’. It’s a weekly review that is focussed on business results, but has a personal side to it as well.

Step-by-step instructions for Weekly Review

The concept was popularised by David Allen in the book Getting Things Done.

Step 1: Clear all Open Loops

Clear Gmail Inbox to Zero

To start I process all emails in my inbox. That means I decide what to do with them, and not reply to all of them. Read how I process my email using the Inbox Zero method. This is basically the last time blocking session of the week to process my email.

1. Reply/process emails that take less than 2 minutes
2. Add meetings to Google Calendar
3. Add tasks from longer emails to my task system
4. Skim through newsletter folder and read interesting articles
5. Save emails/attachments in Reference folder if needed

Make a decision on each email, you don’t necessarily have to reply to all of them.

Clear Notes

In my Notion setup, I go over the Notes section to make sure all notes have been processed. That means that I’ve followed up everyone I’ve spoken to that week and have sent them the meeting notes. I usually catch tasks I forgot about when going through the notes.

Review Calendar

Next to the meeting notes, I see if I’ve met someone this week that I didn’t follow-up on or didn’t send a thank you message to. I will check last week’s calendar and add any tasks that I’ve missed to my To-Do list.

Clear Task List

In Notion, the next step is to rebalance all tasks that I didn’t complete. Stuff got in the way and that’s OK. I use my Weekly Review as a fire-break, so next week’s task list is achievable, instead of last week’s left over tasks AND next week’s tasks.

Review ‘Waiting For’ List

In Gmail and Notion, I check the tasks I’ve delegated to other people. If the task has expired its deadline, I’ll follow-up to ask if the task is still on their list.

Clear Whatsapp

I see WhatsApp as an inbox as well. I’m terrible at replying to them, so on Friday I go over them and reply to any unread messages.

Clear Chat messages

If I have any unread messages in Google Chat or Slack, I mark them as read and catch any tasks before I close off for the weekend.

Clear Downloads Folder

It’s really annoying if you can’t find a file and have to re-create something. That’s why I go over my Downloads Folder on Friday and upload important files to Google Drive if I didn’t do that already when I created them. It’s a way to make sure I have access to all files in the future.

Clear psychical desktop

Any papers that are on my desk, I’ll archive or get rid of. The papers usually are tasks as well, so I do them or add them to my To-Do List.

Mind-Dump

If anything is bothering me, I’ll have a moment to check in and I’ll write about it. What’s bothering me? Why is it bothering me? This helps me to prevent any mental blockers from showing up.

Step 2: Reflect on Projects

Review ‘Active Projects’ & Goals in Notion

Quickly go over my Goals and Projects to make sure I’m still aligned and working towards making progress. This is part of my project prioritisation process.

Review “Next Action” for Active Projects

I’ll go over all active Projects in Notion.

• What have I done to make progress?
• What are the next actions for this project?

Review next week’s calendar

Check if there are any conflicts between my ‘Next Action’ List and my Calendar. Cancel any meetings that don’t serve my goals. I also check if I need to prepare anything for next week’s meetings. I do this here to catch any potential calendar clashes.

If I’m teaching a new group next week, I want to review my course material to see if it fits their goals. I might need half a day to create an updated version of the slides. By checking my calendar for next week, I’ll catch it here before I conduct a review of the week.