Weekly reviews can be like lifting a load off your shoulders. They unfortunately can also be frustrating. One key I have learned is to be honest with yourself. I use Remember the Milk to manage my GTD aspirations. I can set a task in a list to repeat, but sometimes it doesn’t even belong in that list to begin with. For example, I have a few things I’d like to do on a regular basis but don’t think I can do if I don’t put them on a list.
When I have a spare moment I would like to research Greasemonkey scripts. I put it on a list that really relates to another project but is somewhat related to Greasemonkey scripts. At first I set it to repeat each week. I wanted a constant reminder so that sometimes I would make time to do it. More often than not I postponed or completed the task without doing it. Once a month or so I would actually do it. I decided to make it repeat monthly since I usually did it only once a month. It lost its urgency on a once a month list. It would come up in the queue and it was even easier to write off. Then I lost interest in staying on top of it. Once you skip tasks so easily it becomes easier to skip others, sometimes other tasks that are really important and really need to be done.
The solution:
I moved it to my someday maybe list. It didn’t belong on the list it was on. If I do my weekly review properly then I am reviewing my someday maybe list each week. I don’t need to put it on another list and then to set it to repeat. Just put it on the someday maybe list and think about it each week, do the research when you can, skip it when you can’t devote the time, but it will always be on the list, waiting for you to Get Things Done. Maximize your time by being more efficient.
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