I often use a great post from Lifehacker as a guide for doing my weekly review. Since I have been doing a weekly review for almost a year now, I know the drill without consulting the post. Today for my weekly review I decided to revisit the post for more inspiration. See the post here.

One of the things I spent more time on this week was my calendar. This really motivated me to finish a few marketing materials for my new business. I had to look on my calendar and make sure everything was scheduled properly and that I had all the materials I needed for my week. Well I don’t have much on my calendar this week so it means I don’t have enough work this week. That was a little wake up to stop procrastinating on my new business venture here in France.

I must update this site, my CV on this site, and finish my packet of materials that I will send to potential clients when making contact for the first time. Since I don’t have much work I must use the time wisely but also use the threat of little work to motivate myself into action.

Another not so evident benefit of doing a weekly review, uncovering these kinks continues to motivate me to continue to do a weekly review, even when I don’t have much work and I know I am on top of my to do lists. Each time I find something useful about it so I am motivated to continue doing it. Do the weekly review each week.

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.

The Weekly Review is an absolutely essential step to continuing on the path to getting things done. I was pretty consistent in doing it at the beginning of my drive to implement GTD. Then I had a falling off as they say. I began again and felt really good and in control of my time and projects.

Recently I had a lot of work to do and projects to complete. While I like routine and try to faithfully do the weekly review, I barely did one for the last 2 weeks. Why? Because I was busy getting things done. I had 2 projects that were pressing and needed to be finished so I think I did a mini mental weekly review.

I just made sure that I could really clear everything off my plate this past week so I could devote my entire week to finishing my projects. Isn’t that what the weekly review is for? At first I thought, no don’t skip the weekly review, it’s a bad habit to get into. But then I thought, well if I were skipping it to make room for skiing or Facebook, then yes, it is a bad habit, but it was for real live work.

Lesson learned: Be flexible. If you do GTD to get things done, then don’t stop yourself from getting things done just to strictly adhere to a regimen.

I have been doing a pretty good job of doing my Weekly Review. I enjoy my Weekly Review. It gives me a sense of control. I know what is on the horizon and what trouble awaits me. It helps me organize my day and week. I have been able to keep it around 30 minutes.

Today my weekly review took almost an hour. It might be because it is the first big one of the year I have done. It also reminded me of how easy it is to have too many things going on at one time. How good is it to be organized for productivity if you can’t actually accomplish and DO those things?

Today I moved a bunch of things to my someday/maybe list. I made sure each task was completely documented but I put them on my someday/maybe list. This way I don’t have to do anything but occasionally glance over them to see if I have a moment now and again to do one or two of them. This also helped me to focus on the real tasks I needed to do.

This also allowed me to remove some things from the someday/maybe list that are really not that important and are so far off in the horizon that I don’t want to even give them my thoughts. When I simplify I produce. I must simplify and I must produce.

What do you do for your weekly review? *echoes*

The Weekly Review, do you fear it? Do you do your Weekly Review? What do others do for their Weekly Review? Here are 5 more links to help you do your Weekly Review:

1. http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/the-five-ws-of-a-weekly-gtd-review/
2. another one
3. another one
4. another one
5. another one

The Weekly Review is not just about your work. To be really effective it should incorporate your work and social life. This Lifehacker post talks about just that. I often struggle with putting things like “add expenses to budget” in my GTD framework. I want to be reminded of them each week but I don’t have to do something each week for them. This article on Lifehack talks about the kind of not so work related things you could put on your Weekly Review. Should I put go to the gym on my calendar? I don’t find it motivates me more but do I consider it downtime and therefore a necessary balance to create in my GTD life? These are the types of considerations discussed in the articles. At what point does your calendar become unmanageable with so many little things clogging it up? Make your Weekly Review work for you and not against you. Try something different and add a few of these things to your Weekly Review.

I have been implementing GTD, Getting Things Done. Everyone does it a little differently but the general idea remains the same. After capturing everything in some form of a basket and getting it out of your head and into some organizational structure you must actually do the things on your lists. The Weekly Review is an essential step to this process.

Many people find the Weekly Review to be difficult to make room for. I like doing the Weekly Review. I don’t find it as hard to do as say, all the things on the lists I make. It makes me feel organized and aware of everything on the horizon. Once I feel that way, I feel in control and able to begin work. When I struggle to start working I usually find my Weekly Review hasn’t been done yet or that it was not done adequately. Each week I am going to search for articles about different ways to do a Weekly Review.

What works for one will not work for everyone. What works for me right now will not work for me always. I intend to build an arsenal of methods for doing a Weekly Review.

I like simplicity. This first post will reveal the simplest method I have found. If I have nothing extraordinary to do in a week, this methods works everytime so far. It also comes from one of my favorite sites, Lifehacker, simplify your life by becoming more efficient. See what you think.

http://lifehacker.com/software/getting-things-done/getting-into-the-weekly-review-habit-278118.php