Old, But Good Weekly Review Habits

When I shared a screenshot of my Weekly Review routine in OmniFocus on Friday I was surprised by the number of people that came back and wanted an editable copy of my checklist for their own use and adaption. So here we go.

It is over 10 years now that I am using Getting Things Done® or a form of it. My system has changed and loosened over the years as may practices that required effort initially have become automatic behaviours, but what has not changed in all these years is the review I am trying to have every week on Friday or Saturday.

It is not every week that I get to it, but latest after two weeks without one I absolutely need to check in with myself and see what is going on for me and what is not. Just to keep sane, really.

Many still think of a Weekly Review to be a 1.5–2 hours exercise and shy away from it. In reality it can be as short as 30 minutes. Maybe just every 3 or 6 months you should consider sitting down a little longer to look at your goals, vision in life and work through “trigger lists” so you do not miss any aspects.

My Weekly Review as per the below checklist is short and effective, unless I skipped it the week before which then requires some more time to catch-up.

My Weekly Review Checklist

Sometimes I have only time and energy on a Friday to complete the first block (Get Clear) and will take on the others on Saturday afternoon when I am more relaxed.

This checklist is a set of three action groups (set to be ‘marked complete when completing last item’) inside of a OmniFocus project which repeats every week on Friday 4pm with a due date on the following Sunday at 4pm and is also automatically marked complete when all actions are done.

The italic elements are the notes of the respective actions.

Get Clear (Action Group)

• Collect Loose Papers and Materials Gather all accumulated business cards, receipts, and miscellaneous paper-based materials into your in-basket Empty laptop bag and wallet Collect and scan paper from around the house
• Get “IN” to Zero Process completely all outstanding paper materials, journal and meeting notes, voicemails, dictation, and e-mails Mail.app, Downloads/Finder Inbox, Evernote Inbox, Jabber Voicemail
• Empty Your Head Put in writing and process any uncaptured new projects, action items, waiting-for’s, someday-maybe’s, etc.

Get Current (Action Group)

• Review Next Action List Mark off completed actions. Review for reminders of further action steps to record.
• Review Previous Calendar Data Review past calendar (since last review) in detail for remaining action items, reference data, etc., and transfer into the active system
• Review Upcoming Calendar Review upcoming calendar events — long (next 2–3 months) and short term (next week). Capture actions triggered.
• Review Waiting-For & Agendas List Record appropriate actions for any needed follow-up. Check off received ones. Look at subject for meetings/1.1s scheduled for next week.
• Review Project (and Larger Outcome) Lists Evaluate status of projects, goals and outcomes, one by one, ensuring at least one current action item on each. Browse through project plans, support material & any other work-in-progress material to trigger new actions, completions, waiting-for’s, etc. Ruthlessly remove or retire projects that are obsolete, got stalled for too long or no longer offer any clear or desired outcome (why did I even started this?)
• Review Any Relevant Checklists Use as a trigger for any new actions.

Get Creative (Action Group)

• Review Someday/Maybe List(s) Review for any projects which may now have become active, and transfer to “Projects.” Delete items no longer of interest. Review OmniFocus Someday/Maybe bucket lists and Evernote ‘Ideas’ notes
• Be Creative & Courageous Any new, wonderful, hare-brained, creative, thought-provoking, risk-taking ideas to add into your system???

Review A Little Better

The simplest tip is also the oldest one: Make sure you have uninterrupted time (close the real life and virtual door) and enough energy for your Weekly Review. It should also be a bit of a pleasure to go through the things that determine progress for you in professional and private life.

When you use other reference system like Evernote or simple folders in Finder you can either copy & paste note links from Evernote or drag and drop Finder folders as an alias into the note section of your OmniFocus action. This will make access to those things a lot faster and easier when reviewing.

You can even “drop” applications like Calendar or specific mailboxes of Mail.app into the note section in OmniFocus for quick access when working the respective review actions.

Finally, every review is personal and you may have a few things less or a few things more in your checklist. There are maybe project reporting checklists from work that you want to include or one of these clever parenting checklists that make sure your kids’ upcoming week is thoroughly planned and in hand.

What ever floats your boat — just do not overdo it! This is just a checkpoint and should be an engaging one. You should feel better in control and able to let your mind wander to new exciting places after you checked in with things. If you are trying to avoid the weekly review, you are doing it wrong.

Find all of my OmniFocus posts in my ‘Essentials’ collection. If you like to master OmniFocus, I really recommend the excellent ‘Learn OmniFocus’ learning platform as well as the pragmatic ‘Working with OmniFocus’ video tutorials.