The weekly review

Scheduling time to figure out where you’ve been and where you might go next

Hey y’all,

Today I wanted to talk about a tool that has been working for me lately: the weekly review.

I learned it from my friend Alan Jacobs, who, like me, is unfussy about “productivity” tools. His only real task-management tool is a calendar, and he uses that calendar to schedule regular times for reviewing his notes. He says:

No, the tools don’t really matter to me, and I have learned not to fuss about them. What’s essential is scheduling time — I set aside an hour each Monday morning and a whole morning on or near the first of every month — to go over all of those notes and do a kind of self-assessment. I sit down with my notebook and my computer and ask: Where am I in my current projects? What did I accomplish last week? What do I need to think about further? Is there any research or reading I need to be doing? What should be my priorities this week (or this month)? That kind of thing.  

I could have the best note-taking system in the world and I’d still be lost if I didn’t have regular periods for review and reflection.

The minute I heard Alan explain this I knew it was exactly what I was missing in my creative life.

I’ve written about the importance of revisiting notebooks and how I’ve even created a blog widget to pull up old posts from my archives. And you could argue that my Friday newsletter is already a kind of weekly review. But that’s a public review — I’m going back through my week, and picking things that interested me that I think would interest y’all. What I also need is a private weekly review, a little bit of time for reflection. A system for getting my bearings. Figuring out where I’ve been and where I want to go next.

Speaking of not knowing where I’ve been and the need for review: I’m just now remembering that David Allen writes about the need for a weekly review in his classic, Getting Things Done.

Most people feel best about their work the week before their vacation, but it’s not because of the vacation itself. What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify, and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I suggest that you do this weekly instead of yearly.

Allen suggests blocking out two hours early every Friday afternoon, to “clear your psychic decks so you can go into the weekend ready for refreshment and recreation, with nothing on your mind.“

Alan does Monday morning. Allen says Friday afternoon. Because I’m a weirdo, I’ve actually been doing my weekly review on Saturday morning, right after I get done writing in my diary.

Here’s what it looks like (yes, I know it’s weird to talk about needing a private review and then sharing it):

I do not expect this image to make any kind of sense to anyone other than me! But let me try to explain. Basically, what’s going on here is that I’m making two maps of my mind, divided by a line 2/3 down the page.

The map on top is for the things I was into or the things that happened during the week. I fill this out by re-reading my diary and my logbook and my blog and my newsletters.

The map on the bottom is for things I want to research or write about during the upcoming week. I often copy things from last week’s weekly review that I didn’t get to into this space.

(I make maps instead of lists because it activates the visual part of my brain — there’s something about seeing everything laid out in space that helps me see connections between everything. I would guess that for other people written lists might work better.)

And that’s it, really. Takes maybe a half hour to 45 minutes, but it’s really paid off over the last month or so and helped me keep better track of what I’m up to.

I’m going to stop there because I’d like to hear from y’all. Do you do a weekly review? What works best for you? Tell us in the comments:

(If anyone wants to share images, I’ll also start a thread in the chat.)

xoxo,

Austin