12hourhalfday said:
I have been doing my weekly review on Friday afternoon at the end of my work day at work and i just don't have the energy and it just doesn't get done. Place-wise I believe work is the best place to do it but I have been having trouble figuring out a day and time.
You have defined your problem of time quite well. You need a time 1) when you are at work, and 2) when you have enough energy to do it. Only you can really know what that time is. You may have to experiment with some different times until you find one that works for you.
There is another solution, however, that may help you accomplish the objectives of your Weekly Review: to
reduce the time and effort required to complete it. Three strategies can help you do this: 1) break the task into subtasks, 2) eliminate subtasks that aren't necessary, and 3) find tools and techniques to accomplish your objectives more easily.
The first strategy is classic problem-solving strategy of breaking a big problem into solvable subproblems. Lots of the activities of the Weekly Review described on pp. 185-187 can be done in different sessions.
For example, collecting and processing papers and notes can be done as required in shorter sessions throughout the week. I also collect ideas ("empty your head") mostly as they arrive, with the occasional short Mind Dump session that can be done whenever my mind is ready for it, not necessarily during the Weekly Review. Furthermore, I do mini-reviews most mornings (after coffee) and most evenings, checking off things I've done and reviewing Next Actions and Waiting For lists.
I once had a similar problem with housecleaning that was solved by breaking it into subproblems. I lived alone in my first 2 small apartments and cleaned them in one weekly session with speed-cleaning techniques, getting the whole place spotless in 30-45 minutes. However, when I married and moved into a much bigger house, that one session required 2-3 hours. I really hated devoting a big chunk of Saturday but didn't have the time or energy on weekday evenings. So I tried different strategies for breaking it down, starting with FlyLady-style routines. Those didn't work for me, either, so I figured out why and tried other strategies (5 or 6 different ones!) until I found one that works great for me. Now I do some cleaning most weekdays. I probably spend slightly more time than the one session, but my house is always clean and I never have to clean on my day off, leaving it free for other things. So I achieved my goal (a clean house) while also solving my problem (not enough time or energy to do it in one session).
The second strategy to make the Weekly Review easier is to eliminate unnecessary work. With the housecleaning problem, I realized I did not need to vacuum the guest room every week. If it ain't dirty, don't clean it. With respect to Weekly Review, I similarly decided not to review my Someday/Maybe list every week. My Someday/Maybe list is huge. Reviewing the whole thing takes a lot of time and is really not necessary every week since many of the items are pie-in-the-sky Maybes. So I broke those out to a separate list which rarely if ever needs review. (Maybe while I'm waiting in line or something.) I then review just the Someday list.
The third strategy to ease the Weekly Review is to find
easier ways to achieve its objectives. The Weekly Review is so difficult for many to accomplish because of the effort required to maintain connections between Projects and Next Actions. Doing so only at the Weekly Review puts a huge, effortful load on your brain's short-term memory. This is a good thing to get
out of your head. I highly recommend finding a method or tool to make this easier. Many have been discussed on this forum, including the PigPog method and Life Balance. I use Life Balance which ensures that I always have a Next Action defined for every project, effortlessly. This eliminates the difficult, time-consuming effort that keeps many from actually doing the Weekly Review. My brain is free for higher-level, creative planning and thinking.
Using a tool to achieve your goals more easily is analagous to another housecleaning problem I once faced. I was brought up to wash floors on my hands and knees. My mother still does it this way, taking one and a half hours each time and putting a lot of stress on her poor old knees. I decided to abandon this way in favor of a mop which gets the floor almost as clean in 10 minutes. Since it's so quick and easy, I do it whenever it needs it, which is generally every day. My mother does it only once a week since it is so difficult and time-consuming. So I spend about half the time, yet have a cleaner floor than my mother does a majority of the time (since floors don't
stay clean very long, just like lists don't stay up-to-date very long).
These strategies may help you achieve the successful outcome of the Weekly Review. Good luck!
