Mind sweep from weekly review

alevici

Registered
After a couple of months of practicing, the mind sweep of my weekly review starts generating lots of stuff. Clarifying and organizing it take a while, so I was wondering if I should do it during the weekly review or postpone it.
How do you manage this?
 

ivanjay205

Registered
I do a clarify twice a day. First thing in the morning as part of my "workday startup" routine and as the last thing on my plate for the day before heading home from work as my "workday shutdown" routine. I tend to skip clarifying over the weekend unless I have a brainstorming session in which case I do it each Sunday night.

I find that too much in my inbox gets my nerves up too as that clarified and in my list of to do organized is what gives me personally peace of mind.
 

Deirdre

Registered
I try and do my weekly review every Friday morning and resist the urge to organize and "do" everything in that moment. @alevici I will be honest, it's sometimes hard for for me. :D On Friday afternoons, I organize for the following week and that's when I do the clarifying, organizing, and delegating - in To do, get it in One Note or if personal, in Google drive docs.

Also, I have a different take on zero inbox. Most of my colleagues would shoot for a Zero inbox at the end of the day. I shoot for a zero inbox at the beginning of the day (my first work hour), then check email periodically a few time a day. If urgent, anyone can text or chat with me on Teams.
 

ivanjay205

Registered
I try and do my weekly review every Friday morning and resist the urge to organize and "do" everything in that moment. @alevici I will be honest, it's sometimes hard for for me. :D On Friday afternoons, I organize for the following week and that's when I do the clarifying, organizing, and delegating - in To do, get it in One Note or if personal, in Google drive docs.

Also, I have a different take on zero inbox. Most of my colleagues would shoot for a Zero inbox at the end of the day. I shoot for a zero inbox at the beginning of the day (my first work hour), then check email periodically a few time a day. If urgent, anyone can text or chat with me on Teams.
I am actual similar to you.... I move through two inbox zero's. One in the beginning of the day (I am doing mine right now hence why I am responding quickly) and once at the end of the day. I will check my email once or twice throughout the day in between meetings but that is it. At least when I am disciplined. On bad days I get sucked into my email lol.

I do my weekly review Fri afternoon but I am struggling with that as I think I have about a 30% success rate on actually hitting when I schedule it for myself. Most of the time I end up pushing it off to the weekend and that makes for a stressful weekend because I am not organized. I wonder if Fri morning would be a better idea.... On the days I do handle it Fri afternoon as planned I find my weekend is soooooo much better as that is a clear indicator it is my "transition" off of work mentally.
 

alevici

Registered
Also, I have a different take on zero inbox. Most of my colleagues would shoot for a Zero inbox at the end of the day. I shoot for a zero inbox at the beginning of the day (my first work hour), then check email periodically a few time a day. If urgent, anyone can text or chat with me on Teams.

Same for me.... zero inbox in the morning at home before kids wake up or as soon as i get to the office and before going home (sometime skip this one). Not working in an hospital ER every urgent matter can wait couple of hours..
 

alevici

Registered
I need to be fresh, if somethins prevent me for doing the weekly review on Friday mooring i postpone to Monday because I've always other meeting on Friday afternoon. And i the week end I just need to check Family Errands and Home context to be confident i'm not missing anything
 

ivanjay205

Registered
I need to be fresh, if somethins prevent me for doing the weekly review on Friday mooring i postpone to Monday because I've always other meeting on Friday afternoon. And i the week end I just need to check Family Errands and Home context to be confident i'm not missing anything
I think I am going to try switching it. I find that I “rush” through it at the end of the day because I am done vs really doing it right
 

Cpu_Modern

Registered
I find the way DA describes the Weekly Review in the book quite a bit unfortunate. The basics of it, having everything process and organized - "being system complete" - is something that happens daily or almost daily with me. From prior discussions on this board I gather that I am not the only one with that.

The time spent on the scheduled Weekly Review is mainly glancing over the higher levels lists and then re-factoring the projects and re-negotiating between projects and Someday / Maybe.

Of course this process begins when processing, so it's not a clean cut either.
 

Deirdre

Registered
[QUOTE="ivanjay205, post: 124532, member: 11055"

I do my weekly review Fri afternoon but I am struggling with that as I think I have about a 30% success rate on actually hitting when I schedule it for myself. Most of the time I end up pushing it off to the weekend and that makes for a stressful weekend because I am not organized. I wonder if Fri morning would be a better idea.... On the days I do handle it Fri afternoon as planned I find my weekend is soooooo much better as that is a clear indicator it is my "transition" off of work mentally.
[/QUOTE]

For several years I did my weekly review AND process/organize/delegate on Friday morning and to be honest, I liked it better. Right now, I have a couple standing meetings that are based on others' schedules so it doesn't work. But you are so right, if I don't get it done, it's crazy making for me over the weekend!
 

TesTeq

Registered
I find the way DA describes the Weekly Review in the book quite a bit unfortunate. The basics of it, having everything process and organized - "being system complete" - is something that happens daily or almost daily with me. From prior discussions on this board I gather that I am not the only one with that.

The time spent on the scheduled Weekly Review is mainly glancing over the higher levels lists and then re-factoring the projects and re-negotiating between projects and Someday / Maybe.

Of course this process begins when processing, so it's not a clean cut either.
I think some people may be not so perfect in their daily GTD system maintenance so the Weekly Review serves them as a safety net. I can't see anything unfortunate in safety nets.
 

Cpu_Modern

Registered
@TesTeq nothing against safety nets, but in the book DA sounds like the Weekly Review is the only time in the week to process/organize to "zero", not as a additional safety net. From there, I assume, you get this recurring pattern of new entrances into the game letting their inboxes linger for a week and then having those two hour processing marathons at Weekly Review time.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
@TesTeq nothing against safety nets, but in the book DA sounds like the Weekly Review is the only time in the week to process/organize to "zero", not as a additional safety net. From there, I assume, you get this recurring pattern of new entrances into the game letting their inboxes linger for a week and then having those two hour processing marathons at Weekly Review time.
I did not read into the book what you did. David Allen has consistently said that most people need to spend an hour or more per day on the collect, clarify and organize phases of workflow. People don’t have to spend time catching up on their work because of something David Allen wrote or said. Even the most effective and efficient get busy, get tired and get sick.
 

Oogiem

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in the book DA sounds like the Weekly Review is the only time in the week to process/organize to "zero", not as a additional safety net.
Not the way I read it. There are multiple places where he talks about processing daily and ding regular clarify, collect and organize. Weekly review is just to catch any that might still be lingering and so start the review with everything known to make better decisions.
 

TesTeq

Registered
@TesTeq nothing against safety nets, but in the book DA sounds like the Weekly Review is the only time in the week to process/organize to "zero", not as a additional safety net. From there, I assume, you get this recurring pattern of new entrances into the game letting their inboxes linger for a week and then having those two hour processing marathons at Weekly Review time.
I always interpreted "regularly" as at least "daily", not "weekly". YMMV. @mcogilvie
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ivanjay205

Registered
I think some people may be not so perfect in their daily GTD system maintenance so the Weekly Review serves them as a safety net. I can't see anything unfortunate in safety nets.
I think that really depends on your role and work responsibilities (personal too). In my role there are many exterior factors that I cannot control that throw my day out of sync. For example, today I had to review and sign off on a 1 mil proposal because I approve them before going out on Fri afternoon at 4 PM someone in the organization sent me an "oops" email where they forgot to put it on my radar and iti s due Monday.

So many examples like that where it is not always possible to clean everything up daily. DA himself admits the weekly review exists because you should expect your system to fall apart on you a bit with the hectic lifestyles. That is the entire purpose ofi t.
 

Oogiem

Registered
The weekly review is the deep thought active review through everything including your someday lists and your projects.
I don't review ALL my someday/maybe lists ever week. If I did that my weekly review would take hours and hours. I have thousands of items on me S/M lists. I do a cursory review weekly and an in depth detailed review quarterly.
 
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