What to do during a daily planning and during a daily review

mhalano

Registered
I'm doing a GTD level 1 course in my country, and we talk about the weekly review. But I'm thinking the necessity to a daily review, which could be two per day, actually. I did some research and created these two lists of items for a morning planning and for the end of the day, which would be the actually daily review:
This would be a morning planning for the day, but could include the daily review from the previous day, if you want to:
Step 1: Review your calendar
Step 2: Do an emergency scan (new inputs, urgent requests)
Step : Check your Next Actions list
Step 4: Set aside "clarifying time" in your calendar
Step 5: Identify and address you limiting criteria (Context, time available, energy, priority)
And for daily review, usually at the end of the day, I found this list:
1. Process your inbox
2. Are there any other things that come to mind?
3. review the projects you have worked on today
4. Review projects you plan to work on tomorrow
5. What things do you want to achieve tomorrow? (Flag them)
6. Review your calendar for tomorrow
7. Quick mind-sweep
What you think? What should be part of the two routines, one to get ready for the day and another to review the day?
 

mcogilvie

Registered
None of the things on either list are bad things. I do them all, but usually not all at once. I have found that theoretical structures work less well for me than emergent behavior. In the first case, it‘s “should do’s”, which can be major productivity killers. With emergent structure, I find out what works for me, and what I need to do to get stuff off my mind. Some days, I spend half an hour early on looking at my calendar, lists, email, et cetera. Other days I quickly get to work on something I want to do. I will catch up on everything later. GTD aims at both freedom and awareness. If you find daily checklists helpful now, go ahead. Just don’t take them too seriously. If you don’t want or need to do something, ask yourself why. Don’t be afraid to change, and don’t be surprised if you end up not needing daily lists once the habits of gtd and their benefits set in.
 

bishblaize

Registered
I have a checklist that I go through each morning
  • Get some music going
  • Charge your devices
  • Tidy your desk
  • Update paper journal
  • Reply to 2 minute emails
  • Add remaining emails to Omnifocus
  • Check Teams for messages
  • Process Drafts inbox
  • Process DevonThink inbox
  • Process Omnifocus Inbox
  • Clear files from Mac desktop
  • Clear HR system notifications
  • Clear bank authorisations
  • Review RSS reader
  • Set up some Tweets for the day
  • Review calendar
  • Review due dates in Omnifocus
  • Review projects list, flag any key items

I find it really useful to start the day with this. Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes, other times it can take me an hour. All this stuff needs doing daily anyway, so I may as well do it first thing and get it out of the way before the day begins.

It's reassuring starting the day with a checklist of things that I tick off one at a time. I'm sure all of us on here appreciate the simple satisfaction of ticking a box off as done, even if it is just for plugging a phone in. Somehow it starts off the day in the right way.
 

Murray

Registered
I have a checklist that I go through each morning
  • Get some music going
  • Charge your devices
  • Tidy your desk
  • Update paper journal
  • Reply to 2 minute emails
  • Add remaining emails to Omnifocus
  • Check Teams for messages
  • Process Drafts inbox
  • Process DevonThink inbox
  • Process Omnifocus Inbox
  • Clear files from Mac desktop
  • Clear HR system notifications
  • Clear bank authorisations
  • Review RSS reader
  • Set up some Tweets for the day
  • Review calendar
  • Review due dates in Omnifocus
  • Review projects list, flag any key items

I find it really useful to start the day with this. Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes, other times it can take me an hour. All this stuff needs doing daily anyway, so I may as well do it first thing and get it out of the way before the day begins.

It's reassuring starting the day with a checklist of things that I tick off one at a time. I'm sure all of us on here appreciate the simple satisfaction of ticking a box off as done, even if it is just for plugging a phone in. Somehow it starts off the day in the right way.
I had a similar checklist at my last job, which I kept printed copies of in my reference files and started each day with. And yes I even put stuff on there like plug phone in to charge. Actually a critical thing I added was to make sure I had my keys in my pocket - I typically keep them in my backpack and didn't need them to get into the office as there was always someone there before me, however as it was a very small department at a big school, a couple of times I would leave to go to the bathroom or speak to other staff and come back and find I was locked out.
 

TesTeq

Registered
My Daily Review each morning typically includes 3 things:

1/ Look at my calendar for:
  • Time-specific actions
  • Day-specific actions
  • Day-specific information
2/ Then I flip over to my inbox and get it down to zero.

3/ Then I scan my Next Action lists for items with due dates.
@kelstarrising
1. What about the Tickler File?
2. Isn't it too late to do the Daily Review in the morning? Isn't it better to do it in the evening the day before?
 

topshelf

Registered
My Daily Review each morning typically includes 3 things:

1/ Look at my calendar for:
  • Time-specific actions
  • Day-specific actions
  • Day-specific information
2/ Then I flip over to my inbox and get it down to zero.

3/ Then I scan my Next Action lists for items with due dates.

Kelly's Daily Review is an excellent example because it's simple. No matter what GTD "ritual(s)" you try, keep in mind this invaluable question/thought exercise from David:

"Can I maintain this easily if I am sick in bed with the flu?"

For the Daily Review, I recommend looking at pages 50 and 192 from Getting Things Done (2015).
 

Ridwan

Registered
Funny that for whatever reason today, I wanted to search for a simple GTD Daily Review template and found this post. I'm going to adopt Kelly's recommendation. Nice and easy for starters.
 

Ariadne Marques

Registered
I have 2 daily reviews: one in the morning and another in the afternoon before I leave work. The morning one is critical, if I skip it, I feel like my day is totally derailed and I end up confused and overwhelmed. I've been avoiding engaging with it, even though I block 30 minutes at the beginning of my workday to do it. So, I actually created a recurring daily action in my to-do so that I can check off each step:

Daily Review - morning:
  1. ☀ Open my physical notebook and insert the day.
  2. ◕ Check Calendar: what do I need to do today? is there anything I need to prepare for?
  3. ⛳ Process Inboxes (E-mail, Nirvana): Clarify: Is it actionable? What is the context - Organize: is it part of a project? Energy? Time?
  4. ✅ Check my Next Actions List: Is there anything to move to Focus?
  5. ⭐ Check my Focus List (is it current?)
  6. ⚡ Engage: Filter which context I’m in at the moment and start!
The end-of-day checklist is:
  1. Review my Calendar for tomorrow. Do I need to prepare anything?
  2. Check off any completed tasks.
  3. Process Meeting Notes from the day.
  4. What things do I want to achieve tomorrow? (Flag them to the ⭐Focus list)
  5. Capture: Quick mind-sweep of tasks I failed to capture and add them to the to the Inbox.
 

KachriT

Registered
Just last year I started a 'work opening routine' and 'work closing routine' that sounds similar to this. It was very helpful while I was sticking to it, but some staffing changes shook up my schedule and I guess it fell off my radar (new habit, no roots).

Reading this, I think I'll get back on board with it starting tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration!
 

larea

Registered
I do look at my calendar the night before and in the morning, write something in my journal, and read through my next actions list. I like to choose 3 key items and also sometimes make a short list of things I might do today without referring back to the main list. The short list is just for today and does not carry over because otherwise it gets crufty.
 

johanbertil

Registered
I have 2 daily reviews: one in the morning and another in the afternoon before I leave work. The morning one is critical, if I skip it, I feel like my day is totally derailed and I end up confused and overwhelmed. I've been avoiding engaging with it, even though I block 30 minutes at the beginning of my workday to do it. So, I actually created a recurring daily action in my to-do so that I can check off each step:

Daily Review - morning:
  1. ☀ Open my physical notebook and insert the day.
  2. ◕ Check Calendar: what do I need to do today? is there anything I need to prepare for?
  3. ⛳ Process Inboxes (E-mail, Nirvana): Clarify: Is it actionable? What is the context - Organize: is it part of a project? Energy? Time?
  4. ✅ Check my Next Actions List: Is there anything to move to Focus?
  5. ⭐ Check my Focus List (is it current?)
  6. ⚡ Engage: Filter which context I’m in at the moment and start!
The end-of-day checklist is:
  1. Review my Calendar for tomorrow. Do I need to prepare anything?
  2. Check off any completed tasks.
  3. Process Meeting Notes from the day.
  4. What things do I want to achieve tomorrow? (Flag them to the ⭐Focus list)
  5. Capture: Quick mind-sweep of tasks I failed to capture and add them to the to the Inbox.
Thanks for sharing your daily review routine. I wonder what Focus List means, I haven't heard that term before, is it the same as Areas of Focus?
 

Ariadne Marques

Registered
Thanks for sharing your daily review routine. I wonder what Focus List means, I haven't heard that term before, is it the same as Areas of Focus?
You're welcome! The Focus list for me is like a "punch list" of things I want to focus on the day. I got the concept from the Nirvana app, where you can "star" actions that are your focus.
 

kito99

Registered
My deal is similar to Ariadne Marques's. I never called it a "Daily Review" before, but I suppose that's what it is. I don't have a checklist, but basically I spend 10-40 min checking off stuff I did the day before, reviewing what has to be done today, picking out/reviewing tasks that I'd like to do during the day, and reviewing the calendar for the day. If I don't do this, I feel sort of out of control and I inevitably forget something important.
 

gtdstudente

Registered
My Daily Review each morning typically includes 3 things:

1/ Look at my calendar for:
  • Time-specific actions
  • Day-specific actions
  • Day-specific information
2/ Then I flip over to my inbox and get it down to zero.

3/ Then I scan my Next Action lists for items with due dates.
Smooth GTD Operator
 
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