Feeling rushed when completing GTD Weekly Review

richardtubb

GTD|Connect
Hey, team. Long time GTD'er here, with a question about the Weekly Review.

I've consistently done a 2-hour (or so) weekly review every Thursday afternoon that has served me well.

However, I've recently noticed that I'm rushing through closing down my inboxes, and that I get irritated when people respond to my responses (email begets email!). Overall, I often finish my weekly review with a sense of frustration and perhaps irritation, rather than a mind like water!

I wondered whether anyone else has experienced these feelings, and how you make the weekly review a serene rather than stressed experience?

Regards,

Richard Tubb.
 

FocusGuy

Registered
WR is often complicated for me. I have so many things to check that it can take time. I found one way wich is to separate my WR Wednesday is Get Clear and get current. Then often on saturday or even Sunday night before diner be creative. I have to be in a special mood for this one.
 

FocusGuy

Registered
@richardtubb

Sometime when things are getting complicated I do 2 weekly review. One on thuesday / Wednesday and one on friday / Saturday. Of course they are short too (20 / 30 mn...) It save my power horse.

For me, GTD weekly review is the core point of GTD. If I want to live in peace I have to take time for this in the right way with GTD DA check list. If I don't my system will crash soon or later and often very soon....
So I never miss my weekly review. Never.... Never.... Never...
 
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Rosendo

GTD Connect
I usually do my WR either on Saturday Morning or on Sunday evenings. I stop all incoming activities (such a emails) until I finish the WR. My problem was that in my mind, "next week" started on Monday morning and I felt that I was not really "ready"for it.... (for the stuff that arrived at my system from the momento I finished my WR and Monday morning)
Then, I changed my mind set: NEXT WEEK STARTED as soon as I finished my WR ... By doing so, I took out some of the perfectionism pressure...
 

René Lie

Certified GTD Trainer
I usually do my WR either on Saturday Morning or on Sunday evenings. I stop all incoming activities (such a emails) until I finish the WR. My problem was that in my mind, "next week" started on Monday morning and I felt that I was not really "ready"for it.... (for the stuff that arrived at my system from the momento I finished my WR and Monday morning)
Then, I changed my mind set: NEXT WEEK STARTED as soon as I finished my WR ... By doing so, I took out some of the perfectionism pressure...
Interesting... I usually do mine on Thursdays, which makes sure that there is still some time left of the week to deal with stuff that may come up during the review, before I lower my shoulders and head into the weekend...

It seems that the important thing is that we all find whatever works for each and every one of us!
 

mickdodge

Registered
I've consistently done a 2-hour (or so) weekly review every Thursday afternoon that has served me well.

However, I've recently noticed that I'm rushing through closing down my inboxes, and that I get irritated when people respond to my responses (email begets email!). Overall, I often finish my weekly review with a sense of frustration and perhaps irritation, rather than a mind like water!
My suggestion would be to experiment with closing down your work email inbox on a Friday afternoon instead of Thursday. Most people are in a hurry to get out of work Friday afternoon, start their weekend, and will typically wait to respond on Monday.

At least, that's what has worked best in my work based reviews. However, when someone does occasionally respond, I quickly move their email to my Next Actions email folder/label and follow up next time I get a chance (usually Monday). I feel like I at least processed it and will eventually follow up.

I don't know your specific work situation, so this may not fit your schedule. Maybe you could experiment with breaking up the review into two days... everything but inbox processing Thursday, and then just your inbox on Friday, or some other combination that works best for you?
 

Wilson Ng

Registered
I'd do the inbox processing on a daily basis. Nibble away at email, Drafts, OmniFocus inbox, Ulysses inbox, Downloads folder, physical inbox, and Safari Reading List. I'd probably curl up into a fetal position if I had to do inbox processing during my weekly review.

Heck, you might even want to break up the weekly review into smaller, digestible bites throughout the week.

My saving grace in OmniFocus is having different projects with different review cycles. Most on-hold (paused) projects are set to be reviewed anywhere from every 7-28 days. Some currently active projects are set to be reviewed once every 1-3 days. some might even be once a week or once every 2 weeks. I don't have to review everything all in the weekly review.
 

Adrian Schilling

GTD Certified Trainer
Hi Richard,

You're definitely not alone in this one. Couple of thoughts :

1) Do you take daily time to clarify incoming stuff, or do you wait until the WR?

There is for me a proportionate correlation between the time I have spent during the week to keep clear and the quality of my thinking during the WR.
Remember that the reason we feel mind like water lies in the fact that we have defined what doing looks like (1) and that we know what we are not doing (completely) (2). Now, why would you not have mind like water if you've gone through the WR?

Here again, relating to my personal experience, it helps me to remind myself that doing the WR is an actual thinking job and that decision fatigue kicks in at some point. My point is that if I wait until the WR to get clear I will spend a great portion of my limited decisional capacity on getting clear. Because I am a really lazy person, this will lead me to rush more than I'd like through the GET CURRENT phase, which means I will glance at all my commitments, without Renegotiating what is in there. It has happened a number of times that my list were simply NOT CURRENT anymore, but I did not notice it..

2) Do you change your general mental and physiological state when doing the WR?

I need to signal my body and mind that I am leaving the DOING mode and getting into the REVIEW mode. If I have been sitting, I'll be standing (and vice-versa). If I have been listening to music, I'll stop (and vice-versa). The same thing happens with my entries: Phone/Emails/Chats where I will download everything and than work offline (easily done with Airplane Mode on iPhone and "Work Offline" in Outlook). Everytime I do this, I sigh because I know I won't get interrupted (instead of hoping it).

3) Do you take the means for the goal?

Having had a hard time to develop the habit of the WR in the first place, I have in the past religiously followed the recommendations of doing a weekly 2-hour review. Most of the time it delivered on its promise. But careful if it did not ! !

We should not forget that the weekly review is what we need to do to be back in control and feeling relaxed. Maybe you are at a particular time in your life needing more reviews than at other times? Maybe you could benefit from cutting yourself some slack and do some longer reviews ?

I am saying that, because just before Christmas I hit a wall and was exhausted. I could not book flights and train tickets and it felt a bit scarry. That was a humbling experience as being a GTD Certified Trainer I was suppose to "know better". Yet this is a life long journey we're on and what works at some point may need to be revisited every once in a while.

Hope any of it is useful and looking forward to reading your experience down the road.

Best,
Adrian
 

mcogilvie

Registered
I'd do the inbox processing on a daily basis. Nibble away at email, Drafts, OmniFocus inbox, Ulysses inbox, Downloads folder, physical inbox, and Safari Reading List. I'd probably curl up into a fetal position if I had to do inbox processing during my weekly review.
Wow, that’s a lot of inboxes to process. I have three: email, physical, and Things. The Safari reading list turned out to be a digital clutter accumulation point for me, but the new Tab Groups feature is very useful. I pretty much have to process downloads right away because naming conventions are often opaque, and there’s the two-minute rule. Can you explain your workflow with Ulysses and Drafts?
 

Oogiem

Registered
'd do the inbox processing on a daily basis. Nibble away at email, Drafts, OmniFocus inbox, Ulysses inbox, Downloads folder, physical inbox, and Safari Reading List. I'd probably curl up into a fetal position if I had to do inbox processing during my weekly review.
I do much the same, work on processing inboxes through the week and then try to ensre that they are all empty before I start my weekly review.

As I posted on this thread multiple inboxes I have a lot fo inboxes but they are all there for a reason. Some, like Twitter and Facebook don't get much traffic so I can empty them once a week or so, others like the email inbox which is fed by 23 separate email accounts get's hundreds of messages a day and if I waited to process until Weekly review I'd spend forever doing that and never get the review done.

As to this issue:
I'm rushing through closing down my inboxes, and that I get irritated when people respond to my responses (email begets email!)
I have my system set so that I control when I download email for processing. So I can get to empty and never see the responses until I am again ready to work on email. Saves lots of hassle. But I don't know how that works if you use IMAP email. All of mine comes in as Pop messages, I never leave email on any server (can't there are too many different email servers) so I always am in control of when I even see new messages.
 

Wilson Ng

Registered
Wow, that’s a lot of inboxes to process.
Yes, it is... Stuff comes flying in from all kinds of places whether you want to or not. It is a challenge to clear out every once in a while.

I still get physical stuff and need to go through the in-tray. It might be a Christmas card from a relative, a receipt my wife wanted to scan and archive, or a pair of old running shoes to remind me to go shopping to get new ones.

My Downloads folder can get cluttered up. Yeah, I could probably use Hazel to clear it up but I like to intentionally go through the Downloads folder and really determine what is needed to keep and what to toss out.

I have a Ulysses shortcut on my iPhone and iPad that opens Ulysses and allows me to jot down ideas for a blog post or a paragraph that will ultimately end up in a report that I'm work on. Mu Ulysses inbox folder has "ideas" and are still in the gestation phase. When I feel like I'm ready to work on it, I'll move the sheet to an "In Progress" folder for me to work on. When I'm done writing and have it posted, I'll move the sheet to a finished folder.

I use Drafts when I'm driving or I'm unable to type (such as cutting the lawn). I'll use Siri or a shortcut to activate voice drafts. I sometimes find ideas when I'm in my car and voice dictation allows me to gather all kinds of crazy ideas before it escapes me. I might even talk to Drafts about a project and brainstorm a bunch of next actions. When I process my drafts inbox, it goes to its ultimate destination - DEVONthink, Ulysses, or OmniFocus. Then I clear it from Drafts.
 

bishblaize

Registered
Key thing is to make sure that processing isn't part of your weekly review, so clear all your inboxes before you leave. I normally do my review mid-morning on a Friday. Last thing Thursday I make sure all my inboxes and notes are clear before I leave work, then I do another mini-clear out on Friday morning before my review (at which point there's only a handful of new items to take care of). That way when I go into the weekly review I can go straight into the review itself.
 

Oogiem

Registered
Stuff comes flying in from all kinds of places whether you want to or not.
I thought it was a tiny number of inboxes. To me that seems like a really pared down system. I separate out and consider inboxes any place I might get inputs that require a response, so even things like Twitter are inboxes for me because I get messages there about the farm or from customers. I also have multiple organizations I am an officer for and I have separate email accounts for all of those roles but that alone is 23 separate email accounts. Now I do have them all send to a single inbox in my mail program but that's part of why my email volume is so high.

I see a lot of folks who think they have very few inboxes that tend to forget some of them. Or because they don't get very many messages in that channel that require they do something they forget that it is also actually an inbox. For example my social media feeds, Twitter, Ravelry and sadly Facebook are inboxes because as Registrar i get messages in those channels that I have to deal with. I push everyone I can into email or to a forum that I manage but it's still an inbox to check those areas periodically for new stuff to handle.
 

Wilson Ng

Registered
I also do the 2 minute stuff in a separate time block. If I start doing a bunch of 2 minute tasks, I get out of review mode and go into doing mode.

My inbox processing and 2 minute task time block are separated from my weekly review.
 

benedikt

Registered
However, I've recently noticed that I'm rushing through closing down my inboxes, and that I get irritated when people respond to my responses (email begets email!). Overall, I often finish my weekly review with a sense of frustration and perhaps irritation, rather than a mind like water!
what I started doing is scheduled sending.
especially for slack where I know people are nuts and will reply immediately. I know that feeling.

so, write your message and then schedule it to be send the next morning in the early hours. Or even in the beginning of the next week.
 

Tom_Hagen

Registered
However, I've recently noticed that I'm rushing through closing down my inboxes, and that I get irritated when people respond to my responses (email begets email!). Overall, I often finish my weekly review with a sense of frustration and perhaps irritation, rather than a mind like water!

I wondered whether anyone else has experienced these feelings, and how you make the weekly review a serene rather than stressed experience?
When I feel the need to rush - the best medicine for me is to deliberately slow down, almost to the level of the "Italian strike", when tasks are deliberately carried out slowly and accurately. It always works. It not only eliminates this unpleasant feeling, but also restores motivation and joy of work.
 

TesTeq

Registered
When I feel the need to rush - the best medicine for me is to deliberately slow down, almost to the level of the "Italian strike", when tasks are deliberately carried out slowly and accurately. It always works. It not only eliminates this unpleasant feeling, but also restores motivation and joy of work.
@Tom_Hagen So people in Italy must be extremely motivated! ;)
 
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