For those who hate @contexts.

[TesTeq]

Gina Trapani published a great article Practicing Simplified GTD for those who struggle with full GTD system implementation.

 

[Apop]

This looks interesting - not necessarily because I hate contexts but because my weekly review takes for ever - at least 3 or 4 hours and I just always struggle to carve out enough time to do it. If this version will let me reduce that then I'm very tempted to give it a go.

Has anyone else tried this? Any thoughts/comments??

Thanks
Apop

 

[Cpu_Modern]

The weekly review is not he only time when you review. You should review constantly, daily, as often as necessary to have a worthwhile system. Search "scuzz" on this forum. If you review often, your Weekly Review should be doable in a hour or twoo. And these hours are mainly there to think higher-level stuff, not cleaning up the mess that your system has become after you didn't review for a while.

 

[Brent]

...my weekly review takes for ever - at least 3 or 4 hours and I just always struggle to carve out enough time to do it.

What do you do during your Weekly Review? Could you please describe a typical Weekly Review sesssion?

 

[TesTeq]

Empty your inboxes regularly.

Many people use the first part of the Weekly Review "Get Clear" as a general weekly cleaning-up time. Inboxes are being filled during the whole week and everything waits for a Weekly Review "Get Clear" session.

It is a wrong, wrong, wrong approach!

You have to empty your inboxes regularly. In my opinion the "Get [inboxes] Clear" should not be a part of the Weekly Review - it is a pre-Weekly Review action.

You can find an interesting article about this topic here How to do a Weekly Review in Under an Hour.

 

[Apop]

TesTeq / Cpu_Modern - I do review every day, and my Inbox is processed everyday and emptied. They're not the problem.

Brent - good question. My weekly review follows the suggested format in the GTD book. ie...

Loose papers - Process notes - Previous Calender Data - Upcoming Calendar - Empty head - Review 'Projects' (and larger outcome) lists - Review 'Next Action' Lists - Review 'Waiting For' Lists - Review Any Relevant Checklists - Review 'Someday/Maybe' Lists - Review 'Pending' and Support Files - Review Areas of Responsibility List - Creative and Courageous Ideas?

Generally I don't get time to review my support files, and the review still takes at least three hours, if not more, spread across 2 sessions, because I can't make sufficient time to do it in one hit, or maintain sufficient concentration. The Creative ideas then suffer because I don't have the mental energy to be creative having just spend 3 hours 'cranking'.

I currently have 49 projects, and 137 next actions. I'm not particularly stressed by the numbers but I do feel the system is a bit unwieldy.

How does this compare to your experience of Weekly Reviews?

Thanks
Apop

 

[Borisoff]

TesTeq / Cpu_Modern - I do review every day, and my Inbox is processed everyday and emptied. They're not the problem.

Brent - good question. My weekly review follows the suggested format in the GTD book. ie...

Loose papers - Process notes - Previous Calender Data - Upcoming Calendar - Empty head - Review 'Projects' (and larger outcome) lists - Review 'Next Action' Lists - Review 'Waiting For' Lists - Review Any Relevant Checklists - Review 'Someday/Maybe' Lists - Review 'Pending' and Support Files - Review Areas of Responsibility List - Creative and Courageous Ideas?

Generally I don't get time to review my support files, and the review still takes at least three hours, if not more, spread across 2 sessions, because I can't make sufficient time to do it in one hit, or maintain sufficient concentration. The Creative ideas then suffer because I don't have the mental energy to be creative having just spend 3 hours 'cranking'.

I currently have 49 projects, and 137 next actions. I'm not particularly stressed by the numbers but I do feel the system is a bit unwieldy.

How does this compare to your experience of Weekly Reviews?

Thanks
Apop

The main target of Weekly Review is to make sure each Project you want to move has a Next Action. To make Weekly Review more doable I suggest you to change the order of the actions you do during the review (having in mind that you should do creative things while you're fresh):

Always: Review 'Projects' lists (30 min, just make sure you have NA for each)- Review 'Someday/Maybe' Lists (move some to active Projects if needed) - Review 'Waiting For' Lists - Previous Calender Data - Upcoming Calendar - Review 'Next Action' Lists.

Additionally if you have time: Loose papers - Process notes - Empty head - Review Any Relevant Checklists - Review 'Pending' and Support Files

When you have time and the mood, I would say it could be even a separate special session: - Review Areas of Responsibility List and higher outcomes - Creative and Courageous Ideas?

 

[sdann]

I fully concur with Borisoff. Perhaps it is exactly a matter of processing those weekly review tasks in a different order dependant upon your character type. As an example, I frequently just gloss over the "creative and courageous ideas" part. This I accomplish better throughout the week; it is not a process I can just turn on, or even off, because a checklist tells me to. Other items that may best be spread out throughout the week: loose papers and processing your inbox (as already stated by others) or project set-up and planning. You may want to analyze at what point in your weekly review you spend most of your time; then pare that down into more manageable sections.

PS Currently I have 52 NAs and 36 projects. However, I will be adding some more this week. My list also does not include my home projects, such as holiday presents and decorating.

 

[Apop]

I've just realized there are some links here between this and my post here ... http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7838 ... and a post from a couple of year ago (found by searching 'scuzz' - sorry, don't know how to link between posts).

Maybe my large, 5 year projects should be at 20,000 or 30,000 ft review levels, rather than 10,000ft as they are now? Trouble is they still all need reviewing weekly!

HELP!!!!

 

[sdann]

Maybe my large, 5 year projects should be at 20,000 or 30,000 ft review levels, rather than 10,000ft as they are now? Trouble is they still all need reviewing weekly!

HELP!!!!

I see from your post in another thread that you work on large engineering projects. Help indeed.

I would love to see how others tie in their 20k or 30k (particularly 30k) with the 10k items. or is this another thread?

 

[Brent]

I currently have 49 projects, and 137 next actions. I'm not particularly stressed by the numbers but I do feel the system is a bit unwieldy.

137 Next Actions is a BIG HUGE red flag to me. How many of those did you get to in the past seven days? How many of those 49 projects did you actually work on last week?

The Projects list is supposed to be a list of active Projects. I suspect there are some Projects in here that you aren't really truly actively working on.

What if you cut your Projects and Next Actions lists by half? Defer the rest to Someday/Maybe.

 

[mydifferentfeet]

Splitting up the weekly reviewq

I concur with the folks who say some level of a review should happen daily. My weekly reviews became more manageable when I learned I needed to look at my next action list and project list daily (fyi: I use the GTD Outlook plug-in from Netcentrics, and other than more bugs than I would like, it is a wonderful GTD tool to facilitate weekly reviews).

I also split up the next action/project Weekly Review from the Calendar Weekly Review. I do my calendar weekly review for 20 minutes on Monday mornings, but my next action/project/paper processing review on Fridays for a couple of hours. I think I got this idea from the Mike Williams In Conversation interview.

Another KEY learning I have experience about the Weekly Review...It is a VERY creative time for me. I come up with great ideas on projects, areas of focus, goals & objectives, etc. during the weekly review. Therefore, I am no longer too caught up on whether I do it in an hour or two hours.

The ROI is always there.

 

[TesTeq]

Weekly Review is a safety check.

Weekly Review is more a safety check than a brainstorming or creativity session. Its main goal is to make sure that there are no leaks in your GTD system (for example no active Projects without Next Actions or WaitingFors and no missed dealines).