How to deal with weekly review

M

macgrl

0
I am fairly new to gtd and have only done a couple of weekly reviews. How should i be doing it. I just read my projects list and then go through each project plan to see where I'm at and if anything needs updating. Should I be doing more than this? More planning? Or is a weekly review just that. Going through the plans and seeing where you are at? How long so you guys spend on your review. Do you do it in one go or at different times?
 
Have you read the book?

OK, I'm not trying to blow you off here, but the weekly review is really an important habit to get right and it is quite detailed. Do you have a copy of the book? If not, you should probably get it.

The GTD Connect website has lots of resources on doing the WR as does the David Allen Co. store. It's really that critical.
 
I have the book. I have read it a few times. I know how important the review is and want to do it right. Just need a bit of help :-)
 
I think it's sort of a Clean As You Go thing

Before I started trying to follow the gtd methods more rigorously I would let everything just sit there and review it only every few months, which is way too infrequent. Yes, the weekly review is mostly an updating for me. If you stay on top of it everything eventually gets cleaner and cleaner, IMO. I look at it like a lot of baby steps.
 
macgrl;81506 said:
I am fairly new to gtd and have only done a couple of weekly reviews. How should i be doing it. I just read my projects list and then go through each project plan to see where I'm at and if anything needs updating. Should I be doing more than this? More planning? Or is a weekly review just that. Going through the plans and seeing where you are at? How long so you guys spend on your review. Do you do it in one go or at different times?
Click to expand...

Do it how it works for you. The weekend is my time to do a weekly review and I'll share how I am doing it. I do mine over the course of the whole day so I'll keep coming back to post more messages with when and what I am doing.

I try to start with my inboxes already at zero. I have 4 main ones, my paper inbox, my computer e-mail (which funnels 9 different e-mail accounts into one inbox), my Omnifocus inbox and my voicemail. However, yesterday was busy so my inboxes are not already at zero. Right now my voicemail is empty and so is my omnifocus inbox.

My e-mail has 14 messages in it and my paper inbox has a small pile of stuff. I am starting to process each e-mail now as I finish my morning coffee. As I do so if there are any actions or possible projects I use the clipper to put them into my OF inbox or add them to the existing project if I know it is part of something on-going.

Here is a sampling of what was in my e-mail inbox and my action:
msg with a quote for transport of 10 sheep to Berkeley CA - add the price to the project to ship those sheep in the notes part of OF, file msg in Reference

msg with instructions on how to transfer my grocery list from SplashShopper to Grocery Gadget from support - clipped entire msg to OF. I'll process it into a project later. Filed original in Reference

msg to me as Sheep Assoc. Secretary asking for info and breeders in Maine. - This will only take me 2 minutes to write a reply so I am doing it now. File original in the Sheep Association Folder in mail

msg from ASI with weekly sheep info - read, nothing to do with it but forward to Black Welsh mailing list and delete original

msg from server about a bounced e-mail. - It was just a FYI so file the bounce in Reference and don't worry about it.

msg with link to an on-line manual for Grocery Gadget - clicked on link to bring it up in Safari, saved as a bookmark, file original in Reference

msg from developer of ezShopList re capabilities - clipped to OF inbox as it's part of my ongoing shopping list management project

Coffee done. I have to go out and do chores & check the sheep and grass growth in a lower pasture so I 'm stopping for a while. I'll pick up where I left off when I get back in.
 
macgrl;81506 said:
I am fairly new to gtd and have only done a couple of weekly reviews. How should i be doing it. I just read my projects list and then go through each project plan to see where I'm at and if anything needs updating. Should I be doing more than this? More planning? Or is a weekly review just that. Going through the plans and seeing where you are at? How long so you guys spend on your review. Do you do it in one go or at different times?
Click to expand...

I do my weekly review over the weekend. Yesterday I woke up early and did it then, and it took about an hour and a half. I pretty much follow David Allen's latest weekly review list (the one with clear, current, and creative subheadings). I find that there is value in reviewing from project, context, and calendar perspectives. I think this really what the core of the weekly review checklist: horizontal (actions), vertical (projects), and time (calendar). Because my lists are electronic, it's easy to think of the review this way. From each perspective, I add, delete, and tweak my actions and projects.

You didn't tell us much about how GTD is working for you, but because it was easy to gather the information, here is what I have on my plate: I have about 70 projects right now and 400 list items, but at any time I have 7-15 items on my two most important lists which are Actions (either home office or work office) and Home Office. I have less on my Work Office list, because when I am at work I spend most of my time interacting with people, about 4-5 hours per day. I'm checking off around 15 next actions per day. This does not count work that I do as it shows up, however, mostly from email. I have to say that when I do everything David Allen says you need to do, things flow pretty well.
 
Next Phase

OK Back again, I've completed my clearing of my e-mail inbox and my paper inbox. All things that need to go into my list system are now sitting in my OF inbox. A few got added to existing projects and a new project "fix shopping list problems on iPod" was created and there are several actions in it.

My final clear inboxes step is to process all the OF inbox stuff generated from the above.

I now get to go on to the next part of my review. This is where I look at every project and evaluate the status.

I've just finished using OF review tool to check all my active, pending, on-hold and stalled projects. As I look at each one I verify that there is a clear next action, I put some projects on hold and activate others base on what is coming up in the next couple of weeks. Right now I have something over 700 individual projects to review. I am slowly putting some of them on a review monthly schedule rather than weekly as some are so far out that I don't need to see them every week. Even so it only takes about an hour to look at all the projects.

Then I review my calendar, both in the past for anything I missed and future for what's coming up. This resulted in me adding a couple new projects as I realize I have some events coming up I need to do some prep work for.

2 new things added to my weekly review are to review my checklists & to decide if I need to add any new checklists. One, the shopping list has already been dealt with a as new project. No changes to existing checklists at this time. Ad to new checklists I spend a few minutes going back over my week and determine I didn't have a need for any new checklists right now.

My final thing is to see what's on my mind, do I need to add anything or review anything?

I realize that we are getting close to the equinox and that I need to look at the summer and decide whether any summer projects need to be pushed onto the list to get them done this year. I do a quick review of all my areas of focus, and my higher levels. I realize that I am neglecting some of those things so I go back in to OF and put a few of the extra projects in the areas where I am already doing a lot on hold and activate a few of my someday/maybe projects in the areas where I am not doing anything.

One quick overview of my whole system and I'm done for the week.

Final task is to sync my iPod with all the new data. I'll start that now and go get some lunch.

Total time about 2 hours. Of which half an hour was just trying to clear my inboxes
 
Clipper?

What's the clipper you keep mentioning?

Oogiem;81518 said:
Do it how it works for you. The weekend is my time to do a weekly review and I'll share how I am doing it. I do mine over the course of the whole day so I'll keep coming back to post more messages with when and what I am doing.

I try to start with my inboxes already at zero. I have 4 main ones, my paper inbox, my computer e-mail (which funnels 9 different e-mail accounts into one inbox), my Omnifocus inbox and my voicemail. However, yesterday was busy so my inboxes are not already at zero. Right now my voicemail is empty and so is my omnifocus inbox.

My e-mail has 14 messages in it and my paper inbox has a small pile of stuff. I am starting to process each e-mail now as I finish my morning coffee. As I do so if there are any actions or possible projects I use the clipper to put them into my OF inbox or add them to the existing project if I know it is part of something on-going.

Here is a sampling of what was in my e-mail inbox and my action:
msg with a quote for transport of 10 sheep to Berkeley CA - add the price to the project to ship those sheep in the notes part of OF, file msg in Reference

msg with instructions on how to transfer my grocery list from SplashShopper to Grocery Gadget from support - clipped entire msg to OF. I'll process it into a project later. Filed original in Reference

msg to me as Sheep Assoc. Secretary asking for info and breeders in Maine. - This will only take me 2 minutes to write a reply so I am doing it now. File original in the Sheep Association Folder in mail

msg from ASI with weekly sheep info - read, nothing to do with it but forward to Black Welsh mailing list and delete original

msg from server about a bounced e-mail. - It was just a FYI so file the bounce in Reference and don't worry about it.

msg with link to an on-line manual for Grocery Gadget - clicked on link to bring it up in Safari, saved as a bookmark, file original in Reference

msg from developer of ezShopList re capabilities - clipped to OF inbox as it's part of my ongoing shopping list management project

Coffee done. I have to go out and do chores & check the sheep and grass growth in a lower pasture so I 'm stopping for a while. I'll pick up where I left off when I get back in.
Click to expand...
 
gardhou1;81521 said:
What's the clipper you keep mentioning?
Click to expand...

I've installed the Omnifocus Mail Clip O Tron 3000 (silly name I know :-) ) into my system. So I have a hot key sequence that works to put stuff into the Omnifocus inbox from mail or from Safari. It works from Finder and other apps as well but I usually use it from either Mail or Safari. Go to Omnifocus Preferences Clipping to install it.
 
My 4th Weekly Review

Hi macgrl,

I'm just starting up GTD again (for the third time since 2007), and is trying really hard to follow the methodology of GTD. Weekly Review is one of those critical success factors for GTD (I think) and it really defines GTD.

I schedule my Weekly Review every friday for 2 hours. And I have this checklist (that is copied from somewhere in the GTD world)

GET CLEAR
Collect loose papers and materials
Get “In” to zero
Empty your head

GET CURRENT
Review Action Lists
Review past calendar data
Review upcoming calendar
Review Waiting For list
Review Project (and larger outcome) lists
Review any relevant checklists

GET CREATIVE
Review Someday/Maybe
Be creative & courageous

It has worked really well for me so far (All four of them). Especially the empty your head part goes really fast ;)

Best, Björn
 
thanks

That's helpful! I just got Omnifocus and was wondering if there was some way to move things from my email system over. Problem solved!

Oogiem;81522 said:
I've installed the Omnifocus Mail Clip O Tron 3000 (silly name I know :-) ) into my system. So I have a hot key sequence that works to put stuff into the Omnifocus inbox from mail or from Safari. It works from Finder and other apps as well but I usually use it from either Mail or Safari. Go to Omnifocus Preferences Clipping to install it.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you

Oogiem,
Thank you for taking the time to walk us through your weekly review. That was very helpful.
 
"evaluate the states of projects, goals...ensuring that at least one currrent kick start action for each is in your system" Getting things done page 186

Does this mean going through each project plan and seeing if it can be improved etc.

Is the weekly review the time to go over project plans?:D
 
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