Looking for tips about the mindsweep portion of the weekly review

[Bill Myers]

My achilles heel with GTD has always been the weekly review. In the last few months I've struggled to do even one a month. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for me has been the mindsweep. I customized the trigger list from the GTD book, eliminating those things that don't really apply to me. Even so, it's a long list of triggers. It usually takes me a half hour or more to do my mindsweep and then process the resulting output. I'd like to keep my weekly reviews to an hour or so, which means a five or ten minute mindsweep at the most I would think. I'd appreciate any insights into how others deal with the mindsweep portion of the weekly review and keep it from spiraling into a huge time sink. Thanks.

 

[Oogiem]

I do daily mindsweeps or even more often if I can. Process that daily and the weekly review one is simple.

While I was waiting for a ewe in early labor to lamb yesterday I pulled out my notetaker wallet and did a quick mindsweep. I still haven't processed the notes but at least I captured them. Yesterday would have been my normal weekly review but sheep happens. I'm going to try to get to it today.

 

[Bill Myers]

A daily mindsweep sounds like a good idea. Do you use any kind of trigger checklist?

 

[Oogiem]

A daily mindsweep sounds like a good idea. Do you use any kind of trigger checklist?

Not usually. If I feel I have everything I can often find more things by walking around the farm, in my mind if I really don't want tohik around but it always finds more things, usually for someday/maybe lists though. Sometimes I'll run through a procedure in my ind, often simple things like I knwo I hate to mop the floors. Well when I did that in my mind the issue was the type of mop, it took all sorts of extra effort to get it out, find a bucket big enough to dip it in that wasn't a farm bucket, make the cleaning solution (we have wood floors) etc. I solved that with a Swiffer and a container of ready made wood floor cleaner. Found on a mind sweep.

 

[treelike]

I'd appreciate any insights into how others deal with the mindsweep portion of the weekly review and keep it from spiraling into a huge time sink. Thanks.

I don't use a trigger list. I just think "is there anything else?" and I usually come up with nothing or one thing at the most. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Would anything break if you didn't do the mindsweep?

 

[Bill Myers]

I was stuck on the idea that I needed a "trigger list" like the one presented in the book, so I'm glad I asked for some feedback. Thank you both.

@treelike: I'm not sure what you mean about whether anything would "break." You can certainly do a weekly review without a mindsweep, and I've done so before. But I think the weekly review is more effective with the mindsweep than without it.

 

[Castanea_d.]

Oogiem wrote:

If I feel I have everything I can often find more things by walking around the farm...

I love this! For me, it would be walking attentively through the choir rehearsal room, the church, etc. I suspect it would frequently suggest ideas. Or another equivalent (which I already do) - I page through my planning notebook (a ring binder with a page for each Sunday service) and see if anything rings a bell. This is not part of my weekly review; it is part of preparing an organ/piano practice chart for the coming week and rehearsal plans for the choirs. But it does sometimes remind me of tangentially related tasks/ideas.

In general, I don't find much of a need for mind-sweeps in the review. Whenever a thought of that sort comes to mind, I write it down, and I feel like I am going through life with a clear mind, just like I desired for years before discovering GTD. For me, most of my ideas are at breakfast, or in reality things that have come to me overnight.

One thing that may relate is that I do some journaling at the end of my weekly review. That doesn't often spur new ideas about things to do, but it helps me evaluate the past week's work and re-connect with my "higher altitude" accountabilities, goals, etc. I suppose that counts as a "mind sweep."

 

[treelike]

I was stuck on the idea that I needed a "trigger list" like the one presented in the book, so I'm glad I asked for some feedback. Thank you both.

@treelike: I'm not sure what you mean about whether anything would "break." You can certainly do a weekly review without a mindsweep, and I've done so before. But I think the weekly review is more effective with the mindsweep than without it.

I meant will you forget/ not be aware of something important that must be done in the next week. The reason I asked is kind of selfish because I wondered what I might be missing by not using the trigger list.

To me, the trigger list is mostly maintenance stuff, which is dealt with at AOF/ 20,000ft/ level 2 which is reviewed about monthly. If any one part of the weekly review stops me from doing the review then I would consider dropping it, because everything stops working if the weekly review isn't being done. For example I often leave out reviewing the SDMB list during the WR.

 

[Bill Myers]

@treelike: I've never really done anything with the higher levels. I always knew that was a gap in my GTD practice hadn't realized until now just how big. Thanks for the insight.

 

[treelike]

@treelike: I've never really done anything with the higher levels. I always knew that was a gap in my GTD practice hadn't realized until now just how big. Thanks for the insight.

That's interesting, you've been GTD'ing for a while (I've seen you around the forum for a while anyway) and not implemented higher levels. I was the same.

 

[Bill Myers]

@Oogiem and @treelike: thanks for the input. I did a weekly review today and dispensing with the trigger list for the mindsweep made this far and away the easiest, most friction-free review I've done. And I blocked out some time to work on the higher-level horizons. I think I've gotten this piece of my GTD practice un-stuck. Thanks for the advice.