Meg Edwards' teleseminar on Weekly Review

Julian

Registered
Meg's teleseminar on operationalizing the weekly review was superb.
It was filled with numerous practical tips and strategies to address the real world challenges of completing - and benefiting from - an effective weekly review.
It would be nice to hear her again.

Julian
 

aladavi

Registered
I completely agree with Julian

It was awesome!
DavidCo is very lucky to have Meg on board.
Please put the teleseminar online asap!
 

Mark Jantzen

Registered
Me Too - A Great Help!

In fact I did my Weekly Review yesterday and used many of her tips and suggestions. It was the most complete review I've done in some time. And it took just an hour.

Thanks Meg!

Mark
 

cwinser

Registered
Me three

Agree, the teleseminar was excellent. I also did my weekly review yesterday and actually got through it thanks to Meg's tips. One really useful tip was to make my next action lists "pristine" with only the actions I want to see. My lists were clogged up with things that are better parked as "Someday" items, and I was going numb to them. The last couple of days have been really productive since that change, as I focus on the things that I really need or want to do!

I also appreciated the tip that Someday items can be sorted into groups that are reviewed at different frequencies, some weekly, others less often.

More Meg, Please! I felt like I was getting personally coached, as she hit on several points that had hung me up in my implementation of GTD.
 

Ruud

Registered
Dang, I had so wanted to be there as it seemed like one of the most important topics. Unfortunately I had a conference call elsewhere :(

How long usually before the teleseminar is up on GTDConnect?
 

Lisa Peake

Registered
It's here!

The replay is now available:

The Weekly Review Teleseminar

Thanks for all the enthusiasm about this event. I really enjoyed being a part of it, and feel very lucky that we have such an expert coach like Meg playing with us here in Connect.

Enjoy! And please keep the comments and reflections coming.

Lisa
 

ciordia9

Registered
Tidbits!

I used to think GTD was a house made of bricks, very rigid, very dogmatic.. However, the more I utilize Connect, the forums, the pod/vidcasts...I feel it's just a great philosophy with a couple poles in the sand with a hammock tied between. The philosophy is simple and the way you implement it malleable to you. It becomes easier and easier for me to espouse the great benefits of GTD these days than it ever has been.

I had the belief that the weekly review was not just a time of reflection but a time to corral _everything_ back to order. Noooo! Meg tells us to schedule yourself to get through backlog, don't waste or hijack this time. This time is important for what it is.

As well I'd get lost with all my little 2m things, and before I knew it a lot of time was gone and I still wasn't complete with my review. It's like a 'duh' now to be discretionary with my time, but sometimes you need to be told things. I like the idea of making a quick attack list so when I'm done with my review I can just annihilate a list. Once you start things you tend to get sidetracked this avoids that.

Not really lastly but last I'll note, look back and forward in time. Do you have enough time, do you have the resources, are you still committed? Are you still committed is very important because you really need to gravitate things to the safety (sanity?) of Someday/Maybe. I used to be timid or very long-termish about what went in SD/M, and lately I've opened up to putting anything I am not wanting to think on today/this week/this month in there and just checking through it regularly to pull things back out.

Anyhow, not really saying much the vets will find new, but some of this was very good for me. Meg, you really showed me how flexible this was intended on being and again hammering in the idea that just because David does it this way you do it the way it works for you. Your time, your effort, you. So thanks for putting this together and I hope to hear more from you all in the future.

-a
 

megedwards

GTD Connect
Thanks everyone!

Thanks again for all of your comments. I've had emails from a few people who have done a more complete weekly review after hearing the call and I think that's so cool.

I did my weekly review this morning while thinking of all of you- and I really kept it to just one hour!

More to come...

Meg
 

TesTeq

Registered
The content is great, but the audio quality is poor.

The content is great, but the audio quality is poor.

Could you please improve the quality of the recordings - at least at the DavidCo side?

Could you please equip Meg with the microphone that she will not touch during the conversation? These noises do really hurt my ears (or maybe I'm too sensitive?)

Could you please balance the audio levels? I can hardly hear Lisa's questions.

(In the previous "Bonus Q&A Teleseminar" I couldn't hear the questions at all!)

I am using iPod Shuffle to listen to the GTD Connect podcasts. I have no such problems with Manager Tools, David Maister or even Productive Talk podcasts.
 

Dave John

Registered
Hi all

Strange one this, but after getting about half way through Meg’s teleseminar in the car this morning, and hearing her identify a lot of the mistakes that I have been making … I suddenly realised that I had not grasped the purpose of the weekly review at all, and I can’t actually sum up what it is supposed to do!!

I had fallen into the trap of trying to do some sort of whole life review each week, addressing everything in my head, my house, and my life, and looking across all personal roles and work roles etc. This of course became enormous, impractical, and ground to a halt. My weekly review has basically deteriorated to a regrouping exercise in the office each Friday of purely work related matters, the outcome of which is really a to do list.

So, can anybody sum up the purpose of the weekly review for me? Is it primarily intended for me to get current on current stuff (active projects) … or what??

Thanks!

Dave
 

Sequoia2

Registered
I agree, Fantastic Content but Poor Audio

I agree with TesTeq. The content of Meg's seminar is fantastic. I think it will break the log jam in my implementation of GTD. Content like this is exactly why I signed up to Connect. I would love to listen to it again but to be honest it is just to painful. The volume level bounces around so much between speakers and the sudden sharp noise are almost painful. There must be a simple piece of software that can level out the volume and remove the spikes. I am also using an iPod in my car.
I am sorry to be negative but I think you should make some upgrades in the audio quality throughout Connect so that it is on par with the content.

Otherwise, Keep up the good work.

Chuck
 
J

jhughson

Guest
An early weekly review?

I hate to be a late to the party "me too," but me too.

This has gotten me to relax a little bit around the weekly review and do more what works for me. I review projects now before action lists. There are some technical reasons why this works better for me that I won't go into.

I guess the bottom line is anything that keeps the review going, keeps the system going.

This week I have training on my normal weekly review day. So I managed to complete it early... on Saturday!
 

Ruud

Registered
So, can anybody sum up the purpose of the weekly review for me? Is it primarily intended for me to get current on current stuff (active projects) … or what??

To tie it all up, secure the system, make sure nothing falls through the cracks, and to remain intimately familiar with your system and its content so that at the right time you can make an intuitive decision of what it is you should be doing.

It's to...

  • cross off that "Wating for..." you forget to to cross off after Annie called
  • put the new Next Action for project B on the right list now that you finished doing the other NA
  • make sure you know what you're not planning to do

To give a few examples :)
 

Dave John

Registered
Ok, I’ve got it again – the visible result of the weekly review is a set of current lists.

I was making two mistakes, but thanks to the excellent advice in Meg’s teleseminar, I am back on the straight and narrow.

Firstly, I was extending my weekly review to be a broader update of all areas of life, and I was hitting some areas where I had significant backlogs.

But I can see from Meg’s advice that large scale mind-dumping and paper processing should be done “off camera” as it were, at a different time than the weekly review.

Secondly, I was trying to review at each altitude weekly.

Meg pointed out that she deals with the higher altitudes at longer time periods, not weekly. This tied in with something David in GTD quarterly: that monthly or quarterly staff meetings tend to deal with different issues than those dealt with at weekly meetings. There is just something about the slower cycle that suits the slower rhythms of the higher altitudes.

Thanks Meg (and Ruud!).

David
 

SGuenette

Registered
Audio quality

1 more vote for improving the audio quality. I listened to the teleconference in my jeep with the iPod connected to the radio. I've never had any problem hearing any of the other audio material and was surprised when very load mic movement/pops came thru (glad I didn't have earphones on). I couldn't hear Lisa at all unless I turned the volume up full blast and put my ear near the speaker - not such a great idea when driving! Luckily, Meg's voice was nice and clear so I was able to benefit from her excellent words of wisdom.

Can someone from Davidco respond as to if this session will be remastered to correct the audio?
 

Peter Gallant

Registered
Meg's interview - The Real Key to Implementation!

Just a note to chime in and heap on the praise and compliments on Meg's interview!

Most experienced GTD users know that the Weekly Review is one of the "master keys" to implementing GTD - it's also one of the biggest challenges / barriers to achieving full implementation.

In my Connect in Conversation interview with David a few months back, I mentioned that Weekly Reviews were taking me, on average 3-4 hours. Personally, I was beginning to feel some aversion to the review, and was finding it increasingly more challenging to commit this amount of time every week to doing the Review.

Meg's interview contained several major epiphanies for me:

1. It's possible to conduct an effective review in an hour - if you are very careful / selective / disciplined about where that 60 minutes gets used.

2. Very important for new GTD users (and experienced users too): ANY time spent in "Weekly Review mode" is better than no time - it likely does dramatically improve GTD implementation. For me, the lesson learned here was that I could review several, but not all, of my lists during each review session and, over several weeks, get through all of them and bring them as close to 100% clean, clear and current as any dynamic system driven by a busy human being is going to get. Kudos to Meg!

3. I really appreciated Meg's outlook on problems associated with the Weekly Review (or at least presenting as Review-related problems) may really be problems with other aspects of the GTD process or allocation of time or focus. Ensuring that there is enough time to work the GTD process, and to process incoming "stuff" as it arrives is a critical point.

I've already changed several aspects of my Weekly Review process as a results of this teleseminar.

For me, the ability to interact and hear from some of the most experienced GTD practitioners on the planet is invaluable. Another example of the value of experience!

Kudos to Meg, and looking forward to the next teleseminar,
Peter
 

Dave John

Registered
It occurred to me after further thought that the weekly review can be used to deal with incomplete areas by formulating one or two “catch-all” projects in the following way:

If you have a significant amount of unprocessed paper (as I do), then simply create a single project: “catch up on paper processing”, and identify one NA for this project (e.g. “review diary and create some blocks of time to process backlog”);

And if your list of projects is incomplete, create a single project like “Review altitudes and roles to ensure that there are active projects in all relevant areas”: the NA can be “review diary and create some blocks of time to review projects”).

This would probably help to give the weekly review a greater sense of comprehensiveness and completeness.

Dave

P.S. I also realised that I have not had a proper review at any higher altitude for a long time, so when I try to do a “normal” weekly review, all of the higher altitudes are clamouring to get done as well.

Now that I can see that this is happening, I am seriously planning reviews at higher altitudes, perhaps over the Christmas break, so that I can get properly grounded again.
 

brianlee

Registered
I'd echo all the good things said so far about Meg's Weekly Review teleseminar. It was extremely useful to have a low-level, operational look at this key part of GTD (which is not to disparage the higher level stuff like "In Conversation") One note I made was that it would be great if we could have similar seminars on other key GTD implementation topics. Filing? Mind Sweep? Processing? etc.

But all in all, great stuff.
 

cyberscribe

Senior Associate, Next Action Associates
Relaxed Focus & Quality Control

Hi Gang,

Just a quick note to say we heard you loud and clear on the audio quality for this one. We're looking at our whole audio production work flow to make sure, as you say, that the medium matches (or at least doesn't impinge upon) the message. Thanks!

Cheers,
Robert
 

apinaud

Registered
Let me start giving thanks to Meg and the DavidCo team for this great piece of art.

Now my question and even I can maybe get a free coaching here...

This is my problem, I do my Weekly review on Fridays, sadly by tuesday or wednesday I am done and overwhelmed again, even that in boxes go to zero everyday. I know Meg said that you do the WR every time you need it, but I will love to do a constant day, but 2 days it is not enough for another WR.

It is ok that the WR is not on a constant day, and happen any time you reach that level, or should I try to do it on a fixed schedule and do extras if need it.

My fear with doing just when I need it it is stop doing it.

Maybe you guys can help...

Thanks
 
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