Weekly Review Challenge (May 2014)

Hi After an two weeks holiday om Cyprus, I did an "WR" this monday when I came back to my work. Actually it was an inventoring of what has happenend under this two weeks. I did an proper WR the days before I left for the holiday. It's golden to have this system, 'cause you are aware of what stuff that is waiting for you when coming back to work. And of course, there wore no "riot" among my papers when returning to my work this monday. The weeks in Cyprus was fine to, a bit rainy the first week and sunny the second but I am so relaxed after this holiday and that is important. The WR is an bit part of this relaxed feeling.
 
Did my WR Sunday, just to get myself back on track. I just hate having to miss a scheduled review, like I did last week. Even when I do find the time to do it, it just doesn't feel as good. I have so many cozy rituals around my early Sunday a.m. review--coffee on the patio during parts of it, nice and quiet, phone never rings--during the week I find it much harder to keep from "doing" as well. I guess I'm just a creature of habit, but this is one habit I look forward to practicing and truly enjoy!

But back to the thread topic: what was the journey to get to this place. I think my first few reviews were 4-5 HOURS long. And YES! I actually thought you didn't add a next action unless you did that during the WR. In other words, if I completed something, I thought you had to WAIT until the next review to decide what to do next! Oh, how paralyzing THAT would have been!

Hope everyone is having a great week! Don't forget to post about your reviews so you can enter the drawing for the free month of Connect!
 
I had a great WR because it had an emphasis on lining up from 20,000 to ground level. It's always refreshing to finish a review, knowing that there's nothing on my projects and actions lists that doesn't align with an area of responsibility. For me, it's stressful to have a commitment (whether it's a project or just one action) that doesn't have anything on the 20,000 level. It's a sign that I've taken on something that isn't really my job. When those show up, I create what in bookkeeping might be called a balancing entry, such as "clarify who really owns this area of responsibility."
 
John Forrister said:
For me, it's stressful to have a commitment (whether it's a project or just one action) that doesn't have anything on the 20,000 level. It's a sign that I've taken on something that isn't really my job. When those show up, I create what in bookkeeping might be called a balancing entry, such as "clarify who really owns this area of responsibility."
Click to expand...
John, a very good description of how to determine what's my 20 K stuff. I have not thought in this way, till now. Thanks for the tips.
 
WR #4 for May

I had a good, solid review today and cleaned up a bunch of things. I bought myself some new "toys" for my desk this week and rearranged some of the supplies. This is part of the supplies/decoration that needs attention once in a while.

I noticed during my review this morning that my Waiting For list only had 18 items but my email Waiting For Support folder had 94 emails. So I took a good look through that to make sure everything was (a) really needed in the WaitingFor and (b) was captured on the WaitingFor list. There are several emails for some of the waiting fors but I got it down to 51 emails supporting 24 WaitingFor actions which makes a lot more sense. Surprisingly my action support was bang on at 67 emails supporting 64 next actions. Yes my work is very email driven - almost every deliverable is an email and I need to reply to the original request in many cases. Keeping those supporting emails I might need to respond to separated in these folders works very well for me.

And spring has finally arrived - actually summer as it's going to be a sweltering 30C tomorrow. Bring it on! :-) So I've crossed that off my WaitingFor list...
 
Just completed another weekly review today. In typical fashion, I will have more review work to finish up later. Today I did a deep dive on personal projects. Felt good to update them and trim them down. I had not updated several of them in a while -- which I think means I had too many on my active projects lists. So I moved several to someday/maybe.

I felt very overwhelmed when I started today and first looked at my project lists. I feel a little bit better now. My recurring lesson appears to be that less is more... Less current projects, less next actions. This equals, for me, more focus and greater likelihood of completion. So overall, my lists are starting to get a shorter... The trend needs to continue.

One thing I'm trying to add back to my execution of GTD that I have somehow lost is more frequent review of my next action lists. I used to review them all every day. I need to find a way to do that again -- or at least get somewhere close to that level of inspection. Trying to figure out a consistent time of the day to do this. First thing in the AM doesn't always seem to work as my morning schedule is not very consistent. But I need to find a way to do this consistently.
 
WR # 18 of 2014....# 1 for May :(

Ugh! My last review was on 30 April. And I committed to do another on 02 May to get better caught up ...that didn'€™t happen either.
I've missed 3 in a row - no wonder I have been feeling so behind on everything! I spent the whole day Friday getting In to Zero and then today I could finally do a weekly review. I had notes from meetings since the 28[SUP]th[/SUP] to process along with actions flagged only on paper - thank goodness many of those have been done along the way!

I know I still need to spend some time cleaning up Projects and aligned next actions to them but I will be getting a new laptop next week and don't want to lose the work as I suspect my system may not port over that cleanly. I have a number of flights next week that will be perfect for focusing on this with uninterrupted time on the new laptop.

My GTD Journey:
I've dabbled with the concepts since I read the book many years ago. I also bought the original CD's of the live workshop and continue to listen to them when I need a kick start. But my real consistent use of GTD didn't start until August of last year when I made a commitment to myself and took the one day live workshop. I knew something had to change as life was getting out of control. Since then I've been doing very well - except for the last month - but I'm back now and have renewed my personal commitment to stay on top of the "stuff".
 
Great posts, everyone. I've enjoyed reading them all, especially from those among us that are struggling. I struggle to maintain things about every 18 months or so, and then everything is right with the world. I try not to freak out about it.

And this occasional slip, I think, says it all about my personal journey with GTD--it will always BE a journey! I know what to do, I'm not sure there is much left to learn and then somehow I see things differently because of a telecoaching experience or a webinar on Connect or a post by a fellow Connect member. And the tools become better and better, which can change everything. Is it possible for GTD to become a hobby?

Last review for May for me this morning and it was pretty routine and I'll just close with that.
 
WR 4 for May

Enjoyed our Memorial Party yesterday so today I was able to relax and get in a weekly review. Happy Memorial Day to all and special thanks to our Military and Veterans for making this country what it is today!

Today was more of a clean up and review getting ready for vacation next week. Trying to get a jump on what's coming up so I can relax and enjoy the vacation, knowing that everything is handled.

My GTD journey continues everyday. I've learned so much from the people on this forum willing to share their knowledge. What an amazing group! Thanks for the encouragement and the tips.
 
WR # 2 for May,

Yep, not weekly but at least this one was very detailed. Still struggling with reuilding my monthly checklist of bills and financial statements to deal with. Had to do triage and just get bills paid rather than finish the planning of how to update the checklist. Going all electronic is complicating things rather than making it easier but many places now either won't do paper statements or charge a fee to get them via paper. Lots of niggling projects got finished and it was a joy to check them done during my weekly review.

I'm looking at whether to revamp my Omnifocus now that rev 2 is out. I was planning on running the 2 systems side by side for a bit to make my decision but then I realized I'd have to upgrade my machines to Mavericks to even run OF2. I really am not sure I want to switch operating systems in the middle of software development. The project is make decisions about whether Mavericks will break LambTracker or help with the development.

Well off now, got to finish cleaning house before our guests arrive for our Memorial Day dinner party. Still have to get out and get the chores done and a shower for me.

A bit thank you to all veterans who have fought and died protecting our freedoms. You all really know how to Get Things Done!
 
Popeye said:
John, a very good description of how to determine what's my 20 K stuff. I have not thought in this way, till now. Thanks for the tips.
Click to expand...

Glad you found it useful. People in our seminars, webinars, and coaching sessions often find that it's a relief just to recognize that they have projects and actions that are not tied to 20,000-level areas of focus. They may still hold those projects and actions as commitments, at least until there is someone else designated to receive the hand-off. But simply knowing that they're doing things that their visible company org chart (or invisible family org chart) doesn't say they have to do, can be a relief. It can also bring up the next layer of clarifying questions, which may not have easy answers, but are worth asking. Who really picked up the work when this person left or got promoted? Do we still need to do that work to generate revenue and profit? Who really is responsible for doing this work around the house, or taking care of this younger or older family member?

I bet everyone reading this has examples from their work and family life. GTD is so valuable because it frames those discussions clearly.
 
I managed to get 95% of this Weekly Review done on Friday. I think it helped that I am feeling better about my professional email thanks to our 14 day challenge. My new practice is to consider my inbox empty if everything is marked as read or moved to @Actions / @Action.Support (the first is stuff that takes > 2 minutes but doesn't reside on my lists and the second is stuff that does reside on my lists). When I do my WR I review sent and received email, sorted by subject line and then archive it all. The trick will be making sure the new email folders don't become graveyards!

I'm still not doing much more than a email, calendar, and list review but I started journaling this week and will make reviewing them part of my WR to try and add a reflective element to it.

Next actions for my 14 day challenge are to inventory all of my in boxes, clean up my Processing and Weekly Review checklists, and make sure I keep up with my physical and electronic in boxes. My GTD partner needs to start doing a Weekly Review which she was going to do yesterday afternoon so I'll be checking in on her Tuesday to see how it went.
 
WR #5 for May

I scheduled this WR two days earlier than usual as I'm heading off for a golf weekend on Friday morning and have a meeting scheduled tomorrow morning, so Wednesday it is! It was actually great timing, because I've noted a few things I want to get done before I go away for a couple of days. Although my weekly review is pretty much habit now, I still highly recommend scheduling it for anyone who works with other people who might want your time. I can always reschedule but if I have the time blocked on my calendar it makes others pause before asking me to meet at that time (I get a lot of meeting requests for immediately after the blocked time!).
 
WR 3 for May

Started Friday morning, just had some final things to finish after a long relaxed weekend, and finished that up yesterday. Recent reviews have been completed over several days, mostly because of busy weekends. Likely will continue through June, but would rather spread over several days and spend the time needed than to do a more superficial review in one sitting.
 
WR # 19 of 2014....# 2 for May After my three week gap in reviews, I set an intention in last week's review to not only recommit to myself but also to restart the sharing of GTD that I had been doing at the office. So today I shared GTD with 10 more of our staff and while they were learning, I got In to Zero in preparation for my review tonight. I was actually able to do a successful review on my iPad, something I've struggled with in the past. I'm now using TaskTaskHD and it seems to work really well for me so far.
 
My last post lost all it's formatting when it posted and when I attempt to edit, there is no text there. Very strange.
 
Hi Jenn,

I see your post about WR #19 of 2014. Formatting looks good. Is it appearing for you as you intended?

And well done on the sharing GTD with your staff. David has often said that telling others about your GTD practice is a great way to learn more and improve.
 
John Forrister said:
Hi Jenn,
I see your post about WR #19 of 2014. Formatting looks good. Is it appearing for you as you intended?
Click to expand...

It seems to have lost the "returns" where I've made breaks in the text. It all runs together for some reason.
For example, I put in a line break at the start of this sentence and I will add one at the end of the sentence but I suspect it will all run together as my last post did.
Jenn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top