Weekly Review Challenge (November 2014)

WR#1 for November

I did my first review of November last week on Thursday after spending all of the previous week feeling like I was constantly trying to review! That'll surely persuade me not to miss a review again!
I felt such relief after this review - my @Office list had got to an unbearable length as I hadn't had the chance to clear through the 5 sheets of paper and take out the actions that still needed doing. I felt rather foolish for letting it get like that, as once I had sorted it out I only had 1.5 A4 pages of actions and a lot of these were not as scary as I had thought they were. I was definitely over-thinking and being put off by the system feeling cluttered. I've been way more productive since. I also split out my lists into a couple of extra categories that I was using before going on maternity leave but hadn't reincorporated into my system until now. Definitely a very positive and motivating review!
 
Weekly Review #1

I completed my first review for November on Monday. I'm still trying to play catch up on some work projects. But I'm excited to say that I have my Thanksgiving Holiday project under control. The menu is set, and the tasks have been divided up with my sisters. The Holiday should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm starting to get ready to plan for 2015. I have some projects to finish up concerning my CEU's from work and then I think I'll be ready to organize for next year.

This was a good review for me.
 
#2 for November - is that all?

Well, another crazy month here too. I have MASTERED the art of delegation as Thanksgiving is now on top of me. I'm taking a brief break with hubby is vacuuming.

Got up super early to finish the review I stopped and started 3 other days this week--I really hate that because it's just not as satisfying. So I went back a bit and really took my time this morning and feel good enough to at least check the box.

For those celebrating Thanksgiving this week--safe travels, happy Thanksgiving. For those in snow-covered areas (poor Buffalo!) we send warm thoughts your way!
 
WR # 3 and #4
Best intentions and all that.

I got NOTHING done on my rebalncing life stuff while I was away. Spent far too much time meeting with people after various sessions, getting info on a lot of useful stuff but almost no quiet time. I had a great time in Austin and even got to go to an Ikea store, my first time ever. :)

However I had blocked out the day I returned to get caught up and I really needed it. So that was my review for last week. All I really got done was processing my inbox notes and putting back onto someday maybe the stuff I can't really tackle yet that I didn't get done while on the trip.

It took a good 6 hours to process all my inbox items!

Resulted in about 25 more projects, most on someday/maybe added to my pile.

This week's review started on yesterday with me clearing out my inboxes. Today I managed a decent review in about an hour. Got a lot of things checked off as done, got a lot fo project planning done as well for the upcoming sheep research. Calendar review is again the critical thing as we have a lot of time critical functions to do with the sheep. A big part of that is also planning on how to play musical pens with various groups in and out on time. I'm hosting Thanksgiving for some friends so I have to get the house clean too, it's rather dirty, lots of dirt and dust and stuff just because cleaning is a very low priority task for both of us.

Looks like we are going to start getting some snow, we could use it, not as much as Buffalo please but we do need snow for water.
 
Addendum: Is there a reason these challenge threads are still in the educational area not the forum challenges section? I know it got moved due to forum SW issues but I was wondering if it will move back where it belongs eventually. I still look for the thread there. :)
 
November WR #2

Good review, though it was conducted over two days (too many interruptions - still at work overseas in a shared office). One thing that I have noticed is that some of my projects don't have as crisp a defined outcome as they could have. Interesting.

Planning my weekend sabbatical for time off that I added to my projects list during a WR in September, to noodle thru the higher level horizons (ft or levels, I've not been properly indoctrinated in the new lingo) and the projects that will invariably come out of that activity.

Back home this week, so expect to pick up on the action lists where I left off.

Have a great week!
Heather
 
WR #3

I did a quick review without the "Get Creative" part. I'm coming down with a flu and having everything accounted for and under control helps me relax. Back to bed for me. Have a great week everyone. :)
 
WR #2 (Nov 2104)

Good review. The school is closed for the recess so I was able to get to the office and get a lot done today without interruption. Made lots of progress on my "read/review" file and my "Someday/Maybe" list. That felt good.

I've been intentional about using outcome based language on my project list. That has really tightened up my project list--I could tell a big difference when I reviewed this week.
 
WR # 3 for November (# 40 of 2014)

Another Monday review this week although it was Monday night this time. I was able to focus without distraction since our internet was down....power outage finally took it's toll on a very old router....

I still have way to many actions open. I've started to delete some but need to schedule a cull...
 
Review 3.5 done

Mini review this morning done with hubby. We are going over the planing/timing for the next week. We are hosting the Thanksgiving celebration here for a few friends and I'm coordinating who's bringing what. We are doing the large chicken (no good turkeys avail here, all sold out early) The other reason for the mini-review mid week is that starting on Sunday we have a lot of very time critical things to do with the sheep and some need some preparation first.

Sunday is deworm all the lambs for their second treatment 10 days after the first. We had a tapeworm infestation this year, first in many years and we are trying to kill them off before we infect the pastures next season. It's time critical based on the life cycle of the tapeworm and when the newly hatched larvae will be susceptible to the dewormers.Then Monday we give shots to all the experimental ewes on a strict time schedule. All must be done between 8 and 9 in the morning and we have to collect exact time data. Teasing the ewes starts Monday and must be done twice a day until Thursday so that means moving rams in and out but not letting any actually breed the ewes. Tuesday another critical task starts at 1:00 am for half the ewes while the control groups tasks start at 7 am. In both cases they must be done within 30 minutes. Then the researchers arrive and we set up the semen lab. Collect rams Tuesday and Wednesday in between teasing times. Then Thursday is another time critical day, inseminations at 10 am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm for the 2 groups alternating them so a lot of sheep movements in and out of the handling facility. Friday the researchers will pack up the lab and head for home.

I figure by Friday my inboxes wil be overflowing yet again as I know I won't get to process any but the most critical items next week.

So I'm planning on doing a quick triage of my inboxes each day and pulling out to actually process only the most critical items. I know it's not ideal, but I also know that doing a real good processing next week won't happen and I need to be sure I don'tmiss anything that is critical or life threatening.

I'm also trying to schedule in the calendar some additional processing time after next week to get caught up again. I haven't typically booked time for myself just for processing but I'm finding that it is really helpful when I know I have a lot to process at one time.
 
Weekly Review #3... Or, How A Small Tweak Makes a Big Difference...

I've almost lost track this month - feels like things have been skittering along and the review is definitely being neglected. BUT! All is not lost, because I had an epiphany today. For several years I've had an in box on our kitchen table as well as on my desk in my home office. Today I've been processing "in," and will do my real review tomorrow, but I realised I'm much happier processing at the kitchen table than at my desk. I used to move everything from the table-IN to the desk-IN and then process in my office, but for a while now it's just not felt right. But when I process incoming mail at the kitchen table it WORKS! For one thing, that table is really the "nerve centre" for my husband and I. We discuss music, business, life, friends, finances - in short, EVERYTHING - there. We even have a recycling bin for paper underneath.

SO... I moved my favourite iN box to the kitchen table and only have a pending and an out tray in my office now. I sat at the table and processed all the mail, magazines, etc. that were in my in box, and the flow was just RIGHT. It still amazes me that a tiny detail like which IN BOX to use, and where to put it can have such a profound impact on one's feeling of wellbeing!

So, review prep done, full-blow review tomorrow, just in time to go back to work after a glorious long weekend. Hope everyone here has had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
 
As always, my main challenge with the weekly review is making my enthusiasm for the "creative" part fit into a weekly schedule. It just won't let itself.

Most of my review is very easy, though, because much of the work is already done: I keep all my inboxes near zero at all times. I speed-review my Next and Waiting for actions every day. I move additional (hitherto inactive) project actions onto my active lists every time I complete a project action. And I quite often even speed-review the individual projects at those times, sometimes even quite creatively. I know the essentials of my lists more or less by heart.

So what is left for the weekly review is mainly the creative aspects of AoRs and goals, ensuring I have the right set of such areas and goals and the right set of projects defined for each of those areas/goal, and a good balance between them. And that's something I tend to do intuitively whenever I feel like it, and then I usually just do it immediately, unless I am too busy, because I do not like to wait for the weekly review if I feel uncomfortable with my lists.

So, when the weekly review comes up (gets tickled) I may or may not perceive a need to think about those things. Often not. And I am quite happy with that, on the one hand, but on the other hand also feel it might perhaps be a good idea to instead do it all in one fell swoop exactly once per week, so I often still do that, but then usually find nothing much to amend and finish it very quickly with a sense that somehow something is not optimal.
 
November WR #3

Made it back on Friday - yay! Unfortunately I came down with a sinus infection, so I was feeling pretty lousy on Saturday between that and the jet lag. I didn't really feel like doing anything, but I tricked myself into listening to the GTD Black Belt webinars again while going thru backlog papers. I was gentle with myself - if I really couldn't figure out what something was, it went back into a "Stuff I Don't Want to Deal With" box. Three office-size recycle bins later, I reduced two small Home Depot moving boxes to 1" of project support material to file and 1" of stuff in the inbox to be acted upon when I feel like I can actually process my inbox (there are a lot of 2-minute action items in there!). There is about 4" of stuff in the "Stuff" box, so I can see progress on my backlog.

Other benefit to listening to the Black Belt webinars again was that I realized I don't have a good place to put my Action Support folders. I realized I could repurpose two plastic magazine holders by laying them on their sides on the shelves behind my desk, so I can slip folders easily in and out. This should do for a while until I find something I like better.

Still feeling lousy, but at least I'm productively feeling lousy!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed the long weekend in the States!

Heather
 
WR # 4 for November (# 41 of 2014)

I finished this week's review over two days - Inbox to Zero and review of Next Actions on Saturday and then Calendar review on Sunday.
It's unusually cold here right now and I've realized I need to work on a few home check-lists to help better prepare the house for the cold weather.
We were caught a little off guard this year!
 
WR #3 (Nov 2014)

Finishing up Thanksgiving recess with a good review. I tried to get the decks clear before I get back to the grind on Monday. I've found that a good review Sunday night really helps me hit the ground with a clear mind Monday AM.

I can't believe its almost December!
 
#2 for November

Another brief post - did my review in bits & pieces over Thanksgiving week while with friends. Not as satisfying as doing it mostly all at once... Finished with a big, extra thorough calendar review this morning going out through the end if the year, which WAS satisfying. Feeling like things are (mostly) on track.

We got an early Black Friday sale price on membership fees at the athletic club 5 minutes from our house, so tomorrow kicks off the "get in the habit of going to the gym before work" project. Looking forward to it!
 
#2 for November

I tried posting this last night, but the app timed out… However, I completed review number 2 for November! It was done in bits and pieces over the entire week of Thanksgiving, but I got it done, and finished up with a really big calendar review Sunday morning.

We got in on a pre-Black Friday sale at our local athletic club. So this morning was the first day of my project "build the habit of going to the gym four days a week". And now that I'm having to repost this this morning, I can say that I did it!

Not quite as early as I wanted to, and didn't go to bed as early last night as I meant to, but I did it. Day One of a new habit!!

I was out the door, exercised, came back home, and I'm now getting ready to head out the door to work!

Happy December everybody!
 
In the spirit of "some review is better than none"...

My review last Friday was definitely incomplete. I did my calendar review and reviewed all Next Actions and Projects. However, and it is a big however, my inboxes overfloweth and I did not get to look through my email action-support and waiting-for support each of which are sitting at about 130. I am trying to dig my way out of having been in a week-long out-of-office event but have been in constant meetings ever since I got back. And at home, I am catching my breath after a come from behind 10th NaNoWriMo win by writing 10,000 words on Saturday and finishing at 1:30 in the morning.

For December, I want to take stock of what I have on my lists, what I have delegated to my staff and, given our collective resources, what our plan for the new year is. My goal this week is to finally get all my inboxes back to zero.
 
#4 for November done

Gor stuff organized for the coming majoe sheep week. Got all inboxes to zero to start and a brief look at my on-hold projects. Active projects got reviewed by AOF. That seems to help me do them more effectively as I'm in the mode of thinking about that area of my life.

Lots of frustration with things not completed yet this year. Need to make some time to go to higher horizons and see what I can do about that but it didn't get done this week and probably won't next week either due to other commitments.

I am feeling like I am spending way more time processing and organizing than I am doing and that is frustrating.
 
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