Weekly Review Challenge (September 2014)
- Thread starter Barb
- Start date
On my latest WR I worked on not just going through the steps (the 'what'), but really taking a bit longer to reflect at each step (the 'how'). It added a few minutes overall, but worth it to feel even more recharged.
Barb
0
WR #3 for September
I love my own challenge this month--can I say that? I have purged, tightened, renegotiated, dumped, fine tuned, etc. and I feel so MUCH BETTER!
I started this review Sunday but didn't quite finish my calendar review because I wanted to look all the way until year end. Finished that today--moving, dumping, renegotiating--all the way. I think I'm good now.
I have created a rather unusual opportunity for myself. On October 4th I'll be going to a regional HR conference in Ft. Worth for 5 days. Ft Worth is only about a 45-minute drive from my house (construction aside), but I just need to get away, breathe, not have the distractions of home, etc. for a few days. So I'm checking into the nicest hotel option I could find there (it is, after all, Ft. Worth) and I am really looking forward to it. I'm leaving my car with the valet and not moving it until it's time to leave.
I hope to have lots more quiet time to read, reflect, and maybe DO some of the things on my list. I know I'll come home energized.
I love my own challenge this month--can I say that? I have purged, tightened, renegotiated, dumped, fine tuned, etc. and I feel so MUCH BETTER!
I started this review Sunday but didn't quite finish my calendar review because I wanted to look all the way until year end. Finished that today--moving, dumping, renegotiating--all the way. I think I'm good now.
I have created a rather unusual opportunity for myself. On October 4th I'll be going to a regional HR conference in Ft. Worth for 5 days. Ft Worth is only about a 45-minute drive from my house (construction aside), but I just need to get away, breathe, not have the distractions of home, etc. for a few days. So I'm checking into the nicest hotel option I could find there (it is, after all, Ft. Worth) and I am really looking forward to it. I'm leaving my car with the valet and not moving it until it's time to leave.
I hope to have lots more quiet time to read, reflect, and maybe DO some of the things on my list. I know I'll come home energized.
Oogiem
0
Starting this week's review. It's going to be done in pieces over the next 3 days. I started my Get Clear yesterday but still have over 85 e-mails and about 3 inches of paper to process. Over the last week I had NO time to process daily inputs at all so they have built up. I was thinking I'd jump ahead and get started on project review but the inbox mess is dragging me down so I'll just keep slogging through it until done. Of course today is the big Farm Tour event for our Harvest Festival and I'll be "on" from 11-4. I'm going to try to process a piece of e-mail or a piece of paper between each tour, unless they come one right after another. Then tomorrow is the Farmers' Market and I'm also doing spinning demos along with the rest of the Fiber Guild. Worst case I'll get to project review on Monday.
Hrlakat
0
Weekly Review #4 September
Well, the getting real part of this challenge is getting uncomfortable. I've not really done a lot of work at defining the higher level horizons (sorry, can't remember what they're called now) in my life, but several 30k/40k things are popping up as potential new projects. Grrr. Also have a few re: my mom who has recently retired.
So as part of "fine-tuning" the system (well, in my case, tuning!), I also added a project called "Weekend Sabbatical" so I could get that quiet time to noodle on those horizons, since apparently they want to be known!
Have a great week!
Heather
Well, the getting real part of this challenge is getting uncomfortable. I've not really done a lot of work at defining the higher level horizons (sorry, can't remember what they're called now) in my life, but several 30k/40k things are popping up as potential new projects. Grrr. Also have a few re: my mom who has recently retired.
So as part of "fine-tuning" the system (well, in my case, tuning!), I also added a project called "Weekend Sabbatical" so I could get that quiet time to noodle on those horizons, since apparently they want to be known!
Have a great week!
Heather
Just completed my weekly review for the last week of September - I redid my checklists and someday/maybe lists. They were so big for some areas that I had to devote a whole list to creative/entertainment endeavors. - I was able to remove a lot of checklists out of my projects lists. My lists were getting stale and that was the cause. - I have nothing nagging me....it's all in my system
Did another weekly review on a plane. Getting more reviews that way than any other way. But David says he greatly prefers to be connected to the Internet while doing a weekly review -- sounds like he gathers additional info to help make decisions. I don't miss the lack of internet connection, so I wonder if there are additional questions I could be asking that I don't.
WR #4
Last week was so hectic that I fell back into my old habit of doing the email and calendar review portion of my Weekly Review on Friday and the list part on Monday. I had every intention of going through my lists over the weekend but between birthday celebrations and needing to rest and recharge that didn't happen.
At the moment my professional life is a sea of shifting priorities between working on an advancement opportunity and fiscal year end. It's times like this that I wonder how I would survive if I didn't have a trusted system.
Mike
Last week was so hectic that I fell back into my old habit of doing the email and calendar review portion of my Weekly Review on Friday and the list part on Monday. I had every intention of going through my lists over the weekend but between birthday celebrations and needing to rest and recharge that didn't happen.
At the moment my professional life is a sea of shifting priorities between working on an advancement opportunity and fiscal year end. It's times like this that I wonder how I would survive if I didn't have a trusted system.
Mike
vbampton
0
I have a confession to make... I've been really bad at weekly reviews recently! I've done enough skimming to stay on top of things, and I'm almost entirely focused on a single project at the moment, which I am reviewing regularly, but still...
​I finally got a PROPER review on Sunday, and surprised myself how smoothly it went. Remind me why was I putting it off?!?
​I finally got a PROPER review on Sunday, and surprised myself how smoothly it went. Remind me why was I putting it off?!?
hikerpa
0
Weekly Review #5 for September
Finished my weekly review this afternoon. Completed projects that have been around for some time because I was avoiding them. It felt so good to be able to check them off in Omnifocus as completed. I'm finishing up my fall projects to get ready for the winter ones. I'm beginning to love the weekly review. It's amazing how it can keep me on track!
Finished my weekly review this afternoon. Completed projects that have been around for some time because I was avoiding them. It felt so good to be able to check them off in Omnifocus as completed. I'm finishing up my fall projects to get ready for the winter ones. I'm beginning to love the weekly review. It's amazing how it can keep me on track!
Oogiem
0
WR # 3 Finished
Got it one yesterday. Weather intervened and I didn't go to the Harvest Festival Farmer's Market. SO I spent the time finishing my review.
One discovery, the loss of the income from the market and the bulging freezers means that I really have to ramp up the marketing of our sheep meats this fall/winter. SO I also started a project to brainstorm new ways to get people to try our meats. Kicking around the idea of a weekly newsletter with stuff you can order and sending it to potential buyers. Delivery in town once a week or once a month.
Got a question for folks here, would you prefer CSA type implementation, paid at least a portion in advance and delivered each week or month or would you prefer being able to pick form a list of available cuts for each delivery?
Got it one yesterday. Weather intervened and I didn't go to the Harvest Festival Farmer's Market. SO I spent the time finishing my review.
One discovery, the loss of the income from the market and the bulging freezers means that I really have to ramp up the marketing of our sheep meats this fall/winter. SO I also started a project to brainstorm new ways to get people to try our meats. Kicking around the idea of a weekly newsletter with stuff you can order and sending it to potential buyers. Delivery in town once a week or once a month.
Got a question for folks here, would you prefer CSA type implementation, paid at least a portion in advance and delivered each week or month or would you prefer being able to pick form a list of available cuts for each delivery?
I don't often think in terms of sheep anatomy, but I do think about meals. Show me some meal plans with recipes and I'll order the recommended package required to implement it. But that's just me.
While I'm giving advice about things I don't know anything about, have you taken a stab at the business model around halal certification? I have no idea at all what the costs involved would be, nor the market for that sort of thing in your neck of the woods, but it might deserve at least a cursory glance.
While I'm giving advice about things I don't know anything about, have you taken a stab at the business model around halal certification? I have no idea at all what the costs involved would be, nor the market for that sort of thing in your neck of the woods, but it might deserve at least a cursory glance.
#3 for September! It turned out to be a HUGE effort to move projects to Evernote (because I'm making it up as I go along and had a few false starts along the way), but the list is there, with a fair amount of support material (and a lot still to be added). I like it so far - able to see relationships I couldn't see before. I also started a new interim/contract Controller job last week, which made me very glad for this month's challenge! The guy I'm taking over for is one of the least systematic Controllers I've ever met... SO grateful for GTD and a method to catch & systematize everything I'm learning about the business!
Oogiem
0
Thanks for the ideas!Roger said:
I think the option of a recipe or 2 with what you need to get to make it might be just the thing. There is another small business in town, a caterer who is working on some spice mixes for me. Buy a pound of ground meat and a bag of spice to make whatever flavor of sausages you want. She also wants to increase her business and do prepared packaged entrees that are frozen and then can be easily re-heated or microwaved as a way to increase her income during the winter. Maybe we can collaborate on some recipes. Sounds like another project to me.
On the halal (and kosher) slaughter. There is a lot more to it than just verification. The entire processing system is different. I get regular calls for both halal and kosher meats but cannot supply them. The issue is getting another slaughtering facility built. I already have costed it out and know how many animals we would need to process in a year to make it work (1500 cattle, yaks, bison and elk and 1500 small animals like sheep and goats) but the capital costs are about $1 million to build an inspected plant. You must have a USDA inspected one or you can't wholesale the meat or sell retail pieces. Custom slaughter only allows for sale of whole animals to a consumer as a live animal that you assist in finding a slaughtering place for. Dr. Temple Grandin is the person who would have to design a multispecies facility like that. She is great but not cheap as a consultant. However you pretty much must have her stamp of approval or you won't get the facility approved. I've been trying for 14 years to get more folks interested in building another plant in our area. There are only 2 inspected processing facilities in western Colorado. One is too far away for me to even consider using, the other is so booked that I have to schedule butcher dates a year or 2 in advance, in many cases before I even have bred the animals that will be going! Everyone I talk to agrees that we need one but no one is willing to either pony up some $ to help build it or even to help write a grant/loan application. Rural development has a lot of money available both as outright grants and low interest loans but you have to apply and the application process takes a lot of effort to write the proposal. Many of the farmers just scale back their production to what they know they can get processed. It's very frustrating, esp. since 2 of the coal mines have closed and we need jobs and meat cutting is a skill that can be learned and pays well. I just don't have the bandwidth to take getting it going on as a project other than providing all the data I've gathered to someone else as a starting point. Its's especially frustrating for me this year, we've already butchered 60 animals and I have a further 40 to go but am getting bogged down in both the getting them processed and the sale of the meat.
This was a great month of posts about your Weekly Reviews. Congratulations to our challenge winner for September, Jenn! The prize is anything from the audio downloads products in our online store. I'll email you, Jenn, to find out what you'd like.