Weekly Review frustrations and procrastination...

[kewms]

Certainly one thing that has come out of this thread is that I need to prune my project list in the sense of distinguishing what's currently active, versus other timelines (coming up in a month, etc....). Still, this does not change the weekly review process in the sense of having to review these "less active" projects. Different review timelines (lets say monthly, or bi-monthly or some other time scales) have been suggested for items that are really not active. I'm going to certainly try these approaches though it does make me wonder about the scalability of GtD when you have lots of projects (or better said my application of GtD that prevents me from scaling).

In one sense, GTD doesn't care how many projects you have. GTD cares about how many hours you have in a week, and that number never changes. If you really, honestly have 500 active projects that you really, honestly *must* review every week, then you are so overloaded that no system on earth will help you. Rather, one of the major themes of GTD as I understand it is the need to decide what *not* to do, and which of those projects does *not* need to be reviewed.

Katherine

 

[kewms]

Why is Someday/Maybe not a long range list? One thing that bothers me about this approach is that a Long-Range list can fall off the "radar". So let's say I review the "Long-Range" list of projects every 6 months. For one thing, how do I really determine that a project is in "Long-Range" versus "Someday/Maybe"? Secondly, when I reach the 6 months point (and I've made an appointment with myself), I say..."well - let me reschedule 3 months from now..." - so it's a way to avoid dealing with these projects which will lead to picking them up into my head again.

When I look at a potential project, I ask myself, "when is the soonest that I might need to/want to/be able to act on this." I then ignore it until the Weekly or Monthly Review closest to that date. (Accomplished in my system by a date filter.) When it appears again, I ask myself the same question. Yes, that does mean that long range projects can stay on the list for months. So what? If I don't need to act on it, don't want to act on it, and don't have time to act on it anyway, then it can be ignored without consequences.

Occasionally, some of these projects do pop into my head again. Again, so what? Either I make notes and drop them into the long-term project support file, or I decide that the project has become important enough to pull back onto the active list. Either way, I have the benefit of all the time I haven't been dealing with it, and have been free to work on other things.

Katherine

 

[kewms]

The respose to this thread has made me realize that I need to re-asses my approach and understanding of the Weekly Review. For me it's difficult to "touch the items" without starting to re-plan and "fix" projects in terms of NAs. It's a tendency that is obviously getting in the way of completing the weekly review.

There's nothing wrong with carefully reviewing projects that you are actually planning to work on before the next Weekly Review. The problem arises when you try to give the same attention to every project you're thinking of doing in the next two years.

Katherine

 

[tonester]

I'm hesitant to move it out of GTD altogether because then I'll pick it back up mentally. Someday/Maybe makes more sense, but then that becomes a huge list that's supposed to be reviewed during the Weekly Review.

I find the someday/maybe list a far easier place to manage huge numbers of items. On a project list I do think about the projects - what's the goal, is there a next actions, etc etc. For the someday/maybe list I barely do more than read the names of them and think "do I want to active this - yes/no" - I can get through 100 items in under a minute.

Regards,
Tony

 

[ActionGirl]

One point of clarification here. If I have a voice memo which I recorded when i was driving and I go over voice memos during the weekly review. Then a project may come out of voice memo...are you saying I shouldn't add it during the weekly review? (I'm not trying to be retentive here...it's a point I don't understand).
njnjboy

It sounds like you are using your voice memo as a collection tool, i.e. an inbox. When you listen to your messages, you are processing them. Although catching up on collection and processing are mentioned by David as part of the weekly review, most people seem to find that it's best to get as caught up as possible the day before (or continuously).

I find it helpful to keep a piece of scratch paper on hand to capture distractions during the weekly review, and to process them only after completing the review. I guess this basically amounts to the same thing: I don't add projects during the WR. However I do tend to add them beforehand, when I'm catching up on the collecting and processing, and afterwards, when I'm processing my distractions. It doesn't sound like an important distinction, but I find it keeps me from feeling so scattered during the WR, and to feel like it's "done" at a particular moment in time.

 

[njnjboy]

When I look at a potential project, I ask myself, "when is the soonest that I might need to/want to/be able to act on this." I then ignore it until the Weekly or Monthly Review closest to that date. (Accomplished in my system by a date filter.) When it appears again, I ask myself the same question. Yes, that does mean that long range projects can stay on the list for months. So what? If I don't need to act on it, don't want to act on it, and don't have time to act on it anyway, then it can be ignored without consequences.

Occasionally, some of these projects do pop into my head again. Again, so what? Either I make notes and drop them into the long-term project support file, or I decide that the project has become important enough to pull back onto the active list. Either way, I have the benefit of all the time I haven't been dealing with it, and have been free to work on other things.

Katherine - thanks for your help on this. Your questions are exactly on the mark. I'll implement this as part of my review (I've changed to have SM and SM-dec as something to review)

njnjboy

 

[njnjboy]

I find the someday/maybe list a far easier place to manage huge numbers of items. On a project list I do think about the projects - what's the goal, is there a next actions, etc etc. For the someday/maybe list I barely do more than read the names of them and think "do I want to active this - yes/no" - I can get through 100 items in under a minute.

Tony,

Thanks for your response. I've tried to do this but I guess for my retentive personality, I can't help but read the outcomes and start to think about them...which spins my time out of control. KWMS' suggestion of different bins for SM might do the trick.

njnjboy

 

[njnjboy]

It sounds like you are using your voice memo as a collection tool, i.e. an inbox. When you listen to your messages, you are processing them. Although catching up on collection and processing are mentioned by David as part of the weekly review, most people seem to find that it's best to get as caught up as possible the day before (or continuously).

You're absolutley right - I start to do more in-box processing by waiting for the weekly review. It seems that I need to improve my daily review to make my weekly review managable.

I find it helpful to keep a piece of scratch paper on hand to capture distractions during the weekly review, and to process them only after ...afterwards, when I'm processing my distractions. It doesn't sound like an important distinction, but I find it keeps me from feeling so scattered during the WR, and to feel like it's "done" at a particular moment in time.

For me that's my Palm's IN box category (with memoleaf I have a template that makes project creation rapid). I need to process that IN box before the weekly review...I've been feeling way too scattered.

Thank you for your feedback.

njnjboy

 

[Borisoff]

I procrastinate on my Weekly Review as well. Part of the reason was that I was confused about the steps in the review process and was doing too much. Ultimately I realized that the Weekly Review is the time to look through my lists to see if I have missed anything, rather that a catch basket for work.

My Weekly Review is a four step process.

• Check the calendar from last week and look for open loops.
• Check the calendar for next week and see if you need to do anything before the meetings.
• Check the Projects List to make sure that every project has at least one Next Action.
• Check the Someday/Maybe list for the month

Some of the steps the book says are part of the Weekly Review should be done daily.

• Check the Waiting For List
• Check all the NA Lists for completions

Bernard, didn't find INBOX check in your Weekly or Daily review. For me that's the biggest part usually to check all email addresses, inboxes, voice recorder, portable inboxes etc. Where do you keep this part of review?

Regards,

Eugene.

 

[WebR0ver]

I. . .and was doing too much. Ultimately I realized that the Weekly Review is the time to look through my lists to see if I have missed anything, rather that a catch basket for work.

The goal of the Weekly Review is to get an overview of my workload and realign any straggling projects. By trying to cram too much into the review I am losing sight of this goal and wasting time performing an empty ritual.

Once I realized this. I pared down the review to the meaningful items.

Thanks for all the thoughtful details. I found your post very helpful.

 

[kewms]

Bernard, didn't find INBOX check in your Weekly or Daily review. For me that's the biggest part usually to check all email addresses, inboxes, voice recorder, portable inboxes etc. Where do you keep this part of review?

I check all of my inboxes several times a day. If I didn't, the overflow would push me out the door long before my Weekly Review.

The trick, I've found, is to clearly separate inbox processing from everything else. That is, I need to check my email at least three or four times a day. But I *don't* need to check it every time a new piece of email comes in. Defining sharp edges helps me keep my email under control, while still getting other work done, too.

Katherine

 

[Borisoff]

I check all of my inboxes several times a day. If I didn't, the overflow would push me out the door long before my Weekly Review. The trick, I've found, is to clearly separate inbox processing from everything else. That is, I need to check my email at least three or four times a day. But I *don't* need to check it every time a new piece of email comes in. Defining sharp edges helps me keep my email under control, while still getting other work done, too. Katherine

That what I mean the one should check inboxes at least once a day (or two days but not more) otherwise there's a chance to loose the ends. I didn't find that in Bernard's check list...

Regards,

Eugene.