Weekly Review Support Group - WR Avoiders Anonymous

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taxgeek

Guest
Does anybody have an interest in making this thread a support group to help each other "just do" the weekly review? Last week, despite all good intentions, it slipped again, this time because "I'm too tired and cranky and my blood sugar's too low." From all accounts, the WR is the most crucial aspect of GTD, and yet, I resist! Argh!

This week I SWEAR I'm going to do it. It would be great to hear other people's trials, tribulations and success stories with getting into the WR habit. Maybe we could also encourage each other and congratulate each other when we actually do it . . . We could even swap email addresses and send each other reminder emails like "You promised you would do the weekly review at lunchtime today . . . don't break that promise you made to yourself!".

Anybody interested?

I'll go first. Hi, I'm Taxgeek and I haven't done a weekly review in a loooooooong time. I keep my context lists more or less up to date in real time, so skipping the WR doesn't result in projects lacking NAs, but it does result in a lack of an overview in my head about the big picture and what projects are more important, what projects have been languishing for far to long, etc. It results in me working in reactive mode -- I work on the projects for the clients that complain. No major disasters yet, but I'd like to get back on the 'proactive' bus.

Does everybody else have a regular scheduled time for the WR, as David suggests? A way to talk yourself into it when you just don't feel like it? I pretty much have to do mine at my desk in my office, so can't motivate by promising a nice venue for the WR. Help!!!

Thanks to anybody who wants to play!
Taxgeek
 
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jmarkey

Guest
Weekly Review Support Group - WR Avoiders Anonymous

I'll play! I schedule my weekly review for Fridays at 1:00 p.m. (or just after whenever I eat lunch) :arrow: . I'm still working out the kinks...
 
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taxgeek

Guest
Great. Do you go through DA's entire WR checklist, or do you do some customized version of it? I'm considering whittling it down to make the review more palatable. Any input on that?
 
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CosmoGTD

Guest
I do it every Sunday night from 8-10.
I use DA's list, and i have customized it into a long checklist of my own.
I start at the top, and work to the bottom.

Its a fantastic thing to do, to clean up all those loose ends.

Missing doing it is too painful.
Doing it gives such a great feeling on Monday morning.

You just have to schedule it, and make yourself do it.
That's what it comes down to.

Coz
 
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Anonymous

Guest
WR Avoiders Anonymous

Just want to thank Taxgeek for a wonderful laugh on a Monday. Sign me up.
 
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taxgeek

Guest
Report: Ok, it's 1pm Monday, the designated time has arrived. Lunch is finished, and I'm sitting down to DO IT! Wish me luck!

(Reading your responses helped me hold on to my initial push of excitement.)

I'll report back later on what happens!
=====================
2 hours elapse
=====================

Yay, I did it! I did it!!! My first weekly review in AWHILE. I feel clean!

Now, who's next? I ended up customizing DA's list significantly to make it meaningful to me. It helped when I recognized teh value of doing each step and wasn't just going through the motions for the heck of it.

Taxgeek
 

Mardo

Registered
Weekly Review support group

Tax Geek oh how your words spoke to me. I have met all the hard deadlines, but the lack of weekly review kept the "quiet" stuff from getting done when it should have. I too swore that last Friday would be the day my weekly review got done and the entire day went by and it did not get done. I thought about it all weekend and just couldn't bring myself to get it done Sunday when the weather was wonderful. I was in the office this morning and spent the DAY doing the weekly review with time out for day sensitive stuff. It was a wakeup call and took so long because it had been so long since I had done it and it took a while to make sure it was all there. I had to make sure all my in buckets were empty and then empty the biggest in bucket of all My head.
Tomorrow morning before I go to the gym ( I had to commit to a personal trainer twice a week at 7am to haul my butt to the gym.)I am listing my top 5 of the week and they are getting done.
I would like to do my review Friday at 1.
Mardo
 
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taxgeek

Guest
Great job, Mardo! Isn't it amazing how long it can take when you really start focusing on each project and open loop? Seems like there are several people on the Friday afternoon bus . . . so stop by here and we'll nag you a bit! :wink:
 
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CosmoGTD

Guest
When i don't "feel like" doing my Weekly review, i realize that is "emotional reasoning". I don't have to feel like doing it, to do it.

So, in that case, i have found it is VERY useful to just "go through the motions".
That is, just do the review, one little step at a time.
Mechanically.

The amazing thing is, after a short while, i start to ENJOY it.
Just start doing the first step, totally mechanically, like a robot, of you have to. Just like taking a shower, or getting dressed.
The stuff still gets done...

Coz
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Does a weekly review really make sense only for working people? I'm a SAHM and finding uninterrupted time to do a weekly review has becoming extremely difficult. The few hours during the week when I don't have kids is delegated to housework and/or paperwork, and those things must be done (I tackle my inbox regularly, it's just that the big-picture weekly review hasn't been getting done)...
 
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AdamK

Guest
One idea that can help is to break the Weekly Review into smaller pieces that don't necessarily have to be done right after another.

In other words, I'll spend 20 minutes to go over the non-Project actions and then work on the project related actions later in the day.

Adam
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Sometimes I find the weekly review depressing when I see how little progress I have made on projects – many of them still have the same NA hanging since last week :(

F.
 
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jmarkey

Guest
Weekly Review Support Group

Kudos to Mardo and Taxgeek for getting their weekly reviews done. To answer your question Taxgeek, at the moment I am sticking with DA's weekly review checklist.
 
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taxgeek

Guest
Anybody SUPPOSED to be doing their review today? Tuesday? Anyone? Anyone?
 

moises

Registered
my name is moises and I need WR support

Step 1. I admit I have a problem. So I am going to use this thread as an opportunity to engage in some writing therapy.

I do my weekly reviews about every 8 or 9 days. That could be improved upon.

But I think the biggest area where I need to improve is in the way I review. My reviews fall short of my perfectionist demands. I speed through my reviews. I just glance through very quickly my lists of NAs and projects. I do not take the time and discipline to really examine them. Have I formulated the NA correctly as the next physical action or is it still some vague blob? I do not review the NAs of all my projects. I just acknowledge that I have them.

I just started the Feeling Good Workbook by David Burns. I strongly endorse it to anyone with procrastination issues. I found out about this book on this forum on the thread where people recommend books other than DA's.

Using the methods from the Feeling Good Workbook, I can do a few things.

First I can do a cost-benefit analysis.

What are the advantages of my cursory weekly reviews?
1. I get the satisfaction of knowing I have done a weekly review.
2. I know that I am staying on top of my stuff enough that no major issues are going to blindside me.
3. I don't spend a lot of time on my WRs.
4. I avoid doing what I find very uncomfortable: (a) clarifying next actions which have been on my list for months, (b) setting clear NAs for open projects, (c) reviewing on going projects and bringing their plans up to date.

What are the disadvantages of my cursory weekly reviews?
1. By delaying decisions I lower my productivity. I spend more time anxious about doing things and less time doing things.
2. Although I save time by avoiding lengthy WRs, I ultimately waste more time because of my lowered productivity and my lowered motivation to do those vague blobs of undoability.
3. By avoiding clarifying my project plans I increase my discomfort because I am not sure what I am doing next.
4. I disappoint myself when I see stuff on my lists that I know I have not taken the time to review carefully and clarify.

Result: I see that the disadvantages of my cursory WRs outweigh the advantages. I hope that this belief will encourage me to start improving my WRs. I am scheduling a WR for today.

My avoidance of 2-hour WRs is reflective of some distorted beliefs I have.

First, I think that I am incorrectly assessing the pleasure I get from doing things other than WR and the discomfort I get from WR. Today I will try to assess how much pleasure I receive from doing my WR. My guess is that I will feel a lot better and in the zone doing the WR correctly than doing some other less central tasks.

Second, I think that my cursory WRs are a result of "emotional reasoning" along the lines of, "I don't feel like spending two hours carefully reviewing my NAs and projects, so I won't spend two hours carefully reviewing my NAs and projects." It would be better for me if I adopted the more realistic thought, "I can do a careful WR even if I don't feel particularly thrilled about doing it. And once I get started there is a good chance I will actually feel like doing it properly. But even if I don't get the feeling of doing it properly I can still act in my long-term self-interest and continue to do it properly."

There you have it. I feel better already. I feel less guilty about the manner in which I have done my WRs in the past. And I am looking forward to the opportunity to do my WR this afternoon in a manner where I (1) ensure that my NAs are well-formulated, and (2) ensure that my projects have current plans with at least one well-formulated NA.
 
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taxgeek

Guest
Hi Moises! Great introspective post! Be sure to let us know how it goes!
Taxgeek
 
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CosmoGTD

Guest
Yo Moises, nice work.
Just keep it up, keep doing that work, and your brain will get the message.

For instance, i didn't "feel like" getting up this morning at 5am, after working late yesterday, and going and doing the job i just did, and i didn't "feel like" being there today, due to lack of sleep, etc etc.

But i did it, i was there, and did my work, and will get my cheque.

Lots of things in life we don't have to "feel like" doing, but we just do them, no matter what we feel.

We override/ignore the emotional reasoning with practical reasoning.

Coz
 
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