Yearly Review

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skindoggy2000

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Hey guys--

I'm heading into year 2ish of GTD and I've been thinking about what a "year in review" process might look like. Meaning, is there a system-wide checklist/walk through for what that might look like (akin to the weekly review walkthrough) or is the short answer -- start at the very top and work your way back down? I'm sure I could just do that....but I also wonder if there isn't a more thoughtful/directed way to get it done. I have some time off between Christmas and NYE and I imagine a day where I pour myself a huge cup of coffee and just kind of dig and and evaluate. Again, I can probably do it myself, but if there is a guide out there that would be pretty helpful stuff.

Anyway, any help would be awesome.
 
I'd say start at the top and work your way down. For me, the yearly review isn't a super-weekly review, so much as a chance to look at Areas of Focus and other higher level things. At a minimum, by the time you're done you should be able to answer three questions:
* What did I accomplish in 2009?
* What do I want to accomplish in 2010?
* And what is the plan and what are the milestones for doing that?

Ideally, you should end up with something that you can pull out in June and do a progress report from.

Katherine
 
totally.

After reading Making It All Work I began thinking about how mine is going to look like.

I primarilly want to focus and reflect on the things I did accomplish in 09. I started GTD like Nov of 08 and 2009 was where I really began taking control of my life. Its in this year I began really buckling down with school and placing importance on family.

DA suggests writing down all things you accomplished in 2009 and think about what you want to write down at the end of 2010, and how you'll get there.Its a one year fresh reminder like this that can put the year in true perspective, as opposed to the thousands of people fazed out in those new year resolution plans that are dead by February.

I'm using OmniFocus so it'll be great looking back at all the early projects I created, the ones I completed, dropped...and it will also be nice to see how my overall GTD system has evolved from January of 2009 to December of 2009.
 
There is also a New Years Teleseminiar from 2006 or 2007 that I have on my new years checklist to listen to again. It is listed under teleseminars on media. I found it helpful enough to relisten to each year.
 
I also think it is important to look at things that you did not get to but wanted to. Not to be overly neagtive, but also look at failures and how you might prevent it from happening again in 2010.
 
Ross;75078 said:
I also think it is important to look at things that you did not get to but wanted to. Not to be overly neagtive, but also look at failures and how you might prevent it from happening again in 2010.
Click to expand...

Yes, definitely. Peter Drucker has said (paraphrasing) that the most important lessons come from unexpected failures and unexpected successes.

Along these lines, be sure to save your annual review notes. Next year, you'll learn a lot by comparing what you planned with what actually happened.

Katherine
 
The next Productive Living

David's next Productive Living newsletter gives some great tips for a year-end review. Sign up before next Tuesday to receive that. It's free.
 
Kelly, is this newsletter brand-new? Haven't heard of it before.

P.S. I hope you get a Mac tomorrow :D Or did you already get one?
 
It's hard for me to type because I am sitting underneath the Christmas tree waiting for my new Mac to arrive...

Productive Living is the new version of what David has done for years: "Productivity Principles." But it's got even more information now and helpful coaching advice from David.

You can see the last one here.

It gets sent about every 3 weeks. Easy to hop on and off if it's not for you.

Cheers,
Kelly
 
All interesting stuff....

I'm sort of torn between two possible approaches. Approach one would be -- refresh the whole system. This is sort of ground-up: take a day and treat it like "GTD Day 1" and dump everything in my life into an inbox, sort and process away, and work my way up and see what I have. The second approach would be, start at 50,000 -- see if I agree with what I have written there, and slowly move my way down until I'm generating material like a typical weekly review. My concern with both is that I'm not working in as thoughtful a manner as I'd like because I'm limited by my own thoughts, inputs, etc. Which is why the idea of a guided YR would be awesome -- a podcast, or a twitter-feed even -- so that there could be a second voice saying, "While you are doing this, don't forget to think about......"

Another approach, I suppose, is just to re-read MIAW and see what happens.....
 
skindoggy2000;75087 said:
I'm sort of torn between two possible approaches. Approach one would be -- refresh the whole system. This is sort of ground-up: take a day and treat it like "GTD Day 1" and dump everything in my life into an inbox, sort and process away, and work my way up and see what I have. The second approach would be, start at 50,000 -- see if I agree with what I have written there, and slowly move my way down until I'm generating material like a typical weekly review.
Click to expand...

I'd do both. Unless you've cleared the decks at the runway level, you won't get the most out of the upper level review.

Yes, it can take some time, but it's worth it.

Katherine
 
I love the period between Christmas and New Years for the opportunity it gives me to reflect on the previous year, and plan for the upcoming year.

I'm looking forward to DA's newsletter for tips on doing a very specific yearly review.

In general terms, this year I have already written a draft plan for 2010 - a Word document with a collage of pictures of my desired outcomes on the cover. I treat the year as a "mini-life", meaning that I consider it with respect to all six horizons - the values I want to express, and the principles I want to live by in 2010; the vision of how I want the year to have looked, by the end of the year; and then the specific outcomes that I want to achieve across the key areas of focus of my life.

I have given the year a "theme", that ties together all of the key things I want to accomplish under a single core value. This is the first year I've done this, and I hope it helps me to make better decisions throughout the year by being able to focus on a simple and clear principle.
 
Along the lines of a yearly theme, as mackiest was talking about, I noticed that there were 2 themes that I really was able to move forward on in this past year. Both were given primary focus from the start of the year, which somehow propelled them forward. I have chosen 2 new main themes for this coming year - one personal and one professional. I'm getting better at goal setting and mapping, so I'm curious to see what happens.
 
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