Review:
- To examine with an eye to criticism or correction.
- Going over a subject again in study so as to fix it in the memory.
The weekly review in GTD is one of the most critical elements of the entire methodology, and also one of the hardest to implement regularly. While most aspects of GTD are open to individual interpretation, the weekly review is the one element that David Allen is clear and specific on. You need to do it weekly, you need to do it thoroughly and you certainly can’t cut any corners. Despite your best intentions, stuff always slips through holes in your system. Next actions go undefined, projects don’t get updated and loose ends pile up in your inbox. The review is the one clearly defined period in your week where your primary goal is to catch up on those leaks, get up to date and clear the decks of any loose ends.
The weekly review also allows you to re-focus your mind on your system and keep it fresh. People take it for granted that they can implement an organizational system and it will just work. Normally, however, it becomes stale, out of date and it eventually falls apart. If you can’t rely on the information kept in your system to be up to date and relevant how can you trust it? The weekly review gives you a chance to think about what’s working and what isn’t and tweak things accordingly.
What should you do in a weekly review? While that is a question that could take up an entire post, for the purposes of this definition I will provide a basic overview. You must process any loose paper, receipts, reference materials, etc. that you may have forgotten about or been putting off. You must also review your calender and check for any upcoming dates you need to be aware of, any dates that need changing, etc. You should also review all your next action lists, project lists, waiting-on lists and someday/maybe lists. A thorough weekly review can be time consuming but it is critical in keeping your entire GTD system up to date, and you yourself up to date with what’s going in in your life.
June 6, 2007 at 10:09PM
I just posted how I’m using Remember The Milk to do my weekly review and manage my tasks. The main key for me is cleaning the table from the last week and refocusing on specific projects and tasks for the coming week.