Weekly review

Weekly Review

The weekly review is the maintenance ritual that keeps a productivity system trustworthy. Skip it two weeks in a row and the lists go stale, the brain stops trusting them, and everything moves back into working memory - which is the exact failure the system existed to prevent. Run it as a repeatable checklist at a fixed time, not as a guilt session, and it takes 60-90 minutes to buy a week of clear-headed execution.

Operating procedure

The three phases run in this order because each depends on the last: you cannot audit projects honestly (get current) while unprocessed inputs hide commitments (get clear), and you cannot pick next week's outcomes (get ahead) from a project list you have not audited.

Step 1: gather inputs (5 minutes)

Collect before starting; if the user cannot produce one, note it as a gap in their system and continue.

• The list of inboxes. Default set: email, chat, notes app, task-manager inbox, physical desk/papers. If they name fewer than three, ask where meeting commitments land - there is almost always a hidden inbox.
• The project list, waiting-for list, and someday/maybe list.
• The calendar, last week through two weeks ahead.
• Last week's plan, if one exists. If none exists, say so plainly and build the first one this session.

If the user estimates anything ("I think I have about 10 open projects"), label it a guess and verify during Phase B.

Phase A - Get clear (25-30 minutes)

1. Empty every inbox to zero. Process each item to one of four decisions: do (under 2 minutes - do it now), defer (put on the calendar or task list with a next action), delegate (hand off and add to waiting-for), or drop. Inbox zero means every item has a decision, not that every item is done.
2. Run a 5-minute mind sweep: capture anything the head is still holding - promises made in hallways, nagging worries, ideas. Write, don't evaluate.

Phase B - Get current (20-30 minutes)

1. Scan the calendar backward over last week for loose ends: meetings that produced commitments never captured, follow-ups owed.
2. Scan the calendar forward two weeks for anything that needs prep. Two weeks, not one - one week gives no runway for prep that itself takes days.
3. Walk the project list. Every open project must have a concrete next action; a project without one is stalled by definition, whatever its status field says.
4. Walk the waiting-for list. Nudge anything with no response for more than a week. Delete items that no longer matter.

Phase C - Get ahead (10-15 minutes)

1. Pick the 3-5 outcomes that would make next week a win. Hard cap at 5 - a list of eight priorities is a list of zero priorities.
2. Block calendar time for the most important outcome, not the most urgent, and place its first block before Wednesday. Deep-focus blocks that land on Friday get eaten. For heavier time-block design, pair with deep-work-planner.
3. Scan someday/maybe and activate at most one item. Activating more than one per week silently inflates the project list.
4. End with a short written Monday plan: the 3-5 outcomes, the first calendar block for each, and the single most important thing to start Monday morning.

Concrete thresholds

• Full review: 60-90 minutes. Consistently over 2 hours means the system is too complex or the review too infrequent - fix the system (gtd-system), don't lengthen the ritual.
• Missing two consecutive weeks is the trust-collapse threshold. When time is short, shrink instead of skipping: the 20-minute minimum is inboxes to zero, calendar scan, pick 3 outcomes.
• Waiting-for nudge line: 7 days without a response.
• Calendar lookahead: 2 weeks. Outcome cap: 5. Someday/maybe activation cap: 1 per week.

Template: weekly review record

Copy, fill, and keep in the same document week over week - the running history is what makes patterns visible.

WEEKLY REVIEW - week of [FILL: date]

GET CLEAR
  Inboxes emptied:        [FILL: list] - all to zero? yes / no
  Mind sweep captures:    [FILL: count] items

GET CURRENT
  Loose ends from last week:  [FILL]
  Prep needed (next 2 weeks): [FILL]
  Projects without a next action (now fixed): [FILL: count]
  Waiting-for items nudged:   [FILL]

GET AHEAD - next week's 3-5 outcomes
  1. [FILL: outcome] - first block: [FILL: day/time]
  2. [FILL] - first block: [FILL]
  3. [FILL] - first block: [FILL]
  Someday/maybe activated (max 1): [FILL or none]

HONESTY LINE
  What didn't happen last week and why (one sentence, no self-flagellation):
  [FILL]

MONDAY: start with [FILL: one thing]

Deliverable

Produce a completed weekly review record containing: confirmation every inbox reached zero, the fixed project and waiting-for lists, the 3-5 named outcomes each with a calendar block before Wednesday where possible, the one-sentence honesty line about last week, and the Monday starting action.

Do NOT

• Do not turn the review into doing the work. Two-minute items get done; everything else gets a decision and a slot. A review that runs 4 hours because you answered email is not a review.
• Do not let the honesty line become a guilt session. One sentence on what slipped and why, then adjust the plan - piling on erodes the habit that keeps the system alive.
• Do not pick outcomes by urgency. Urgent items already defend themselves; the review exists to protect the important ones.
• Do not skip Phase A to "save time". Auditing projects on top of unprocessed inboxes produces a plan missing the commitments hiding in email.
• Do not rebuild the system mid-review. Note friction, finish the review, then fix the system separately with gtd-system.

Quality bar

A finished review passes only when all hold:

• Every inbox is at zero (decisions made, not necessarily done).
• Every open project has a written next action.
• Next week has 3-5 outcomes, no more, each with a first calendar block.
• The honesty line exists and names a cause, not just a miss.
• The whole thing fit inside 90 minutes - or the gap is logged as a system problem.