I’ve written about the value of regular weekly reviews before, even going back as far as 2008. It’s a key part of GTD or any other type of system you use to keep yourself organized. If you have a system that is not reviewed (and regularly), then you have a system you don’t fully trust because you can’t be sure that what’s in it is up-to-date and accurate.
Open loops are killer, yo!
After a lot of years of inconsistent weekly reviews, my using a paper notebook improved over the last two years enough so that this is now a regular habit. However, I’m finding value these days in even more frequent reviews.
The Daily’s
The weekly review is great for reviewing the whole picture and envisioning what a successful week would look like. You pull out 3–4 bigger goals you want to accomplish. But if you wait until the next week before you look at this once more, it’s very easy to get lost in the details and to miss your mark.
But if you take time to do smaller reviews, it’s a lot easier to ensure that your week does not slip away from you. And while any habit can be hard to adopt, daily reviews are quick and easy enough that they’re easier than making some big change.
Taking 10–15 minutes at the end of each day can bring a lot of peace of mind to your following morning.
Anytime
One of the nice aspects of Things is the Anytime list. It shows you all tasks listed by Area of Responsibility and Project. You can quickly scan this list (quickly is relative — the time required is dependent on how many projects/tasks you have in there) to plan what to work on the next day.
Until recently, I did not make much use of the Anytime list and it’s been a wonderful addition to my workflow. And if you have a smart (yet simple) system of tags (review this article for an example of tagging in this manner), your can very quickly narrow down the Anytime to list to get to the important stuff.
Process
As I go through my day, I send items to the Things Inbox. Towards the end of the day, I then open Things and process that Inbox. From there, I also review the Anytime list and see what items might fit well for my following day.
Again, this is not a long process — it’s nothing like a weekly review. But there is a lot of peace in taking a few minutes to check back in with my weekly review and ensure I’m still moving towards the goals I came into the week with.
