Have you ever found yourself barely keeping up with all the things going on with your life? School, work, your personal life, getting rest – it’s a common struggle to keep track of all these responsibilities.
But what if I told you that dedicating 30 minutes a week to do a weekly review can completely transform the way you deal with your everyday tasks?
With the right mindset and approach, it’s definitely possible! So make sure to take notes as we unravel this weekly review method that will help you boost your productivity.
What is a weekly review and why do you need it?
Before you start to conduct a weekly review, it’s important to first have a good understanding on what exactly it is and why it’s important to do it.
The concept of a weekly review came from the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology consultant, David Allen. In his book, Allen breaks down the process of a weekly review into three sections:
- Get clear: Reflect on the past week and process loose ends
- Get current: Identify your priorities for next week
- Get creative: Come up with new ideas to help you improve
Essentially, the goal is for you to answer the following questions:
- What went well this week that I can continue doing in the future?
- What went wrong this week that I should avoid doing again?
- What should be my priority for next week?
Aside from being able to keep track of your life, doing a weekly review is also important for the following reasons:
- You’ll improve your time management: By organizing your tasks, you become more considerate of your time and your productivity will increase.
- You’ll gain focus: Reflecting on your accomplishments and your goals will allow you to gain a clearer understanding of what truly matters. That way, you’ll easily know your priorities.
- You become proactive: Doing a weekly review heavily involves proactively planning for the week ahead. You’ll start each day with a goal in mind, making tangible progress toward your objectives.
- You can solve problems better: Reflecting on what you’ve done for the week allows you to identify patterns in your actions and make improvements. It helps you recognise recurring challenges and find effective strategies to overcome them.
How to do a weekly review
Doing a weekly review doesn’t need to be complicated and time-consuming. Anyone can do it, and as promised, you can even do it in just about 30 minutes.
Here are 4 steps to get you started:
1. Plan When and Where You’ll Be Doing Your Weekly Review
Choose a specific day, time, and place to perform your weekly review. Find a time that works best for you and try to develop a habit of doing it at the same time every week until it becomes part of your routine.
Pick a time that you know you’re free every week and a place where you can focus without any distractions. You can do it at the end of Friday, over the weekend, or at the beginning of next week.
2. Create Your Weekly Review Checklist
This checklist will serve as the template that you’ll use every week. Ideally, it should cover your tasks and commitments, outstanding items, upcoming tasks, and future ideas or goals.
Here’s a sample checklist we made that you can use for free.
3. Ask The Right Questions
Use thought-provoking questions on your weekly review to assess your progress and direction. Here are some questions that you can use:
- What went well this week?
- What could I have done better?
- What hurdles did I face?
- What did I do to achieve my goals this week?
- What else can I improve on for next week?
4. Stay Resilient
It’s important to know that we all have different ways of dealing with our tasks. What works best for someone, might not be preferred by another.
Likewise, the weekly review process that you’ll set might not work immediately for you. When that happens, re-organize your process accordingly and allow flexibility to adapt as you learn from each week’s experience.
Incorporate this weekly review into your routine and watch how it will affect your productivity, self-awareness, and overall well-being. This simple practice that can take as short as 30 minutes a week, can be the key to maximising your productivity!
