My Sunday morning weekly review, which I have done every week for over a decade, is my favorite organizational task.
There are two parts to this review process, the physical and the digital.
The physical is quite simple. I go to the Inbox on my desk, and work through each item, from top to bottom, one at a time. Each item gets processed—either acted upon, filed, or placed in the trash. This process can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour depending on how well I’ve kept up with my InBox. Of note though: I always get my Inbox down to empty Sunday.
The digital review is slightly more complex.
First, I go to my Reminders App on my iPhone where I quickly go through pre-written lists. These are:
- Week Goals
- Month Goals
- Yearly Goals
- 5-Year Goals
- Principles
- Focus
- Mission
- Weekly Affirmations
- My 2021 Financial Obligations.
The Week Goals list and Month Goals list are fluid, whereas the other lists are quite stable, and are generally only edited twice a year. This list review, since I am so familiar with its content, usually takes less than 10 minutes.
Then I go to my OmniFocus App. It’s here where I review all of my Projects. This is the heart of my Weekly Review. Currently I have about 140 “Projects,” about half active and half inactive. I also have a Someday/Maybe list, which is simply a capture list for loosely defined activities I might want to do someday.
Now, although 140 projects seem like a lot, it isn’t if one defines a project as any activity which has 2 or more steps. For example, one of my active Projects is called Rolex Watchband, which has only two tasks: 1. Drop of Watch at the store a d 2. Pick up watch. This only takes seconds to review.
Inactive Projects take even less time to review. For example, one of my Projects is called aWeber Activation, in which I have a list of tasks to fully integrate my email list aWeber account with my website. Since I haven’t yet fully committed to capturing emails on my blog, this is still an inactive Project, and only takes a moment to scan. This scanning is a valuable reminder each week to consider activating this project.
Finally, I do have a catch-all list for fun ideas—projects which I haven’t put any energy into yet but may want to consider one day. An example of one of these? Live in Ireland for a year and write a novel there. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
So, that’s a quick guide to my Weekly Review process. (For those who want to explore something similar for themselves, It aligns quite well with a Getting Things Done organizational system). It’s a stake in the ground for me every week, helping me to clear my physical and mental deck. It’s also far and away my most efficient organizational time each week, and interestingly, it’s one of the most enjoyable activities I do every week.