Let’s discuss the importance of a weekly review. If you have identified your goals, and are taking action towards them – awesome! To have a productive week, what you need to do is make sure you are moving at the right pace into the right direction. Unfortunately it’s so easy to get distracted or get slightly off target without even noticing it. A regular review process ensures that you stay on track and the actions you take are indeed bringing you closer to your goals.
From my experience a three-level review process is the most effective – weekly, monthly, yearly. The weekly review is really where the bulk of your review work happens, but if you have the discipline to do it every week, soon it will become second nature to you and won’t take much time at all.
I want to share with you my weekly review procedure. It takes me about 60-90 minutes (I know, it seems like a lot 😉 ), but it saves me endless hours in the upcoming week, so it’s absolutely worth it. Here are my steps:
Gather Loose Papers/Notes And Process Them
- Empty everything out of my folio, my inbox, and my wallet.
- Go through each piece of paper and make a decision what to do with it. If it requires no action then I either:
- Trash it
- Add it to my Someday/Maybe list
- File it for future reference
If the item requires me to take action I either :
- Do it if it takes less than two minutes
- Add it to my task list to do later
- Schedule time to deal with it.
- Delegate it to someone else for action and enter it into my task list using the “@WaitingFor” category.
Check My Calendar
I look over the previous week’s meetings on my calendar and see if there is anything I missed. For example, I ask myself if I committed to take an action, that is not on my action list yet. Or if I need to send some follow information, etc. The main intent is that I feel complete with the week, no loose ends.
Then I look at the upcoming week’s schedule and identify if there are any tasks I need to take, for example if I have a presentation on Thursday of next week, am I prepared? If not, what do I need to do to get prepared and when am I going to do that?
Then I review my @Waiting For (or Pending) list. If something is overdue, or if I need a progress report, I send an e-mail or nudge the person responsible.
Review My Project Lists
Now I review my project list and make sure I have identified a clear action step for each project including a due date for that task, even if that date is 3 months out.
Review My Milestones/Monthly Goals
To have a productive week, set my goals for the next week, identifying what I need to accomplish next week to stay on track with my monthly goals. If there are tasks that need more time than 30 minutes, I usually schedule those on my calendar.
Then I send my weekly goals to my accountability partner.
Time For Contemplation
As a last step to have a productive week, take some time to contemplate and review what is working in my life and what is not working. This type of contemplation is not so much focused on numbers, or whether I am on schedule with projects, or if I operating within my budget etc. That happens during Step 5.
This time of contemplation is more about me going within and listen to what my gut/subconscious has to tell me. Rather than taking action on what I discover during this time, I take notes and then review them next week to see if there is anything I need to do differently or not.
If you are not already doing a weekly review I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND making it a new habit or ritual. Schedule it in your calendar. This is a time for YOU. Find out what time works best for you. I do my weekly review on Saturday mornings.
To speak with us about how to have a productive week, schedule a call with us now