The Power of Knowing Everything:
Weekly Review 2.0
UPDATE: The Weekly Review Template has joined a package of FREE resources for anyone who buys my book, The 5 AM Miracle: Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast.
Of all the productivity strategies you could implement, which one would be the most effective?
In this week’s episode of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast I revisit my thorough weekly review process, which may be my favorite strategy to get things done and stay on top of everything I do.
In the Tip of the Week segment I share a simple strategy that I use every week to keep my calendar clear and flexible.
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* This Archive Episode is Available Exclusively on 5 AM Miracle Premium *
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
- 10 Miracles [Get this FREE PDF when you join The 5 AM Club (also free)
- The Weekly Review Checklist [The first time I discussed the weekly review on this show]
- 5amBook.com [Learn more about my book, The 5 AM Miracle]
- Getting Things Done [book by David Allen]
- Nozbe [My recommended task manager]
- How to Consistently Achieve Your Ideal Week [Episode #065]
The Sacred Weekly Review
I didn’t invent the weekly review and neither did David Allen. But David did a great job of designing a comprehensive and effective review process in his famous book, Getting Things Done.
My weekly review, outlined in this post, is based on his system, but I have customized it over the last 9 months to fit my life.
If you successfully complete a weekly review (even once) you will gain enormous clarity over your entire schedule, all of the tasks on your plate, the habits you care about, and the commitments you’ve made.
A weekly review is not complicated and it shouldn’t require a large amount of your time, maybe 2-3 hours a week. However, the benefits are staggering.
Benefits of a Weekly Review
- Clarity around your must-do tasks make each day simple and actionable.
- Simplicity from a system that forces you to focus.
- Reminders properly positioned in every nook and cranny of your life ensure you never forget anything.
- Accountability from others who care about your goals will keep you on your toes, ensuring you do what you said you would do.
- Productivity that will amaze you because the distractions that can wait, will wait.
Put It On Your Calendar
Clear a few hours on your schedule once a week to complete the following steps. It can be done anytime, as long as it’s consistent.
My reviews are on Thursday mornings because I found that I could never focus on Sunday evenings. Find what works best for you.
Here’s how the weekly review process works:
Step 1: Review Your Task Manager
I use Nozbe. It is my task manager of choice and I highly recommend you use your favorite task manager so you have one place to keep track of everything.
The first step in my weekly review is to look through every single task in every project. That’s right, all of them. I have around 100 tasks in Nozbe at the moment, but I only started with only a few dozen.
Here is what I look for when I review my tasks:
- Does this task have an identifiable deadline?
- If it needs a deadline, I schedule it on that date. If not, I don’t assign a date.
- Is this task urgent, important, neither, or both?
- Both: I do it immediately or ASAP.
- Neither: I delete it from Nozbe. I make it a practice to never intentionally do anything that isn’t important.
- Urgent, but Not Important: I usually delete these tasks.
- Important, but Not Urgent: I tag the task with “Important” and then work on it when I finish my must-do tasks for the day. In my system, must-do tasks are any tasks that are due today.
- How does this task fit in with the rest of my schedule?
- Balance is important. I try to batch like-items together and spread out tasks if they are too burdensome on any particular day.
- Should this task be divided into smaller pieces?
- When tasks are not clearly defined I divide them into smaller tasks with greater clarity.
- Should this task be merged with others?
- When tasks are very similar to others I merge them to maintain simplicity.
- Should this task be upgraded to a project?
- When tasks are too big to be one task I upgrade them to projects and then create new tasks inside the new project.
- Where is the best place to complete this task?
- In Nozbe you can assign a context to a task, which is an easy way to identify where you want to complete it.
- Contexts I Use: home, work, errand/chore, meeting, on-the-town/social, and important. Technically, “important” is not a context but I use it like one.
- Is this a recurring task?
- I always try to identify any task that will need to be done over and over again. In Nozbe I can set a recurring schedule as needed (e.g. daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.).
This list may seem daunting, but believe me when I say that it’s quick and easy once you get the hang of it. Most of these questions will be running through your brain as soon as you read the task.
If I never provided this list, you would still naturally ask yourself these questions because we all do this all the time. Don’t be overwhelmed by the process. It’s not difficult!
Step 2: Review Your Rituals & Download a Template
UPDATE: The Weekly Review Template has joined a package of FREE resources for anyone who buys my book, The 5 AM Miracle: Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast.
Every week I update this spreadsheet and then review it with my accountability partner, Matt Frazier, from No Meat Athlete.
My rituals are a critical part of my day as they set the tone for the habits that I don’t want to miss.
Here is what I look for when I review my rituals:
- Is this ritual still important to me?
- I began with over 20 daily rituals and I am now down to 8. Rituals ebb and flow with time. Feel free to adjust as needed.
- How effective was I last week in regards to this ritual?
- Rituals are meant to be rhythmic, meaning that over time you will be better at staying consistent. If you’re not, find out why.
- Should I alter the time of day, frequency, or intensity of the ritual?
- I used to meditate in the morning for 5 minutes. Now I meditate in the evening for 10. Change is good, especially when it keeps you on track.
- Are there any new rituals that I would like to add?
- Be careful when adding a new ritual. Make sure you have thought it through well and have a system to remind you to do it.
- How will my rituals fit in with my upcoming schedule this week?
- Travel, holidays, presentations, and distractions keep us from maintaining a perfect system. Just make sure you know what’s coming up.
- Do I need a new reminder system or additional accountability to guarantee I do all of my rituals?
- Post-it Notes are great for reminders, but the best may be an accountability partner, which you can read all about in Step 3.
Step 3: Accountability Check-In
Thanks to Matt Frazier from No Meat Athlete, I now have an accountability partner. Matt and I meet for 30 minutes through Skype once a week to discuss our goals and keep each other on track.
I was not a fan of accountability partners for many years because I had a monster ego. Yeah, I still do, but it’s just small enough now for me to admit I need help sometimes.
Matt and I use Darren Hardy’s Best Year Ever system to evaluate our week.
Here are a few topics we discuss each week during our meetings:
- 3 Big Wins from last week
- 3 Losses from last week
- How we’ll fix our mistakes this week
- 3 “Ah!” moments or fascinating personal development ideas we came across
- Books we’re reading this week
- Skills we’re practicing this week
- Top 3 Goals for this week
Start Small
I fully understand that this list is fairly comprehensive, so start small.
- If you don’t have a task manager like Nozbe, Wunderlist, or Reminders — get one today.
- If you haven’t created a rituals spreadsheet like the one I discussed above, read more about it on this post where you can also download a copy of the spreadsheet.
- If you don’t have an accountability partner — ask a smart friend, coworker, or partner to join you.
Weekly reviews are incredibly beneficial. I believe in them — I practice them — and I think you will love the process as much as I do. 🙂
Next Week
On the podcast next week I will be interviewing Kevin Kruse, author of the popular book on productivity, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management.