It’s Friday, and you’re battered from a 5-day attack on your focus, attention, and patience; a battle that started the moment your alarm blared Monday morning.
If you started with a plan, it’s now buried in the rubble of a week that bombarded you with emails, phone calls, and customer demands.
Yes, the work-week struggle was real, and though it’s now over, another battle looms next week.
But, enter the weekend with a clean slate and you’ll start next week fresh, reinvigorated, and ready to crush it. What’s more, your free hours won’t be consumed with thoughts of unfinished tasks. You’ll enjoy a truly restful weekend.
This all begins with a weekly review.
Born out of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, the weekly review is a staple of consistent productivity. His method is straightforward.
I’m going to make it brain-dead simple:
1. Organize
Clear your desk, organize your papers, shred old bills and receipts. Close old browser tabs, shut down once-useful programs that now clutter up your taskbar, and get any processed/read emails out of your inbox so they don’t distract next week.
2. Consolidate
Review your notes from the week capturing unprocessed actions. Consolidate remaining actions into your todo list. Move all emails, actions, notes, and other files to their appropriate locations. For unreturned emails and calls, mark them for follow-up or set a reminder to track them down next week.
3. Prepare
Look at future meetings and events, prepping up front to be ready for them. Lay the groundwork for project milestones that are due. Schedule blocks of time for focused attention now before others steal those times away. Finally, list anything on your mind such that, when Monday morning comes around, you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off.
This all might take you 30 minutes at first, but after a few weeks you’ll knock it out in 15.
The time you’d otherwise spend in disorganized chaos will more than repay the minimal time investment in this weekly review.
Bonus points if you capture your weekly review in a checklist you can reuse week after week.
Do you have a weekly review process? Please share!
About the Author
Michael Mehlberg
HUSBAND, FATHER, ENTREPRENEUR, BUSINESS STRATEGIST, AUTHOR, FITNESS NUT, ORGANIZATION FREAK, PRODUCTIVITY JUNKIE
I help high-achieving entrepreneurs live their passion and achieve their dreams by consistently saving time, getting productive, and being more efficient and organized.
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