{"id":192,"date":"2007-03-04T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-04T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=192"},"modified":"2007-03-04T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-04T22:30:00","slug":"the-importance-of-the-weekly-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/the-importance-of-the-weekly-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of the Weekly Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fast pace of the modern business world, it\u2019s easy to lose your way and become reactive rather than proactive. As a result, you may lose focus on your goals, forget to process notes from your meetings, fail to put assigned tasks on your task list, or, looking forward, anticipate upcoming meetings and events for which you need to prepare.<\/p>\n\n

When this happens, important items fall through the cracks. You end up embarrassed. Worse, you may frustrate your customers, colleagues, or even your boss.
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\nPart of the solution to this problem is the \u201cWeekly Review.\u201d This is an opportunity to get your head above the daily blizzard of activities and see where you\u2019ve been and where you\u2019re going. In my view, this is the key to staying on top of your projects and assignments. The result is that you stay in control of your workload and keep your business constituents happy.<\/p>\n

No one has written more compellingly about the Weekly Review than David Allen. In his book, Getting Things Done<\/a><\/em> he writes:<\/p>\n

\n If you\u2019re like me and most people, no matter how good your intentions may be, you\u2019re going to have the world come at you faster than you can keep up. Many of us seem to have it in our natures consistently to entangle ourselves in more than we have the ability to handle.<\/p>\n

We book ourselves in back to back meetings all day, go to after-hours events and generate ideas and commitments we need to deal with, and get embroiled in engagements and projects that have the potential to spin our creative intelligence into cosmic orbits. The whirlwind of of activity is precisely what makes the Weekly Review so valuable. It builds in some capturing, reevaluation, and reprocessing time to keep you in balance. There is simply no way to do this necessary regrouping while you\u2019re trying to get everyday work done (pp. 184\u2013185).\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I usually do my weekly review at home on Sunday night. By this time, I am usually refreshed and have some perspective. I also like doing it at home because I eliminate most of the distractions that keep me from truly getting my head above the fray at work.<\/p>\n

I schedule two hours for my Weekly Review. It rarely takes this long, but I like to have the time blocked off in my schedule. I find if I don\u2019t schedule it, it\u2019s easy to avoid this activity or schedule something else in this slot.<\/p>\n

What do I do during this time? Here\u2019s the \u201cagenda\u201d for my meeting with myself. This is modified from David Allen\u2019s list:<\/p>\n

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  1. Gather all loose papers and process.<\/strong> I empty everything out of my briefcase, my inbox, and my wallet. I then go through each piece of paper and make a decision what to do with it. Following David\u2019s model, I first decide if it is something that requires me to take action. If not, I have three options. I can:\n