This is episode seven, where we discuss the powerful productivity practice of the Weekly Review, in our nine-part series on the Getting Things Done (GTD) personal productivity methodology and eponymously-titled book, from the perspective of the ProductivityCast team–as long-term practitioners, critics and observers of GTD.
“The Weekly Review is the time to: Gather and process all your stuff. Review your system. Update your lists. Get clean, clear, current, and complete. You have to use your mind to get things off your mind.” David Allen
In this cast, Augusto and I discuss the power of the Weekly Review and some of the hangups that keep people from doing the Weekly Review and flourishing with the practice consistently.
(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit http://productivitycast.net/045 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)
Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!
If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).
In this Cast | Weekly Review - Getting Things Done (GTD)
Ray Sidney-Smith
Augusto Pinaud
Show Notes | Weekly Review - Getting Things Done (GTD)
Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
Raw Text Transcript | Weekly Review - Getting Things Done (GTD)
Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).
Read More
Voiceover Artist 0:00
Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling, productive life? Then you've come to the right place. Productivity cast the weekly show about all things productivity here, your host re Sydney Smith and a goose open out with Francis Wayne an art gallery. Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Raisa D. Smith and have a good job you know and welcome back to our series on getting things done these last several episodes and the next couple of episodes we are covering all of the unique aspects the the fundamental components of getting things done the the methodology based on the book, getting things done the art of stress free productivity by David Allen and I am actually holding a copy of the march 2015 edition that David Allen put out almost three years ago and today August You and I are going to be talking about the weekly review and in that copy of the book, David Allen really calls the
Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:00
Weekly Review one of the critical success factors and we're going to talk about three fundamental pieces one. Today we're going to talk about defining the weekly review in GTD terms, as well as in ways in which we really view the GTD weekly review construct today in our own systems. We're going to talk about our practice of the weekly review and what we've changed over time, how we have implemented the weekly review in our own systems today, and then some of the challenges that we all face in the implementation of the weekly review because the weekly review is a challenge for so many people. We're going to talk about how people really make the weekly review happen. So let's start off Augusta with how do you define the weekly review and what I will. What I'll do first is I will I will give David Allen's definition here. And what David Allen did is in the 2015 edition, he was so kind in the appendix to provide a goal.
We have terms like Glossary of getting things done terms. So he's given us some some definitions, which is actually really awesome. So under weekly review, he has the best practice. I'm quoting here from the book The best practice recommended of regrouping at an operational level once a week, bringing up the rear guard by getting clean, clear, current and creative to sustain week to week control and focus so good so how do you see the weekly review? Do you agree with that definition with David Allen in terms of it being what you do for your system and how does that approach work for you it does and I really believe on the impact of of the wiki review also I really agree with what he said that it is a fundamental part on on the success of getting things done and really anything you know, over the years working on
Augusto Pinaud 3:00
With people one of the things that I have seen with with a lot of these people is they don't have time to slow down to think to really be strategic about what is on their plate then instead of making good calls or or making decisions that will impact their goals, their objective and the direction they're taking, they tend to have a more reactive approach to life that at the end of the day, the only thing that it costs is a mess. The one way that I see the weekly review being the definition being lacking and and and this is what you know, due respect but the component for me that I really use a lot in my weekly review is that I break down my reviews based on monthly, quarterly and annual component.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 4:00
So there are things that I have checklists for that end up getting placed into my weekly reviews. So if you break up your year and two quarters, you know, that's, that's 13 weeks, every 13 weeks in my weekly review is a longer review. So from week to week, I'm not muddying the waters on my in my system by having these components bleed from from week to week, they are in essence in the checklist for those weeks. So I don't want people to misinterpret the fact that just because you're working from week to week, you don't have a longer view of the of your year and the and the things that needs to be done in them. So it's not it's not really that the the the definition is lacking so much that I want to make sure people know that they can be different reviews every week when we get to talk about how we do that review. I want to revisit this topic because there is a couple of things that I that I do that I have advise
Augusto Pinaud 5:00
people over the years couple of strategies that I think bring that variety to the weekly review on the time, energy and mindset that you put to it. So so when we get to that I would like to revisit this. This topic I want to before we move on to our own systems really cover the components of the of the of the weekly review, David Allen provides an 11 point checklist broken into three different sections. And I'm going to cover this just very briefly, for those of you who are listening and have never heard about the weekly review before. This will give you a good idea. And then I'm going to turn the mic over to Augusta to talk about how his practice of the weekly review is today versus from when he started and some of the things that both of us have modified over time. So David Allen, like I said, has it broken up into getting clear getting current and getting creative and under
Raymond Sidney-Smith 6:00
Get clear, he calls us an initial stage where you collect all of your paperwork, you know, things that are lying around in paper, but also in digital and getting them into your in-tray or inbox where you can then zero them out. So you have collecting newspapers and materials, getting your inbox to empty and then emptying your head. In essence, you're doing a mini mind sweep so that you can get all those ideas about any new projects, action items waiting for us, and so on so forth. They're captured and clarified. Then we get into the get current stage where again, he talks about bringing up the rear guard and this is where you review your lists. And so as I was saying earlier, and my definition of the weekly review, I include the longer reviews because on those quarter months, quarters and then annual reviews, I'm doing those reviews as a part of my weekly review, but he says review your next actions lists review previous calendar in this case two to three weeks of calendars.
In the past to see if that brings up anything that you need to do for the future reviewing your upcoming calendar. So he says look to the long and short term calendar entries to see if there aren't things that you need to do for upcoming events. You know preparing for meetings are preparing for upcoming travel and meetings and so on. So forth review you're waiting for list so if you're waiting for things from someone, you can go ahead and capture those actions to follow up with those people you have reviewed projects and larger outcome lists that means evaluate evaluate the status and quoting here evaluate the status of projects goals and outcomes one by one ensuring that at least one kickstart action for each is in your system and quote then he says review any relevant checklists and this is where my longer term checklists would probably fit in so you review any checklist you that you need to get your various engagements interests and responsibilities as he says done then he gets to get creative and get creative is a review of your someday maybe list
And then he calls this the be creative and courageous portion where a quote Are there any new wonderful harebrained creative, thought provoking risk taking ideas you can capture and add into your system or external brain and quote and so this is his opportunity for you to be creative but you know I find and gusto you probably agree with me here, you know, I find that the Get creative portion of my weekly review really happens in the mind sweet portion. And really throughout the rest of my weekly review,
