I can fix your weekly review

Introduction

The Weekly Review is one of the most problematic aspects of GTD. I struggled with doing it myself; until I realized that personal productivity is all about conquering the undoable - we already have all the tools we need to make this work. Once I looked at the Weekly Review as I would any other task, the solutions started to fall into place.

The problems and solutions

Ambiguity

One of the main concepts in GTD is that by clarifying a task we make it easier to perform. If we can picture ourselves doing something, we can usually do it in real life.

Hidden behind the term ‘weekly review’ is a checklist of tasks, not all of which immediately imply physical action, such as ‘empty your head’, and ‘be creative and courageous’. In fact, ‘Do a weekly review’ is not a physical action either, and has no place on a next action list. We need to do a little digging to get to the real actions.

No light at the end of the tunnel

Something that Julie Morgenstern mentions in her book on time management is that the inability to estimate the length of a task increases resistance to doing it. If we fear that an activity may take all afternoon we struggle to commit to it, and resist starting. If we allocate too much time to an activity it will expand to fit, too little and the experience will be de-motivating.

We all have different concentration spans, and taking on a task that exceeds that span is going to meet with some serious internal resistance. In a state of ‘flow’ I can work with incredible concentration and focus for hours, however, I can’t predict when I will find myself in that state, so I ordinarily I work in bursts of forty minutes. Long enough to get some real work done, but short enough that I don’t resist getting started.

The habit of being lazy

Every time we do something, or avoid doing something, we reinforce a habit. This means that the best cure for inaction is action.

If I was a marathon runner who had spent the last six months on a sofa, the best way to get myself back on track is not to immediately go on a twenty mile run. The experience of collapsing after a couple of miles would be pretty frustrating and dismal. So although it isn’t our ideal end state, any weekly review is better than no weekly review.

This relates to a bit of genius thinking by Mark Forster in his book Do It Tomorrow. In basic terms, if I commit to running a mile a day, eventually a day will come when I will break that commitment. It might be because of the weather, ill health, or other circumstances outside my control, it doesn’t matter – what matters is that it affects the way that the habit is reinforced. I will have failed, and I will feel like a failure.

If instead, I commit only to completing the preparation for the activity (in this case standing outside my front door in my trainers), then the chances of me going for a run are still excellent, and if I decide not to, I have still reinforced the habit.

Interruptions and putting it off

The ugly truth is that the people that you work with are evil. Five minutes into the time that you have carefully set aside for your weekly review, and they will swarm around you like locusts.

After listening to an audio version of the One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, I started to insist that people email me with their requests. This gives me a written record, the ability to deliberately misinterpret the request to avoid doing it, and it buys me at least a couple of minutes whilst they type it out, but it raises an important issue. If you leave your review until late on Friday afternoon and an urgent problem arises, you will either have to drop your review entirely, or work late to finish it.

Another tip from various sources, including the aforementioned Do It Tomorrow, is to make the Weekly Review the first thing that you do that day, or after lunch. It must be the absolute first thing, before emails get checked, other work gets in the way, or you get drawn into a conversation about who would play Mr T in a movie of the A-Team. This way, even if you do get distracted after ten minutes, some reviewing took place, which is a good sight better than nothing.

This forms a pivotal moment when a decision needs to be made, whether to do the weekly review, or not, which opens up the opportunity to use positive/negative reinforcement.

I used to have a problem with casually surfing the net in work hours. I lost months to it. I even bought a book on changing habits using cognitive-behavioural techniques, but found this to be too overbearing. Eventually I read a simple tip, which is simply to have a jar of really disgusting snacks on your desk, and as soon as you catch yourself surfing, you have to eat one straightaway.

I used mixed nuts, which I loathe and within a couple of weeks, I knew that my casual surfing days were over. Six months later the nuts are still on my desk, with only five or six missing.

Clearly, this is a very simplistic approach, but it can be very powerful, especially if the reinforcement occurs as soon as the action has taken place.

The Weekly Chore

A big part of the problem is way that we perceive the weekly review. Happily, as you become more successful at conducting your review, you will begin to see the benefits, and find the whole process easier, but it is a good idea to invest some time in improving the experience.

If, whilst doing my weekly review, I’m sat in a coffee shop drinking a great cup of coffee, listening to some relaxing music – or a pod cast that I enjoy, and dunking a gingerbread man, then it becomes a time to relax and reflect on the week, rather than a hard slog before the weekend. With a bit of thought, you will find lots of ways that you can make the process an enjoyable one.

You may also consider using this time to plan a couple of fun activities for the weekend.

A new approach

• Check that you have all the resources necessary to actually complete each part of the review ahead of time.
• Assign a time to do the review, ideally first thing in the morning, or just after lunch.
• Brainstorm five ways to improve the experience of doing the review.
• Decide what kind of disgusting snack to use as a negative reinforcement, and put a jar of them wherever you do your review.
• Get a countdown timer. You may find one on your mobile phone, but there are also software versions and plenty of kitchen timers.
• Write out a checklist for the review, a sample is below. Assign a short time limit to each action, trying to keep the length of the entire review within your attention span (if this is insufficient consider splitting the review into multiple parts - such as individual project reviews):

ü Dump any loose papers into your in-tray (5mins)

ü Read through any unprocessed notes and add them to your lists (10mins)

ü Look at the previous week's calendar, and add any action items to your lists (2mins)

ü Look at the coming week's calendar, and add any action items necessary for preparation (2mins)

ü Write down anything that is currently consuming your attention (5mins)

ü Check through your project list, ensuring that each project has a next action (10mins)

ü Check through each list to ensure that it is up to date (5mins)

• Add a next action to the list that will trigger the weekly review, such as ‘put relaxing music on (weekly review)’.
• Commit to doing only the first action on the list, and allow yourself to check off the review once it is complete.
• Commit to eating a disgusting treat if you undertake any other activity once it is time for your review.

Set the timer for each task, finishing as soon as the alarm goes. Once you have completed every step, you can allow yourself to revisit any task that you feel needs further attention.

Further thoughts

If you find the process doesn’t work well for you, you might try tackling the checklist using timed bursts instead. This involves working on each task for five minutes in rotation, then repeating the process until each task is complete. Alternatively, it may help to spread the individual activities throughout the day, especially if your checklist is a long one.

If all this fails, and you find yourself eating a lot of rather disgusting snacks, then take a look at the psychological issues behind your resistance. Julie Morgenstern has a good breakdown of these in her time management book which may help you out.

References

I've tried to keep this guide focused on specific, simple ideas that can be easily applied to a Weekly Review. As such, a great deal of the detail behind the techniques, and sometimes parts of the techniques themselves, are missing. A fuller understanding can be gained from the source material.

Getting Things Done – D. Allen (2001)

If you are reading this then you already know about this radical and genuinely life changing book.

Do It Tomorrow – M. Forster (2005)

DIT is a time management system underpinned by a different set of principals to GTD. Most of the ideas mentioned here appear in this book in one form or another.

Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play – M. Forster (2000)

This is the pre-cursor to ‘Do It Tomorrow’; it’s interesting, but not nearly as cohesive.

Bringing Out the Best In People – A. Daniels (1999)

An eye opening and accessible work on behavioural reinforcement.

Time Management From the Inside Out – J. Morgenstern (2004)

Whilst more traditional in its approach to time management than GTD or DIT, this is unusual in its attempts to dig into the psychology of procrastination.

Awaken the Giant Within – A. Robbins (1992)

The 'Quality Quantifiers' concept is a far more guided way to improve the experience of an activity than that given here. Robbins is not without his detractors, but I wouldn’t necessarily throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey – K. Blanchard, W. Oncken and H. Burrows (1990)

A brief guide to the art of delegation and how to avoid being saddled with the work of others.