Ep. 373: Different Ways to Review  🔗 **Source:** [Ep. 373: Different Ways to Review](https://share.snipd.com/episode/64699e7e-6fee-40f2-ba9a-3bd9362b0f4d) ## Highlights - **Split Weekly Review Into Two Sessions** - Split your weekly review into two sessions to reduce overwhelm and make reentry easier. - Unknown Speaker used a Transcript: Unknown Speaker I've been actually listening to the old GTD weekly review, sort of like that GTD project audio recordings. So I bought that from the GTD store when I actually started back in 2012, I the day 2012, 2013. And today it was actually, you know, like, sort of a read, sort of, you know, like, visiting those files. And one of the, you know, like, one of the sessions where David was actually saying that we could, you know, like, we could actually split our weekly review. And, you know, that was kind of like, that was, you know, like something which I've actually totally forgotten about. And when I actually listened to it today, I was like, oh, yeah, I could actually, you know, like split the weekly review into, say, you know, like sort of, you know, like two halves, maybe To, you know, like get the current part, maybe on a Thursday or on a Wednesday afternoon, and then do the actual review on, you know, like on the Friday or on the Saturday. Right. ([Time 0:01:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/39aac8ba-6125-4519-ba2a-ec53c698a93b)) - **Archive Everything And Start Fresh** - When overwhelmed, archive everything and restart to regain control quickly. - Unknown Speaker described copying everything under archive then starting fresh as a six-month or yearly reset strategy. Transcript: Unknown Speaker What I did was, when it got really overwhelmed, I just copied everything, it under archive, and then started again. So it was just easier. John Forrester Sure. Tricks like that can be really helpful. ([Time 0:03:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cbd751ae-8175-4b39-8479-3948a2c8bacb)) - **Use A Short Daily Review** - Do a short daily review each morning to keep inboxes near zero and make the weekly review faster. - John checks calendar, clears email inboxes to zero, and limits today’s next actions to about five items. Transcript: John So this is John. And so in my routine, I have my weekly review steps, like a checklist that I print each week. And most of the time I'm able to go through the whole thing in one sitting, but not always. Typically, the first part is going through all of the inboxes, the virtual and otherwise, and then looking ahead in the calendar and seeing what's coming and anything needs to be prepared For the future, the coming week. And then, of course, going through the list. So, so I said, usually I can get through it all, but if, if I can't, it's not a big deal because I just set the checklist aside and then come back to it when I can. So, and sometimes it does span over more than one day, but not always, but that helps me a lot just to have that trust that I can go back to something that's concrete. I'll go ahead and mention a win. It's somewhat related that something that's really helped me these past few months is to getting back to actually a daily review in the morning. ([Time 0:06:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3eaed393-aec7-4932-9909-7a1bfb6aab09)) - **Weekly Review Is Not A Blame Session** - The weekly review often feels like punishment for not keeping inputs current rather than a neutral process. - John Forrester reframes the weekly review as innocent, not the thing to blame for backlog guilt. Transcript: John Forrester Yeah, that's very smart. I've often said that part of the problem with people resisting a weekly review is because it's more of a reflection on what they haven't done during the week or the month before that with Keeping up with getting their inputs at or close to zero regularly, things like that. So I like to think of the weekly review as, as innocent. It's, it's not the one that to blame. Also good to hear about that win. ([Time 0:08:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6176bb2a-a82b-45c4-8d04-ab2269b49f65)) - **iPhone Reminders As A Full GTD System** - Mary uses the iPhone Reminders app as a full GTD system, including agendas and recurring habits. - She stores agendas by person, a someday/maybe quarterly review, movie and travel lists, and caregiving templates. Transcript: Mary I know, right? So I actually use, I have an iPhone. I use the Reminders app, but I have customized that to people thought it was a separate app. They didn't know it was the one that comes with it. Because Reminders allows you to create. So I do have a subfolder called Agendas. And then within that, I have the people I meet with or that I might need to tell them something without always interrupting them. So I have that. I have things for my job and then certain things that I want to do on a daily basis at my job. And sometimes it's as simple as stupid things as reminders. I even have brushed my teeth on my reminders on a day because I find that two things. Right. I do crossing things off. So this isn't crossing things off because I set them as recurring a lot of things. So I press the button, it goes till tomorrow. So I kind of get through my day with using the reminders, but where I was going with this and where I wanted to share with other people is really take a look at that application. It's not perfect. Nothing is, and I think even David would say, nothing is a perfect app. It's what you put into it and how you're willing to make it work for you. I will say the capabilities of it and the fact that you can set it to do reminders at all sorts of times and do recurring and customize the recurring and create them in categories. I even have a someday maybe list in there, which I put as a, also to look at once a quarter, just so I remember things. I have my movie list because I'm always never getting to the movies, but I never can remember titles and movies I want to watch on TV when they come out. So I just put it on there. So this way, I always have something. So it's, you know, travel list, you know, going to different cities. I put things I may want to do in that city. ([Time 0:13:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/da822d93-983d-49be-9a42-89723e4afc41)) - **Capture Agendas For People And Meetings** - Capture agenda items for people and topics so conversations stay focused and you don't rely on memory. - Unknown Speaker found adding spouse, mom, and meeting-specific agenda lists removed mental bandwidth and surprise topics. Transcript: Unknown Speaker I think, you know, you know, you know, like, you know when we were actually talking about these you know talking about these agendas right um you know one of like one of my sort of biggest Aha moment was you know like when I like when I started to actually put my like put my missus name and then you know like you know like all these agenda sort of you know you know you agenda Lists yeah initially I was but do I really need to you know like do this you know like if I need to speak to my mom about sort of you know like ABCD do I need to you know like put that in onto this Sort of you know like you know onto this agenda list and I was I was pretty reluctant when I you know like when I actually started GTD but once I started sort of you know like populating that Agenda sort of you know kicking on the agenda list right oh it was amazing I was like you know anything I need to sort of you know like discuss just put it on the agenda yeah um I think yeah That was that that that was big, like, you know, big aha moment for me. John Forrester Yeah. It helps a lot to take the stress off remembering things. Oh, yeah, absolutely. When you meet them and you pull out your at Ridwan list or your at whoever list and they say, you already were thinking of me and planning ahead what you wanted to talk to me about? Oh, definitely. Unknown Speaker Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes, you know, like, you know, like sometimes you just, you know, like sometimes it just like pops up, isn't it? You know, like when you need to discuss, discuss something critical, it's just easier to just, know like populate it and then forget about it i suppose yeah so that was big big for me and And yeah i tend to you know like you know like you know um i tend to like actually capture like these days i think i tend to you know like capture everything onto my inbox um before like in The I used to be a bit selective, I suppose. But okay, yeah, this one, do I really need to put it through the GTD process or should I just ignore it kind of thing? But nowadays I just like copy everything in or like put everything into the inbox. ([Time 0:19:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6aa651dd-fe1a-4c89-b32a-5db4b1b8b931)) - **Ensure Projects Have A Next Action** - During the weekly review, ensure each project has at least one next action and move stale items to someday or delete. - John scans areas of focus, assigns weekly next actions, and prunes items that keep getting pushed out. Transcript: John Um, okay, well, I guess in broad terms, uh, during the weekly review, I'm scanning through all of my areas of focus and goals. Are typically projects, right? So I will go through and make sure that, you know, I have at least one next action associated with each project. And within my areas of focus, you know, as I look at each one, I just pause and reflect for a moment. Okay, is there something in this area that I think I need to address this week or do? So that'll go on the list. So the idea is that by the end of that weekly review, I've got that short list. Now, that list will probably be more like 40, 50 items, maybe next actions, not just 20. So, so what I'll do is I'll spread them out. You know, the ones that I feel are, have greater importance or potentially more urgency than, you know, those will stay on the list. The other ones will be pushed out a few days. And then by the time I get to the next weekly review, of course, I've added to that list throughout the week as new things have popped up. And then there are some times when some of those next actions stay on the list, they get a little stale, uh, keep pushing them out week after week. And then I, when I see one of those, I will decide, okay, is this really something that I need to get done? Or should I just take it off my list, move it to someday maybe, or just delete it? That helps to keep the list lean and clean. But I would say from during that weekly review, I'm probably looking at a hundred plus next actions, you know, and most of them don't have dates on them. They're just, they're just there. ([Time 0:24:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b4548e0e-d9c2-4ea8-bff4-455b1afa5d83)) - **Review Before You Clarify To Say No More** - Doing the non-clarifying parts of the review first makes you more likely to say no to new inputs. - Clayton explained reviewing what's already in the system before 'get clear' sharpens the filter on new items. Transcript: Clayton The the um i created a a parked action or parked actions tag to just get things off of my my active action so i could come back to those to mine for the next day just to get them out of my view I'm starting i'm experimenting with that but um really on the uh splitting the review i like to do the project review the day before i do the rest of the review and um when i do my when i do With my GCD buddy, I go through the standard part. But when I do it myself, I don't do get clear. I do everything else first. Because if I do get clear, I default towards the yes side of, is it actionable? And my system goes. Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. So if I review it first, I'm much more, I've got an ax chopping what I'm allowing into my system because I know what I have loaded in already. John Forrester I'd never heard that before. That's so good. Are you saying that doing the review, the rest of the review first helps you say no to things more than yes? Yes. Wow. ([Time 0:27:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/36615293-6d5f-4299-b704-b3d61f7d19ef)) - **Chip Away At The Weekly Review Daily** - If a single weekly review feels impossible, do parts of it daily until you complete the whole process. - Clayton ran the weekly review in 30-minute daily chunks until he knew his system and could speed through it. Transcript: Clayton Yeah. The only way I actually got to a completed weekly review was just to start one every day until I got all the way through it. Because David said, if you don't do a weekly review, you're trying to do it all the time. Well, I might as well do it until it's done. John Forrester So would you go back to the beginning each time to start over? Clayton Well, I'd take 30 minutes in the morning. I would start the review. And I would go as far as I could go. And then the next day, I went really fast through that part. And then, so I got to really know what was in my system. And I finally, it was like I loaded it into my brain. So the review went really fast. And so I stopped having to do it every day. Interesting. ([Time 0:29:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/14b880bd-fea9-4e92-a5b5-18332ec51857))