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Weekly Review on a lazy sunday afternoon

07 01 07 - 23:44 - Bookmark this post

Today was a typical sunday. We all slept in late and just chilled throughout the morning. Before I forget, when you have a 3 months old kiddo, "sleeping in late" means waking up at 10 am in the morning instead of the usual 7-ish.

After breakfast, I had to do my weekly tasks in the house. Cleaning up, sweeping...they are weekly tasks but I was a bit behind. So after a couple of hours I was pretty tired from all the cleaning. In between I also had to take care of my girlfriend and Tess, our daughter. So at 5 pm I was beaten. And I really really needed to do a weekly review to get in sync with all the running projects in and around the house. And then I found the best way to start my Weekly Review.

First thing I did was taking a bath with a glass of good Marquis D'Alban Bordeaux wine and the latest issue of my Pearl Jam fanclub magazine. And Ready for Anything by The Dave. After reading the fanclub mag, I just chilled for a while with my wine and let some of the currents events in the house run through my mind. I decided to let go of the negative vibes in my life (contractors with ridiculous bills, late payments, worn down windows...oh well...) and find the good things in the last week. Tess learned some new behaviour, we had some good fun with eachother, we celebrated 2006 and 2007.

When you set your mind to positive primers, you will definitely feel better throughout the process. That is a proven fact and I felt it to be true, right there in the bathtub. I spent some time reading up on David Allen's Ready for Anything, which is a nice little book with 52 chapters. Yes, one chapter each week. I related some of the lessons and ideas to my current situation and with that, I prepared myself for the weekly review. We all know the Weekly Review can be difficult sometimes. Trust me, taking a bath first works!

After dinner, the girls went to bed early so I had the house to myself. I poured another glass of wine, set myself to the dinnertable with my laptop and put on some Johnny Cash. The American Series, if you are interested. And off I went into all my projects, open loops, Inboxes and past and upcoming appointments. I am just finished and I have the feeling I am current with everything in and around the house and my personal life. It felt great. You know why? Positive primers. Think about the succesfull outcomes, think about the succes and vision yourself celebrating wild succes. This gives the weekly review more power and more positive reinforcement to complete each week.

Which reminds me, I need to buy some red wine for my weekly review next week :-)

(Photo courtesy of iStockphoto.com. Excellent resource!)

I never thought to use red wine!

The Weekly Review is hard for me, too. Truth be told, I haven’t had an effective weekly review in a long time. I’m actually toying with the notion of a daily review until I get back on my GTD feet.

You’ve got some solid ideas for making a WR a fun event and not just a chore. What confuses me is I actually love reviewing everything. I just feel like I’m not really working when I stop to think things through.
Jason Rehmus - 08 01 07 - 01:12

@Jason: I think making it fun to do actually improves the effectivity. And not really work? I don’t agree with you. Because in the WR you actually think through all the options, tasks, projects etc. That is work. But it’s knowledge work, so you don’t see any direct effect coming on screen or in your hands.
Frank Meeuwsen - 08 01 07 - 07:39

I’m still trying to nail down my weekly review routine, though I’ve got a decent one that seems to work well. Great advice, thanks!
Brett - 13 01 07 - 05:29