What is a weekly review?

A weekly review is a short session, usually 20 to 45 minutes once a week, where you look back at the past week and ahead at the next one. It’s a core habit in many planning methods, including Getting Things Done.

What to do in a weekly review

1. Clear the inboxes: sort captured notes, emails that became tasks, and loose papers.
2. Look back: what got done? What didn’t, and does it still matter?
3. Look ahead: check next week’s calendar for meetings, deadlines and travel.
4. Choose your big rocks: pick two or three important things for next week and give them time on the calendar.
5. Tidy up: delete tasks you’ll never do, and move the rest to sensible dates.

Why it helps

Plans drift during a busy week. A weekly review brings them back in line with reality before small slips become big ones. Research on the “fresh start effect” (Dai, Milkman and Riis, 2014) suggests that natural boundaries like the start of a week make people more motivated to work toward their goals, which makes Friday afternoon or Monday morning a good time for it.

Keep it short

A review you actually do beats a perfect one you skip. If 45 minutes feels like too much, start with 15 and the three essentials: clear the inbox, check next week, pick the big rocks.

In Thendoo: the Weekly review shows what’s done, still open and coming up for each Space on its own card, and ends with a Big rocks for next week note. Read more in A 20-minute weekly plan.