Transcription
You know that feeling when Sunday night rolls around and you're lying in bed, mind racing, trying to remember everything you need to do this week. Did you reply to that important email? What was that brilliant idea you had on Tuesday? When's that deadline again?
What if I told you that in just 30 minutes each week, you could transform that mental chaos into crystalclear focus? And you could do it like clockwork. Here's what's actually happening.
Throughout the week, you're accumulating what author David Allen called open loops. Each open loop is like a mental browser tab in your brain. These mental tabs are slowing down your thinking. What I always notice, most people try to manage this situation by constantly switching back and forth between different information streams. Constantly checking email, then going to Slack, then turning to their phone, then back to email. And worst of all, as they pick up details from these different channels, they try to remember it all.
But here's the thing. Your brain, your biological mind wasn't designed to be a storage device. It's designed for taking action. When you use it for storage, you're actually bogging down its ability to get things done. The weekly review solves this by creating a trusted system outside your head where nothing gets lost and everything gets processed. Think of it like closing all those mental tabs and starting fresh each and every week.
Over time, I've distilled my weekly review into a simple four-step process that takes at most 30 minutes. That process covers the four main kinds of open loops, which are email, calendar, notes, and tasks. The order of these steps really, really matters. Here's a simple phrase that I'm constantly repeating in my head to help me remember that order. Every commitment needs tracking. Email, calendar, notes, and tasks. And it's simultaneously the steps of the process that you follow to do so. So when Monday morning comes around and you're ready to do your review, just remember every commitment needs tracking. Email, calendar, notes, tasks in that exact order. This isn't just a memory trick. It follows the actual flow of information through your world from scattered inputs on one end to organized, purposeful action on the other end.
Before we dive into each step, I've created a free weekly review checklist and tips for making this stick. Grab it now so you can follow along. Link is in the description. Let me walk you through exactly how to do each step.
Now, step one is to clear your email. This takes around 5 to 10 minutes. How is that possible, you may ask? You have to start with your oldest emails first. I know that feels wrong. I know that your attention is automatically drawn to the newest stuff, but that's how you get sucked into what I call reactive mode. Starting with the oldest emails and then processing them one at a time in order keeps you focused on just processing them. When I say processing, I really mean taking one of three actions. First, if no action is needed, you should just archive it. I have this set up with keyboard shortcuts. So all I have to do is press the E key on my keyboard and it's automatically archived. Second, if some kind of action is required, then turn it into a task. And third, if it's some other kind of information that you may want to reference at some point, save it as a digital note. And here's a pro tip. If you are buried under hundreds or even thousands of unread emails, instead of processing them in this way one by one, I recommend that you declare email bankruptcy. >> I declare bankruptcy. >> Just select all, archive all of them all at once and start fresh. Honestly, anything that's truly important that truly matters will come back around.
Step two is to review your calendar. This takes another five minutes or so. Look at every event for the upcoming week and ask yourself, what do I need to do or to prepare beforehand? Then look at every event from the past week and ask what follow-up is needed. See this client meeting coming up on Wednesday. I know that I need to review their project beforehand. That's a task. This team standup on Friday, I have an update to share which I better prepare as part of a note. Your calendar isn't just about where to be and when. It's about being prepared when you get there.
Step three, organize your notes. This is another five to 10 minutes. Throughout the week, you've probably captured ideas, articles, meeting notes, and even just random thoughts in your notes app, which means they're sitting in your inbox or daily notes page. And now, at the end of the week, during your weekly review, it's time to revisit them and put them where they belong. I recommend of course my parah method which stands for projects, areas, resources, archives. But honestly, don't overthink this. The point is not perfect organization. It's making sure good ideas don't disappear. This article about productivity that goes in resources. These meeting notes, they go in the specific project folder. As you file each note, you might think of related tasks. What might you want to do with this note? For example, an article about team management could remind me to schedule that one-on-one with a direct report.
Step four, choose your tasks, the final 10 minutes. By now, your task inbox is probably overflowing with everything you've captured from the first three steps. This is perfect. This is exactly what we want. Now, we can batch process them all at once in one go. For each task, this is what you want to do. You want to clarify what the actual next action is. Specifically, you want to assign it to the right project or area. You'll want to set the priority level. And now comes the moment of truth. Sort all of your tasks across every project and every area by priority, which gives you that holistic big picture view that you need to choose exactly the subset of what you're going to do this week. And you should be realistic. Most people tend to overestimate what they can do in a week. So, what I recommend is you pick your top three priorities. What are the three things and no more than three things that absolutely must happen this week? Then add the supporting tasks that you need to accomplish those three things until you have a full but also manageable week. Everything else can wait and that's okay because you've captured it. It won't be forgotten. You'll always find it when you go to look for it.
But after doing this for a long time, this is the biggest and deepest change. You'll learn to trust yourself again. You'll know that when you commit to something, when you say yes to something, it will get done. That is a paradigm shift internally for your sense of confidence and self-belief and also externally for your reputation and results.
Now look, you could watch this video, think, "That's nice. That sounds like a smart thing to do." and then go back to your usual Monday mornings. Or you could actually do this this week. Start by picking a time. I recommend either Monday morning or Sunday evening. Block off 30 minutes and follow these four steps.
If you're ready to build the complete productivity system that makes the weekly review work, check out my Pillars of Productivity course. It walks you through setting up and then using all four essential tools that I've covered and also connecting them together as part of your weekly review. Or you can join the Second Brain membership where we have live weekly review sessions every single week and you'll do that along hundreds of other members. But honestly, just start with doing one weekly review. Do it this week or next week. Experience what I'm talking about. What it feels like to have complete clarity about your priorities. I promise that your future self will thank you.