Picture this: It’s Sunday evening, and you’re staring at your calendar for the upcoming week. Your to-do list looks like a grocery list written by someone having a panic attack. You know you should do a weekly review, but the thought of sitting down for what feels like hours makes you want to binge-watch Netflix instead.
Sound familiar?
I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. Even after doing weekly reviews for over a decade, I still sometimes catch myself making excuses to skip them. But here’s what I’ve learned: the weekly review isn’t just some productivity ritual that looks good on paper. It’s the difference between feeling like you’re drowning in tasks and actually having control over your time.
The problem isn’t that weekly reviews don’t work. The problem is how most of us approach them.
Why Most Weekly Reviews Fall Apart
Let me share something that might surprise you. My co-host Brooks recently told me about his first Amazon purchase ever. It wasn’t some random gadget or book. It was Getting Things Done by David Allen, along with some DVDs for his wife who was on maternity leave. He was drowning at work and needed something to get back on track.
That book changed everything for him, just like it did for me back in 2010. But here’s the thing Brooks also shared: even after years of doing weekly reviews, he recently fell off the wagon completely. Life got busy, circumstances changed, and suddenly his rock-solid weekly review habit crumbled.
The impact was immediate and brutal. Tasks started slipping through the cracks. Important projects got delayed. That familiar feeling of being overwhelmed crept back in.
This happens to all of us because we treat weekly reviews like they’re set in stone. We think there’s one “right” way to do them, and when that way stops working, we abandon the whole practice instead of adapting it.
The 10 Game-Changing Weekly Review Strategies
After years of experimenting and helping thousands of people build sustainable weekly review habits, here are the strategies that actually work:
1. Set a Hard Stop (Before You Start)
This is the most important tip I can give you. Before you even open your task manager or calendar, decide exactly how much time you’re willing to spend on your weekly review.
Twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? Even ten minutes is better than zero minutes.
Here’s why this works: constraints create focus. When you know you only have 30 minutes, you’ll naturally prioritize the most important parts of your review. You won’t get lost in the weeds reorganizing your entire task management system (we’ve all been there).
I used to spend 90 minutes on my weekly reviews. Now I rarely go over 30 minutes, and they’re more effective than ever.
2. Use a Checklist or Template
Even after doing weekly reviews for over a decade, I still use a checklist. Every single time.
Why? Because I don’t want to waste mental energy remembering what to do. I want to spend that energy actually doing the review and extracting insights from it.
Your checklist doesn’t need to be fancy. It could be a simple note on your phone with prompts like:
– What went well this week?
– What didn’t go so well?
– What could I do better next week?
– Empty my inbox
– Review my calendar
– Plan my top 3 priorities for next week
Brooks still has a sticky note from 2005 in his original GTD book marking the weekly review section. Sometimes the simplest systems are the most sustainable.
3. Create a “Maybe” List
This one’s a game-changer for anyone who feels guilty about tasks they keep pushing forward week after week.
You know those items that keep showing up on your weekly review? The ones you move from “this week” to “next week” to “the week after that”? Stop torturing yourself.
Create a separate “Maybe” or “Someday/Maybe” list and move those items there. This isn’t giving up on them. It’s being honest about your capacity and removing the guilt that comes with constantly not doing them.
Brooks has a Python course on his maybe list that he sees every week during his review. He’s totally fine not doing it because it’s optional. But if he ever has extra time (like over Christmas break), he knows exactly where to find it.
4. Go Beyond the Basic Questions
Most people treat their weekly review like a simple checklist: review tasks, check calendar, plan next week. Done.
But the real magic happens when you dig deeper. Try adding these reflection questions:
– What did I learn about myself this week?
– What’s a recurring frustration or annoyance I keep having?
– What insights did I gather from my fitness tracker, journal, or other data?
– Is there anything rattling around in my mind that I haven’t captured?
That last question comes straight from David Allen’s GTD methodology. It’s amazing how often we have important things floating in our heads that never make it to our trusted system.
5. Use ChatGPT as Your Weekly Review Coach
This is something I’ve been experimenting with recently, and it’s been a revelation.
Instead of sitting at my computer typing away, I open ChatGPT on my phone and use this prompt: “Act like my productivity coach. Ask me weekly review questions one at a time. After we finish, I want you to summarize everything in a bulleted list.”
Then I just talk through my week while looking at my calendar. I’ll say things like, “Oh, I had a call with Brooks on Tuesday. I actually need to follow up with him about that project we discussed.”
The AI asks follow-up questions, helps me identify patterns I might have missed, and even suggests next actions based on what I’ve shared. It’s like having a productivity coach in your pocket.
6. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Your Planning
As you transition from reviewing your past week to planning your next one, ask yourself: What are the 20% of tasks that will create 80% of my results?
This isn’t about only doing three things next week. It’s about being intentional with what’s going to have real impact and making sure those things are protected on your calendar.
Everything else can fit around these high-impact activities, but these need to be locked down first.
7. Follow the Rule of Three
Speaking of being intentional, limit yourself to three major priorities each week. Not ten. Not seven. Three.
Some weeks you might only have one or two major priorities, and that’s perfectly fine. The goal is to be realistic about what you can actually accomplish while maintaining quality.
When everything looks important, nothing truly is.
8. Batch Your Small Tasks
There will always be maintenance tasks that need to happen: processing email, updating project boards, making phone calls, handling administrative work.
Instead of letting these tasks interrupt your week randomly, batch them together during predefined times. The 12 Week Year calls this “buffer time,” but you can call it whatever works for you.
Brooks learned this lesson the hard way when he worked at a software company. He kept putting off his expense reports until accounting was yelling at him and he had to do a massive catch-up session at year-end. If he had just batched this simple task weekly, it would have taken minutes instead of hours.
9. Be Ruthless About Deletion
This might be the hardest skill to develop, but it’s also one of the most liberating.
If you come across something during your weekly review and you have no idea what it is or why it’s important, delete it. If it’s truly important, it will find its way back to you somehow.
The more you hold onto “just in case” items, the more control they have over you. Being ruthless about deletion is actually being kind to your future self.
10. Change Your Environment
If your weekly review habit has fallen apart, the problem might not be the review itself. It might be your environment.
Maybe the time that used to work for you doesn’t work anymore. Maybe your usual location has too many distractions. Maybe you need to switch from your desk to a coffee shop, or from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon.
Brooks recently had to completely change when he does his weekly review because his life circumstances shifted. The old time wasn’t working anymore, and he kept trying to force it instead of adapting.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different times and places until you find what works for your current situation.
Your Next Weekly Review Starts Now
Here’s the truth about weekly reviews: they’re not about perfection. They’re about progress.
You don’t need to implement all ten of these strategies at once. Pick one that resonates with you and try it during your next weekly review. Then add another strategy the following week.
The goal isn’t to have the perfect weekly review system. The goal is to have a weekly review system that you actually use.
What’s one tip from this list that you could implement in your next weekly review?
Start there. Your future self will thank you.
