Basic GTD: The Weekly Review

The Weekly Review is a key activity for GTD to work. The aim is to get a clean, clear, current and complete system, so you can firmly rely on it. You have to empty your mind again and ensure everything that happened in the past week is properly collected, processed and organized. More specifically, you must do the following:

• Add to your inbox every loose paper, note, business card, etc. you’ve been collected throughout the week. And process them.
• Review your calendar. Check if the work done the week before requires any further action. Also check if the tasks scheduled for next week require some previous action.
• Review your list of projects. Have you completed any of them? Do you need to add new projects? Ensure that every project has at least one active action.
• Review your next actions list. Make sure they have a proper context assigned. Is there any action that should be moved to the calendar? Mark off completed actions.
• Track over the delegated actions you have on your waiting for list.
• Review your someday/maybe list. Active those actions that have become interesting and delete those that are no longer of interest.
• Empty your mind. Make sure everything is out of your head, on your system.

To do the review weekly, you should book some time—preferably at the end of the week—where you know you’ll be fresh and calm at the same time.

Don’t skip it. Make it a habit. It’s very easy to lose control of things, especially if you’ve had a few intense days.