One of the big differences between control and chaos in my life is taking the time to have a weekly review and planning session. It sounds simple, but it can make a big difference. The idea is to set aside about an hour once per week to review your calendar, update your to-dos, and catch up on the open loops that are rattling around in your head, in your inbox, or on your desk. You might even take a look at your short and long-term goals. The hardest part is trying to find 1 of the 168 hours in a week to do it. I’ve read about and tried a number of different approaches, but one of the best practices across almost all of them are holding some sort of weekly review. Here are my favorite tips for making it work for you:
Schedule it. Pick a time at least a few days out and put it on your calendar. Try and make it a recurring appointment. Studies have shown that if you put something on your calendar, you are 2-3 times more likely to do it.
Experiment with the day and time and know that it might change. For some, Sunday evening is the perfect time to look ahead to the coming week. For others, Friday afternoon is a great way to close out the workweek and transition to the weekend. You might try a few different times to see what works for you and your situation. You will just need some time to be able to work without distractions.
Make an agenda. Just like any good meeting, you should create an agenda for your review. Look at your calendar and review this past week to find anything still outstanding as well as what you have coming up. Review your projects to find the next actions. Do a mind sweep of all the things in your head you need/want to get done. Go through that email and see what you need to accomplish. Find an approach and style that works for you. A quick Internet search can provide a lot of ideas for what to do in your session.
Don’t overschedule your week. One of the mistakes I see people make is planning every hour of their day. This is particularly easy to do in the Zoom meeting environment where we don’t have to build in space to walk from meeting to meeting. Make sure you have some space in your days to do some of the work you are agreeing to in all those meetings. I find it helpful to make a daily list of my top 3 things to do that day as opposed to trying to schedule all of the things in specific times that always get disrupted.
Coordinate. Don’t forget to include family schedules, work team schedules, and any other obligations or roles you might have. There is a lot of power in working together to get all of the things we face in business and in life done.
The most important thing is to do it. There isn’t one perfect way to do a weekly review, so do something. At my house we have been living for the last year by the mantra, “let’s just be better than zero!” If you would like to know more about how to approach your time, some of my favorite books are Getting Things Done by David Allen, The 5 Choices by Kory Kogon or 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam. HRD also offers workshops on this topic.