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Staying on the wagon

So, I’ve talked a little about some of the nifty parts of the GTD system, and I’ve pointed to at least one of the better sites dealing with it out there. If you’re anything like me, though, you’ll have run out and jumped into this with both feet - spending a day or two gathering and processing all your open loops, creating your lists, and feeling really good about yourself.

If you’re that much like me, though, you might be facing the first real obstacle, though - staying on the GTD wagon. It’s all too easy to forget to delete an entry from your Next Actions list once you’ve done it - or to fail to add a longer-term goal to your Projects list - or to record something you’ve delegated to your Waiting For list. That’s where the Weekly Review comes in.

The GTD system recommends a periodic (suggested timeframe: weekly) review of the state of your entire system. During the week, you do your best to keep everything running smoothly - processing items through your inbox, etc. - but once a week you take an hour or so and sit down with all your lists for a comprehensive exam.

Here’s how I do it; I print out hard copies of my Projects, Next Actions, Waiting For, and Maybe/Someday lists. I then take the Projects list and go through it item-by-item. For each entry, I check to make sure I have a corresponding entry on either the Next Actions or Waiting For list (and if the corresponding action would take less than 2 minutes, I go ahead and do it). If I can’t find an action or a delegation reminder, I determine what the appropriate one would be and add it to the list. Then, I strike through the project entry and the action or reminder on the hard copy so I know I’ve checked it.

Once I’ve gone through the entire project list, I should have verified that I have a next action (or have delegated the next action) for each entry. If I’ve got any actions or delegated items left over, I look at them to see if I’m missing an entry on my projects list.

Finally, I read through my Maybe/Someday list to see if anything needs to be moved from there to the projects list.

With this process, I am able to refocus on the full landscape of my projects fairly easily; I findi it especially nice to do at the end of the week, as it gets me excited about taking real actions in the days ahead. The weekly review is a core piece of the GTD system - be sure not to neglect it!