What Goes Into a Personal Weekly Review Reddit

Regularly reviewing your goals, habits, and progress is a productivity superpower used by everyone from top CEOs to artists, authors, and academics. Unfortunately, weekly, monthly, and annual reviews are besides some of the easiest practices to ignore. (Specially when you lot're caught in the trap of busywork!)

But the benefits of regular reviews can't be understated.

According to the Progress Principle, the unmarried nearly important cistron in boosting motivation, focus, and happiness is being able to see regular progress on your almost important work.

This is exactly why you should apply regular reviews.

A weekly review keeps you organized and focused on your priorities. While annual and monthly reviews are powerful tools for reflecting and adjusting your long-term goals.

The good news is that you lot don't demand to spend hours every week, month, or year on a review.

In fact, the review processes and templates we're sharing today volition take equally picayune equally 10-15 minutes a week to complete!

Spring to a section

Weekly reviews: To go along you organized and clear out "busywork" debt
Monthly reviews: To track your progress on goals
Annual reviews: To reflect, reset, and refocus

How to do a Weekly Review: 2 powerful methods for organizing your life

A weekly review is a powerful ritual that lets you reflect on your past calendar week, tie up whatever loose ends, and re-marshal your priorities moving forrard.

Information technology'south a take a chance to break out of the "Urgency bias"–where you spend most of your 24-hour interval jumping between emails, calls, meetings, and other low-value, notwithstanding urgent tasks–and really goose egg in on what's most of import.

Because allow's face it. It'south easy to have a bye or two, merely incredibly hard to feel like you used your fourth dimension in the best way possible all week.

(In fact, according to a recent survey of 500+ cognition workers, only 10% of people say they feel "in control" of their time.)

A weekly review makes you more intentional with your time so you can set yourself up for success all week long. As writer Tiago Forte explains:

"Your productivity is just like your finances: it doesn't work if it changes besides ofttimes. For your time and effort to chemical compound, y'all have to go out your goals well enough alone.

"If you are trying to completely overhaul your life goals every week, that is a recipe for chaos, not clarity."

Merely how practice y'all know if a weekly review is right for yous? Hither are a couple questions yous can ask yourself to find out. Do you:

Feel similar you become to the end of the week and barely made a dent on your about of import piece of work
Ever experience like you're playing "Catch up" on emails, follow-ups, tasks, and projects
Want to learn new skills, build your network, or better your productivity quickly
Never feel like y'all accept plenty time for the "of import only not urgent" parts of your life

If this sounds like you lot, here are two options for a weekly review system that you can endeavour. Both of them tin can exist quickly done at the stop of the week so you're not dreading your review.

one. The "Iv-Quadrant" weekly review organisation

RadReads creator Khe Hy breaks his weekly review down into four quadrants that help him balance betwixt reflection and action. Here's what that looks like:

Source: https://radreads.co/weekly-review-notion/

This is evidently a lot to cram into a weekly session and some sections (vision, chore inspect) might be better suited to a monthly review. It's up to you what you include on a regular footing.

Now, let's dig into each department:

Fourth dimension and task inspect

"Did your actions concluding week match up to your priorities?"

Start by reflecting on what actually got done in the past week. Did yous spend your time in line with the priorities and to-dos you started out with?

To guide this review, inquire a few questions:

Did you complete what you set out to exercise?
Does your calendar (and commitments) match your priorities and values?
What was your allocation of $ten/hour piece of work (i.e. answering emails) vs. $10,000/hour work (i.eastward. building a new feature)

This section doesn't have to exist complicated. Spend a few minutes looking at your agenda and your to-do list (or app) and and so compare it to either what got done or your RescueTime data.

RescueTime tracks every second you spend in apps, websites, and even specific projects–giving you a total picture of where your time goes.

Take this even further: Learn more most how to do a fourth dimension audit in RescueTime.

Planning and Prioritization

"What loose ends need to be tied up? Where should your time be allocated next week?"

It's fourth dimension to move from reflection to activity. Now that you accept a good idea of what got washed this calendar week, it's time to clear out loose ends and prep for side by side calendar week.

Your all-time bet is to be methodical here and tackle each app/tool/approach ane at a time:

Email: Clear your inbox and move tasks and follow-ups into next week's list
Calendar: Review your meeting schedule for adjacent week and schedule fourth dimension for important work (if yous use a strategy similar time blocking). You tin can likewise look a few weeks dorsum as well to find follow-upward opportunities you might have forgotten about.
Desktop: Get rid of digital clutter by immigration out your desktop and downloads binder
Notes: Get through all your notes–both digital and physical–and either file them away or plough them into action items
Tasks: Clear your to-practise listing out and so set up your priorities for next week

Journaling

"Stride back from the anarchy and think through why yous're spending your time how you lot are."

Whatever review runs the adventure of turning into simply a planning session. But the point of a weekly review isn't just to program next calendar week simply to make sure you oasis't gotten off class in the past v days.

Journaling tin can exist scary for some people, so first with three questions:

What went well?
Where did you get stuck?
What did you lot larn?

Vision

"Are you notwithstanding on track with your life/business concern/piece of work goals?"

This doesn't have to exist a part of every weekly review. But on a regular basis, you should re-examine your long-term goals to make sure yous're still working towards them.

Are yous trying to build a business, larn a language, or make coin blogging? Do those still feel like the right goals? And are you actually working towards them?

There are no easy answers here. Merely if y'all're drifting off course, wouldn't you rather know about information technology sooner rather than later on?

2. The "Getting Things Done" weekly review arrangement

David Allen–the author of Getting Things Done (GTD) and probably one of the most famous productivity gurus out there–calls the weekly review "the master key" to your productivity.

So it's no surprise that he has his own idea of what should be included.

The Getting Things Done system is all about capturing everything you demand to think about–emails, notes, tasks, etc…–and then reframing them every bit action items you can prioritize and work through.

As part of that system, Allen suggests a weekly review that's designed to articulate upward any loose ends and file away tasks for piece of cake admission later on. Hither's what that looks like:

Go Articulate:
1. Collect loose papers and materials/notes
2. Get your "inbox" to zero (i.eastward. tie upward whatsoever loose ends)
3. Empty your head by capturing new projects, action items, "someday" tasks, etc…
Get Current
1. Review what'south on your next actions listing (i.e. what tasks are you working on next)
2. Review your past calendar and capture follow-ups and action items
3. Look ahead on your calendar
4. Review your "waiting for" list (i.e. tasks that have been delegated or where you're waiting for someone else)
5. Expect at the status of all electric current projects and brand sure you have action items for each
6. Review any relevant checklists
Get Creative
1. Dig into your "someday" list and look for action items that will help you work towards large projects
2. Be creative and think through any "asinine, creative, idea-provoking, risk-taking ideas"

Download our costless weekly review templates

Weekly reviews are so much easier when you're non starting from scratch each fourth dimension.

Cull which weekly review system sounds more appealing to you and download one of our free templates to get started:

Download the "Four-Quadrant" weekly review template (Google Docs or PDF)
Download the "Getting Things Done" weekly review template (Google Docs or PDF)

How to do a Monthly Review: Rails progress on your long-term goals

A monthly review is an opportunity to reflect on all your accomplishments and so re-arrange your long-term goals. While a weekly review is meant to be a quick cheque-in on what's happening right now, your monthly review should skew more higher-level.

Hither are a few things to include:

Checking in on your progress on your long-term goals (both personal and professional)
Assessing your electric current habits, routines, and daily schedule
Doing some large-picture planning on your key projects
Making hard choices about what tasks should be left backside

The reason a monthly review works then well is that it lets you see progress on a longer timeline.

It's easy to forget how much you lot attain when you're always looking forward. A monthly review lets you see the results of your choices and habits so you can be motivated to make meaningful changes.

What to include in your Monthly Review

A monthly review is broken downward into 2 sections: Reflection and Planning.

The reflection function can accept a few dissimilar forms. While some people might prefer filling out a template, others might prefer something a bit more freeform similar journaling.

Cull whichever works best for you. The goal here is to stride back and put yourself in a retrospective mindset before making any future plans.

Part 1: Reflection

List everything pregnant that happened concluding month. This doesn't take to exist just your achievements—any significant life changes or events y'all attended as well belong here.
Reverberate on your acme iii things from the by calendar month:
- Your biggest personal milestone
- Your biggest professional person achievement
- You well-nigh valuable lesson learned
Exercise a quick time audit . What was your intention at the commencement of the month? How did you actually spend your time? There's often a large discrepancy betwixt these ii. Look through your calendar and to-practise list (or data from RescueTime) and see how much of your month was spent working on your long-term goals.

You can choose to get as in-depth or as uncomplicated equally y'all want with your monthly review. The goal is to get an honest picture of how you lot spent your time, what you prioritized, and any new habits, changes, or routines that are happening.

As Clay Christensen, author of How Will You Measure out Your Life? writes:

"Your decisions about allocating your personal time, free energy, and talent ultimately shape your life'south strategy."

Pfine art 2: Planning

A monthly review is slap-up for retrospection. Just it can also exist used as a planning tool.

In one case you've gone through the reflection procedure and are in the right state of mind, spend a few minutes roughly planning out the side by side month.

Here are a few things to consider:

What are your primal projects for the adjacent month? I.e. What are some things that, if you finished them, would make yous feel accomplished at the end of adjacent calendar month?
What is your number one priority at work? (pick just 1)
What is your number one priority in your personal life?
Are there projects that are weighing on you and should be delegated or discarded?

This last point is an of import one to include. We often drag projects and ideas from month to month without making any progress on them. This sucks and makes u.s.a. feel bad.

Take a few minutes to write out these projects and make a final choice about them. If they stay, you need to make fourth dimension for them. If yous can't, let them become.

Download our free Monthly Review template

The best monthly review template will be the one that works best for you. If that means journaling and writing out a few goals in your notes doc or project direction tool then practise that.

If you'd rather take a more structured approach, we've put together this free monthly review template for you to apply:

Download our free Monthly Review template (Google Docs or PDF)

How to do an Annual Review: Reflect, reset, and refocus your energy for the next yr

The personal annual review is the granddaddy of all reflective exercises.

If you can't commit to something equally regular as weekly or monthly, so you should at a minimum set bated time each year for an annual review. (Seriously, go put it in your agenda right now).

The terminate of the year is a natural moment for reflection. However, rather than get swept upwardly in New year's Resolutions you're statistically most likely to drop inside a matter of weeks, you lot should use this time to dig into your goals, habits, and vision for the future.

Desire to become deep? We put together this in-depth guide on how to do an annual review in RescueTime.

What to include in your Almanac Review

A personal annual review is a lot like a performance review (except y'all're both boss and employee). Y'all want to ask the hard questions that help you grow.

At a high-level, your annual review should:

Be data-driven whenever possible. It's hard enough to remember what you did a week ago, let solitary 12 months ago. Take time to assemble data nearly your year to ability your annual review. This could be in the form of calendars, to-exercise lists, journals, RescueTime data, or anything else that you recall might aid. (Yous might even want to skim your Amazon and credit carte du jour purchases).
Create an overarching "theme" for the year that's tied to your values. An almanac review should expect forward to the next one, 5, or 10-years as well. How volition what you do next year help become yous closer to your larger goals?
Set you up with a realistic plan for a successful twelvemonth. Employ SMART goals you tin can mensurate throughout the yr (not vague wishes and hopes that get dropped by mid-January.)

That feels similar a lot. But using the below template and our full guide, you should exist able to exercise an annual review in about thirty–60 minutes.

Here'south an annual review procedure you can use inspired by entrepreneur and writer Chris Guillebeau (who'south been doing annual reviews every twelvemonth since 2005!)

1. Start with a high-level reflection on the past twelvemonth

Enquire yourself two questions and effort to come up with half-dozen–8 responses for each:

What went well this year?
What did not go well this yr?

These could be piece of work events, personal events, or a mix of the ii. The reason it'southward good to first high-level like this is that it puts you in a more than open state of mind before you go into the specifics of analyzing last year and planning for the next.

Remember: Information technology's easy to overestimate what y'all can do in a twenty-four hour period and underestimate what yous can accomplish in a yr!

2. Reflect on your goals from the past year

If you regularly do annual reviews or are disciplined in your goal-setting, you'll want to reflect on whatever goals you set out this fourth dimension last twelvemonth.

Not just does this help y'all recognize progress, just it tin can as well aid you encounter where your priorities have shifted. Certain tasks and projects that felt important a year ago may fade abroad, modify, or expand.

3. Dig deeper into your personal data to uncover trends and insights

At present that you're in a good headspace, dig into whatever data sources y'all have to get specific about how you spent the last 12 months.

This could hateful looking at your calendar, to-do lists, or journals. Or something more than comprehensive like your RescueTime annual dashboard.

Look at your full fourth dimension spent online, which apps and tools you used the most, productivity trends, or even seasonal changes. (Check out our full guide for more tips on using RescueTime information in an annual review).

4. Gear up actionable goals for each category of your life

Information technology'south now fourth dimension to look forrard. Powered by your data and self-reflection, come up with a few (iii–five) actionable and measurable goals for each category of your life. Hither are some categories you might want to consider:

Work
Health
Friends and family
Travel
Learning
Financial

(The categories you lot use are up to you! Just choice 4 or 5 that connect to your about important values).

5. Map out our firsthand next steps for each goal and schedule them

Side by side to each goal, come up with a shortlist of "Actions required to reach this goal."

In other words, you lot desire to come up up with a listing of things y'all can practise correct now to get-go working towards that goal.

Action often precedes motivation. And if you lot desire to use this annual review as a manner to actually get things done, you need

6. Zoom out and create a theme for the yr

At this point, you should start to see some patterns emerge. Look over your goals and categories and create a few high-level themes for the twelvemonth:

Purpose: Where practice you want to focus your time and energy the most this yr?
Outcomes: What are ii-three accomplishments that will brand this year a success? Try to recollect of your "big list" items (the crazy, adventurous goals) besides every bit the "small list" ones (the more achievable "must-haves" for the year to be a success).
Theme: What is this the "year of" for you? Connection? Experimentation? Growth? Choose a single theme that encapsulates your biggest priority.

Download our complimentary annual review template

Writing down and regularly revisiting your almanac review is a powerful way to stay committed to your long-term goals. That'southward why we put together this in-depth annual review template you can download for gratis!

Download our gratuitous annual review template (Google Docs or PDF)

Tedious down and reflect. Your future self will give thanks you.

With all the ideas, apps, and obligations competing for your attention it tin can feel incommunicable to spend time each calendar week or month (or year!) to reflect. But the truth is that self-reflection is one of the most powerful tools you have for building your skills, prioritizing your time, and moving forward.

Researchers have establish that reflection makes what we've learned stick in our minds better, helps u.s.a. perform better at work, and fifty-fifty improves our self-efficacy–our conventionalities in our own abilities.

If yous're ready to effort your own reviews, grab one of these templates and adapt as you get. Y'all'll find your own needs change over fourth dimension and dictate what kind of reflection is most useful.

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Source: https://blog.rescuetime.com/weekly-monthly-annual-reviews/