The #1 Habit to Feel Good about Your Work

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Okay, that's a click-bait-sounding title. But it was too funny not to use, because I actually believe a Weekly Review is so crucial to feeling like we have any organization or control in our lives.

Why a Weekly Review?

A wall filled of different colored sticky notes, and a woman writing on one of the notes

A Weekly Review is a check-in with your tasks, calendar, and/or projects so they can actually work for you. Do you know where you left off with all those different things? It lowers stress, reduces surprise chaos, and makes it easier to do things intentionally.

If you’ve ever started a week already behind — unsure what’s important, worried you’re missing something — try a Weekly Review.

Other situations a Weekly Review could help:

  • Realized a calendar conflict later than you'd like
  • Don’t know where to start on something
  • Don't know where you left off on something
  • Wish you had already started something
  • Find your lists are full of old things that you never checked off
  • Don't want to look at the old lists

What a Weekly Review is:

"One of the main mechanisms of Getting Things Done (GTD) is the Weekly Review™️. The original concept involves collecting, processing, and organizing all outstanding items to ensure projects are on track and next actions are clearly defined."

tl;dr: Look at your stuff to keep it fresh

What a Weekly Review can do for You

a sticky note on a weekly planner, the note reads, "complete: find existing code"
  • Trust your calendar. Your calendar becomes the primary way to have a hope to understand linear time (and not miss stuff).
  • Less background buzzing. Fewer "uh oh" surprises because the mental inbox gets cleared.
  • Permission to let go. Review old stuff and decide what you're not doing--then stop feeling bad about it.
  • Right-size your time/effort. See what’s realistic so you don’t beat yourself up over the impossible.
  • Capture what's on your mind. You can't do anything with that task while it's still rattling around in your head.
  • Notice the wins. Celebrate projects/tasks that quietly crossed the finish line.
  • Figure out in advance what you can't do this week. Instead of trying to squeeze in everything and finishing nothing.
  • Space for life. A tacit reminder that personal things matter as much as professional things.
  • Lower the resistance to tasks. When we look at our projects and tasks regularly, they're less likely to become that scary container in the fridge you don't want to open and find out how bad it is.
  • Feel effective. End the review with a better idea of how to really get things moved forward. That feels so good!
    • Happier, calmer baseline. When we review regularly, overall mood and sense of ease go up.

Ideas for your ADHD-friendly Weekly Review (steal this)

  • Collect. Empty the nontraditional inboxes--notes, notifications, screenshots, sticky notes, and, why not, your actual email. Anywhere new potential tasks/projects might come in.
  • Calendar reality check. What's coming? What changed? What needs prep? If you can, periodically look further down the road. What ideas or thoughts occur to you?
  • Projects scan. For each active project, define the next visible action--or park it. (Anything old that needs to be completed? Made more clear?)
  • Prune. Drop or move stale tasks if they're really not going to happen anytime in the near future. Notice what hasn't moved in a while-- can you clarify it or re-sparkle it to reengage?
  • Prioritize. What makes the small cut for your attention for the next 2-7 days?
  • Periodically clean the system. When something is getting ignored or bogging you down, this can be a time to take care of it. e.g. I've been cleaning out my projects tags.
  • Get it out of your head. A “mind sweep” or “brain dump” is where you capture all the thoughts of things to do swirling in your head. Then you can look at them objectively.

Why weekly reviews can be hard (especially with ADHD)

A skeleton laying on the ground with his hand on a certificate that reads "overworked"
  • Perfectionism. “If I can’t do it perfectly, or completely, I’ll do it never/later.”
  • Never a good time to stop work to review. When you feel behind, pausing to review feels wrong--even though it's what helps you catch up.
  • No "good" stopping point. There's always more to review-- so when am I done?
  • Time blindness. There is no real cue to switch into review mode.
  • It's never "done." A review is a checkpoint, not a masterpiece. Some review > perfect review or no review.
  • We don't do it on our own. Unless you're spectacularly good at sticking to appointments with yourself, without an external time, person, or reason to do a review, it's always 'later'."
  • A "review" feels passive. What am I actually doing in a calendar review??
  • It's scary to see what's hiding. No one wants to find out what balls they might have dropped.
  • Not sure where to start. It's way better to start anywhere than not to start. Set a timer, then you can quit and try something different next time. The best way to know what works for you is to have already done the thing a bunch of times.

Think "good enough to move forward," not "execute the perfect system."

Get support for your Weekly Review

Let's make it as easy as we can.

Be the boss, not the worker

two women sitting on a couch together. The woman to the right looks to be upset, the woman on the left has her hand on the other woman's shoulder as a sign of comfort

As much as you can, during the Weekly Review, you're the one who decides what's a good use of resources, or the next steps in a project, or that the project won't pay off and it's time to drop it for now. You're not the person who meant to send that email 6 weeks ago and have been wallowing in shame since. Can you put on the right hat to make the right decisions?

Get accountability to do the Weekly Review

If your track record for holding to appointments with yourself is less than stellar, don't do it by yourself. Or if it's kind of hard to face. Don't do that alone.

An external time/place makes starting easier and keeps you moving. That's why we host a Weekly Review Stream --it's a structured, supportive time to say: "the rest of the world can wait while I update my system." Our free, public stream offers low-pressure accountability. Mute us if you want, ask questions, or share wins-- whatever works for you.

When: Typically Tuesdays at 9 a.m. Pacific / 12 p.m. Eastern. (Check for updates in the calendar--we sometimes add bonus sessions.)

Join / follow along with our Weekly Review:

A quick look at our personal flavors (for the curious)

  • Ollie: Prioritizes task inbox + projects--captured ideas get organized where they'll show up only when actionable; confirms each "active" project still belongs.
  • Brittany: Leans on the calendar ("hard landscape") and project reviews--staying aware of what's coming and what just happened.

Same goal, different angles: a system that supports an ADHD brain in real life, no matter how messy.

Bottom line

A weekly review is a small habit with a big ripple effect when we do it regularly. It lightens the cognitive load, reduces chaos, and makes it easier to do your stuff intentionally. If doing it solo is tough, borrow our structure and community--show up, follow along, and let accountability do some of the heavy lifting.

Your review doesn't have to be perfect to be helpful.

Wishing you the best organization!

Brittany

P.S. If you're struggling with any part of your Weekly Review decision paradigm, maybe bring it to 1:1 coaching, whoever your coach is. I can't speak for other coaches, but systems/review coaching is one of my favorite things to coach on!