How to do a weekly review in 20 minutes

Every to-do list works brilliantly for about two weeks. Then new things arrive faster than you file them, finished projects linger, and half the items no longer mean anything. You stop trusting the list, and once you don't trust it, you start carrying things in your head again.

A weekly review is the fix. It's a short, regular session where you look at everything and bring your list back in line with reality. David Allen made it famous in Getting Things Done and called it the key to the whole system. You don't have to use GTD to benefit from it.

What a weekly review is for

It does three jobs:

1. Catch what's slipped through. Notes, emails, promises made in passing. They all land somewhere during the week. The review gets them into one place.
2. Keep projects moving. A project without a clear next step stalls quietly. The review checks every project has one.
3. Set up next week. You start Monday with a plan instead of an inbox.

Daily planning picks tomorrow's few steps. The weekly review makes sure there are good steps to pick. If you only do one of the two, do the review.

The twenty-minute review

Part 1: Clear (5 minutes)

Collect everything that's arrived this week and isn't on your list yet:

• Notes in your phone, notebook or sticky notes
• Screenshots and photos taken as reminders
• Emails that need an action (add the action as a task; you can leave the email where it is)
• Anything still in your head: promises, worries, ideas

Don't organise it. Just get it onto the list. If something takes under two minutes, do it now instead.

Part 2: Review (10 minutes)

Walk through your projects one by one. For each:

• Tick off anything you've done but haven't marked.
• Delete anything that no longer matters. This is the most underrated part of the review. A list full of dead tasks is a list you won't trust. Deleting without guilt is a skill.
• Check the next step. Is it clear and small? If it's vague ("work on proposal"), break it down until it starts with a verb and fits in one sitting.
• Check what you're waiting on. If you've been waiting on someone for a week, the next step might be a nudge.

Then look at dates:

• Glance back over the last week in your calendar. Anything that needs follow-up?
• Look ahead two weeks. Anything that needs preparation now?
• Check your Due list for anything overdue or coming up.

Part 3: Plan (5 minutes)

• Choose three priorities for next week. Not everything you'll do, just the three that would make it a good week. Write them down or star their next steps.
• Choose Monday's first steps. So Monday morning starts with a decision already made, as in daily planning.

That's it. Close the laptop.

Making it stick

The review only works if it happens most weeks. A few things help.

Same time, same place

Pick a slot and protect it. Friday at 4pm works well: the week is fresh in your mind and the weekend starts clean. Some people prefer Sunday evening with a cup of tea. Choose whichever you'll actually do, and put it in your calendar.

Make it a repeating task

Add "Weekly review" as a task that repeats every week on your chosen day. It'll reappear when it's due, so you don't have to remember it. In Tatask, set a weekly repeat on Friday, and keep the steps as subtasks so the checklist is built in. Our post on recurring tasks and routines has more on this.

Use a checklist

For the first few weeks, a checklist stops you skipping steps. Write the three stages on a card and pin it near your desk until you don't need it.

Keep it short

If your review takes an hour every week, something's off. Usually it means too many projects, or projects that are too vague. Trim the list, move things to "someday", and keep the review to twenty minutes. A short review you do beats a thorough one you skip.

Don't do the work during the review

It's tempting to start fixing things as you find them. Resist, except for two-minute jobs. The review is for deciding, not doing. Write down what needs doing and get on with it on Monday.

A worked example

Here's what a real Friday review might look like for someone with a job, a house and a side project.

Clear (4 minutes). Three notes on the phone ("ask Jo about holiday dates", "book bike service", "idea: newsletter for side project"). Two emails needing replies. One worry: the car insurance renewal. All six go on the list.

Review (11 minutes).

• Work: the quarterly report's next step was "work on the report". Broken down into "draft the summary section" and "pull Q2 numbers from finance". A meeting follow-up that never happened is deleted, because the decision was made anyway.
• Home: the garden project has been stuck for three weeks on "choose tiles". Broken into "order sample pack from two suppliers". The bike service is booked online in under two minutes, so it's done on the spot.
• Side project: the newsletter idea goes into Someday. Not this month.
• Dates: car insurance renews in nine days. "Get two quotes" is added with a due date on Tuesday.

Plan (5 minutes). Priorities for next week: finish the report draft, order tile samples, sort the car insurance. Monday's first steps are starred: "draft the summary section" and "order sample pack".

Twenty minutes, and the week ahead is clear.

Questions to ask during the review

If you're not sure whether a project is on track, these questions help:

• What's the very next step, and could I do it in one sitting?
• Is this still worth doing? Would I start it today if it weren't already on the list?
• What am I waiting on, and from whom?
• Is anything due in the next two weeks that needs preparing now?
• What's one thing I could stop doing next week?

You don't need to answer all of them for every project. Pick the ones that fit.

If you're starting from a mess

Your first review might take an hour or more, especially if your list has been neglected. That's fine. Do the clear step properly, delete generously, and don't try to make everything perfect. From the second week on, it gets much shorter.

The payoff

People who keep a weekly review going usually say the same thing: they stop worrying about forgetting things. When everything has been looked at in the last seven days, you can trust that nothing important is hiding in the list, and that makes the rest of the week much quieter.

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