In early 2024, I adopted a weekly practice that created a fundamental shift in the way I approach my weeks. It’s impacted the way I prioritize and schedule. It’s strengthened my ability to be flexible and adapt to unexpected changes. It’s reframed the way I think about growth. Most importantly, it’s forced me to cultivate a regular practice of reflection that has resulted in being more present throughout the week.
I put a pause on this practice while traveling the last nine months, and this week was the first time I’ve completed it since. I’ve been immediately reminded of the value of consistently setting aside 30-60 minutes for it every week. As I jump back into making it a habit, I wanted to share more about what this practice looks like and the power that is holds.
Today, I want to talk about the practice of a weekly review.
What is a Weekly Review?
The definition needs minimal explanation. Fundamentally, it’s exactly as it sounds. A time set aside on a weekly basis used to to take stock and review the last seven days.
Weekly reviews aren’t a new idea. Many people have their own variations, each tailored with a slightly different function. That’s one of their beauties. They’re both flexible and personal. There are no hard-and-fast rules.
That said, the format of weekly review I lean towards is what I consider to be a holistic review (if you want to tailor it in your own way, all the foundational principles should still apply). We’ll get into this structure later, but let’s start with function. To do this, we need to fly up to 30000 feet for a minute and talk about trajectory.
But First, Trajectory
Whether we want to believe it or not, each of our lives has a trajectory. If we choose not to, that trajectory is likely to resemble a ship at sea with no rudder and no sails. We get carried wherever the wind and waves take us. Our trajectory ends up being chaotic, even circular, and we don’t make much progress in any given direction.
Broadly speaking, reviews serve as benchmarks and checkpoints that help us clarify two important facets of our trajectory:
- Where we want our trajectory to lead us
- How our current course aligns with our trajectory
Let’s refer to a set of a reviews addressing these two facets as a “Comprehensive Review System”, or CRS for short.
A Comprehensive Review System
Just as there are weekly reviews, there are quarterly, semi-annual, annual, heck even decade long reviews. I won’t talk in detail about any of the others today, (nor are they all necessary), but I name to differentiate the intervals being reviewed. Performing reviews comprising different time intervals are essential for a functional CRS. Reviews with longer intervals tend to help clarify where we want to go, and shorter ones help clarify where we are actually going.
Your CRS must start by defining your desired trajectory. This is achieved by clarifying what your values are. The sum of these values serve as the foundation for your identity. And in the words of a wise friend of mine
“life on this side of heaven isn’t primarily about being happy. It’s about continually becoming more of the person you were created to be”.
Only after our trajectory is defined can we derive meaning from our current course, and this is the function of a weekly review.
The Function of a Weekly Review
A weekly review is a snapshot. This snapshot alone cannot provide context on where we are going, hence the importance of contextualizing it within a CRS. However, it can tell us about the last few miles we have traveled and what our current location is.
The weekly (or near weekly) frequency is essential here, and here’s why. If this interval becomes too long, it becomes much easier for our ship to drift off in the opposite direction we want to be sailing. The further we’re blown off course, the more difficult it becomes to get back to the spot we want to be.
It’s natural for a ship to get off course, and for all sorts of reasons. Maybe the wind was particularly aggressive for several days. Maybe a sail ripped and energy needed to be invested in repairs before forward progress could be resumed. Maybe the captain saw an island and decided to explore it for a few weeks to take a break from the open sea.
Though these examples may sound trivial, they illustrate an important point.
Just as we have strong weeks, we’ll also find ourselves having the occasional off-course week for any number of reasons. A bad week or two isn’t anything to be concerned about, as long as the root cause is understand and the overall course remains steady. However, if we find ourselves drifting off course week after week for the same reasons, there might be something deeper that needs addressing.
Consistent snapshots allow for appropriate contextualization of these off course weeks or reveal when an unproductive pattern might be forming. They also provide space to celebrate progress made. This is the function of weekly reviews within a CRS. To compare our current location with our planned trajectory so that we can keep ourselves moving in the direction we want to go.
Tangible Value
So what with all the abstract analogies? What’s the tangible value week in and week out?
Great question. I’m glad you asked.
I’ll keep it brief with the most impactful benefits I’ve found from weekly reviews.
- I find insight into the alignment between how I want to be spending my time and how I am actually spending my time.
- Celebrating the smallest wins allows me to remember I accomplished something even in the worst of weeks. I’m able to view weeks from a more objective perspective.
- I feel significantly more prepared stepping into the week ahead. Fewer things catch me off guard. If they do, they less frequently lead to anxiousness. I can adapt more easily as I have a thorough understanding of what can be adjusted the remainder of the week. I have better regulation over my energy levels, knowing what times of the week might be draining and what times I must protect for restoration.
- I approach undesirable patterns with curiosity rather than dismay. I can then interpret them as simple cause and effect. Once I see the effect of a pattern, I’m more motivated to determine how to change the cause.
- Reflecting on a weekly basis has developed an actively reflective posture throughout the other six days of the week. I find myself more intentional and more present in what I am doing.
Hopefully at this point, I’ve convinced you that a weekly review is worth an hour of your precious time every seven days, or at least intrigued you by the idea. Now that we have the why solidified, let’s get into the execution and talk about what this looks like in practice.
Building a Structure
The good news is, a successful weekly review isn’t defined by the perfect set of questions. It’s defined by the intentional engagement with whatever the questions may be. In some ways, It doesn’t even really matter if you’re answering the questions on the page. The questions are a framework, and one thing I’ve learned is that what’s important will surface regardless of whether or not it fits into a clean answer to a question.
Guiding Principles
So feel the freedom to play around with the structure. Continue iterating until you find a system that works for you and allows you to efficiently cover the important bases. As you define your structure, here are several principles to guide you.
Clarity
Each question of your weekly review should have a clear purpose. If you’re not clear what the intent of a question is, you aren’t extracting much value by answering it.
Simplicity
The best way to prevent yourself from doing a weekly review is to overcomplicate it. You don’t need 20 questions. You shouldn’t need 10.
I think the sweet spot is somewhere between 3-6 questions. Any less than that, and it’s difficult to sufficiently cover the axes that are important to you. Any more than that, and you quickly slide down a slippery slope towards being overwhelmed by your system.
Elasticity
There are two aspects of elasticity that come into play.
The first is including at least one or two questions that are elastic. You can think of elastic questions as ones that are broad enough to answer in a near infinite number of ways. This allows you to capture more information while keeping a streamlined structure. A “catch-all” (or catch-a-lot) question, if you will. Without these, it’s easier to fall into the trap of “I have an answer / data point / experience that is important to capture, but I don’t have a question for it”.
The second is the entire system should be elastic. If there’s a time constrained week, you might not have 60 minutes, but you have 15. Don’t abandon the review in it’s entirety. Determine what questions will provide the most benefit with the time you have, and engage with that subset. Additionally if you’re short on time, consider using quick bullet point answers. These will retain the core points but save a lot of time over a stream of consciousness journaling approach.
Repeatability
After an initial stage of iterating, your structure should remain largely the same. Don’t spend energy each week deciding what your review will consist of. This repeatability also helps with the contextualization I’ve touched on earlier. If each week the structure changes, it becomes more difficult to determine whether something is an outlier or a pattern. Pick your questions, and only adjust as needed to optimize for effectiveness.
Neutrality
This principle has to do more with approach than with structure, but it’s equally important. Your review is not meant to be performed with a judgmental tone but with a sober mind. It isn’t a time to beat yourself up over how poorly your week went and how you’re going to fix your entire life the week following. Remember that you’re always your own harshest critic.
Try to maintain a neutral, objective perspective as you reflect. This attitude helps to keep things in proper proportionality. The goal is to identify where you are and what you need to adjust to go where you want to go, nothing more.
My Personal Structure
Following those principals, this is my personal structure that I’ve found to be effective.
- Where am I?
- What voices am I listening to?
- What am I doing with my hunger?
- What went well this week?
- What do I want to change for this week?
- What do I want to prioritize this week?
In these six questions, I’m able to comprehensively reflect on the current state of my mind, body and soul as well as prepare myself for the coming week. I’m able to find my current location relative to my trajectory, determine how I got there, and where I need to go next.
Look Around
The first three questions were taken from a man named Scot Pollock who I’ve been fortunate to learn much from over the last few years I’ve spent at Reach Church. Scot presented them specifically in the context of faith and spirituality, however I think these questions are applicable whatever your relationship with faith is.
These questions focus on identifying where you are and how you got there.
Where am I?
No, the answer is not a one sentence answer along the lines of “in my bedroom”, “at a coffee shop” or “Seattle”.
This isn’t a question about location. It’s not purely physical. It’s mental. It’s spiritual. It’s a question that asks, “in what state do I find myself in this exact moment?”.
Before you can accurately see what’s around you, you need to know “where” you are. Are you anxious? Distracted? Are you running toward something or away from something? Are you standing still, and if so, is that from contentment of feeling trapped or frozen? The state you are in will impact the eyes with which you review the past week and prepare for the next. It’s difficult to engage with your surroundings if you’re disoriented by where you are.
Starting with this question clears my head. This question is easily the most elastic portion of my review, and it’s the place where I find myself writing things that don’t really fit into any of the other questions. It grounds me and sets the stage for the rest of the review.
What voices am I listening to?
Whether you recognize the name Jim Rohn or not, you’ve probably heard his phrase “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. Now, I’m not here to debate the scientific integrity of this claim. I only use it to demonstrate the idea behind the quote.
You are shaped by who you spend time with, and what voices you listen to.
So who are you listening to? What are they telling you? How are they shaping your thoughts and behavior? Are they supporting you or hindering you?
With the current state of technology, this question continues to become increasingly important. There are a near infinite number of voices accessible all from the palm of our hands. If we’re not careful, we can find ourselves listening to so many voices that we get turned around and lose track of the voices we really want to listen to.
One thing I’ve learned about trying to listen well is that it’s much more difficult to hear what I want when it’s surrounded by high levels of noise. Noise is a valid answer to this question, and one that I find myself writing down more often than I’d like to. I previously wrote a separate post on how too much information leads to clutter, and what it looks like to declutter your mental space. If this is a predicament you often find yourself in – I’d encourage you to read A Different Kind of Decluttering.
What have I done with my hunger?
In other words, how have you chosen to spend your disposable time? When nothing is in front of you, what have you been inclined to reach for?
To extend this hunger/food analogy one step further, it’s not a stretch to see that certain activities are more satisfying than others. Scrolling, often done in an unintentional manner, is much akin to mindlessly grabbing snacks from the pantry. Taking an hour to journal or talk to a friend (or any other activities that is aligned with your values and priorities) has more substance, like a balanced meal that leaves one full.
There’s nothing wrong with the occasional bowl of ice cream or bag of chips, but when these make up too large a portion of your diet, we all know the result.
Just as you are what you eat, whatever you focus on you will become.
Pause and Celebrate
What went well this week?
Take time to celebrate the progress you are making, especially when that progress is directly related to your trajectory. Even something as simple as “I had a great conversation with Brady” reinforces your desired trajectory of wanting to be a person who is curious and prioritizes investing into people.
I find this question especially valuable in weeks that have not gone the way I hoped they would. I’m able to remind myself that no matter how poorly my week went, there was still at least one win.
Adjust Course
The final two questions shift my perspective forward towards preparation.
What do I want to change for this week?
There’s a few unwritten words to this question, and those are something along the lines of “what didn’t work last week?”. They’re two sides of the same coin, and though the answer to both often appears, these words aren’t explicitly written for two reasons.
- It’s a negative framing of the question. Focusing too heavily on the negative framing can create a trap of believing false identity statements such as “I am lazy” or “I’m a failure because I can’t stay consistent”. That’s the last thing you want. Using a positive framing centered around the change itself is more helpful in maintaining an attitude of neutrality.
- It’s looks backwards rather than forwards. Movement forward is the goal, not getting stuck looking in the rearview mirror.
Generally speaking, if something is going well, there’s not much that needs to change. It makes for a quick answer to the question when this is the case. Congratulate yourself and move on.
However, I’ve found that the perfect week doesn’t come around all that often. Whether small scale or large, I typically have at least one or two things that I look back on wishing they had gone differently. This can range from wanting to change my volume of social interactions, to eating healthier, to spending my free time in more productive ways, etc. This sets the stage for the final question.
What do I want to prioritize this week?
Keeping what I want to change in mind, I complete my review by looking forward to the week ahead from a logistical lens. This is mostly a calendar blocking session and review, but with a few important additions. I strongly encourage taking a calendar blocking approach, but if that’s not your thing, it’s not mandatory. There’s 5 quick steps to this question.
1. Pull up your calendar.
If it’s not a physical calendar, pull up a mental one. Quickly review what’s on it.
2. Fill in any gaps.
If there’s something that you know should be on the calendar but isn’t, add it.
3. Write down what you want to prioritize.
Time with friends. Exercise. Trying a new restaurant. Reading. Practicing gratefulness. Whatever it may be. (I typically include obligations on this list. If it’s an obligation, I should be prioritizing it.) These will likely be related to what you wrote down in the previous question about what you wanted to change. You don’t have to write these down in order, but it IS important that you at least have an understanding of how these priorities are ranked, especially what the top few are.
4. Look back at your calendar as well as your highest priorities. If what you want to prioritize is not on the calendar, give it a home.
By doing this, you are taking the first step in tangibly prioritizing what you say you want to. If it’s not there, the time is not reserved, and can easily be stolen by less important priorities.
I sometimes take this to a bit of an extreme and schedule out my entire day. This might look like taking a free Wednesday evening, and scheduling 7-8 PM to cook and eat dinner, 8-9:30 reading a book or playing music, 9:30-10 cleaning, and 10-10:30 winding down away from screens. Though it may seem like overkill, I’ve found my free time feels far more free when I artificially remove this free time by declaring a purpose for it.
Regardless of whether the time is used for what I declare it for, this creates a default. Defaults are incredibly powerful (that’s a whole separate piece on its own) as they create a barrier to selecting another option. I have no problem overriding the purpose of a time in a moment, but if I do, I’m more inclined to intentionally replace it with something substantive and enjoyable rather than become distracted and waste it.
5. Determine your cut order.
This step may be optional for some, but not for me.
This last step strengthens your adaptability. It’s inevitable that the occasional wrench will be thrown into your week. You can choose to approach these reactively, and if you’re anything like me, that’ll leave you scrambling to figure out how to fit it in and sulking over what you now have to sacrifice.
OR
You can anticipate the wrenches before they come. Determine what will be the first to go from your schedule the order in which you cut things to make room for others. Knowing your priorities should make this easy. Then when somethings come up, cut what’s least important and shift the time slots of everything else to maintain your priority order.
Looking at the upcoming week in this way allows you to into the week intentionally rather than haphazardly. This then sets up the next weekly review to check in and see how you did in keeping your priorities in the order they belong.
Now Go
With a clear purpose and a defined structure, all that remains is the execution. So go do it.
If you’re compelled by the idea, please don’t let the idea remain an idea like I do far to often. Put an hour on your calendar, or even 30 minutes, grab your computer or journal and get to it. Use any/all of my questions above, or come up with your own set entirely.
Remember that the foundational goal here is to create a quick feedback loop that provides redirection to help keep you moving on your desired trajectory. If you’re unclear on your trajectory, start there. Then your personal CRS is ready to go.
Okay, that’s it. Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear what insights you begin to notice as well as what questions you find the most value in.