I had a tough week and messed up my sleep schedule. On Sunday I felt overwhelmed and didn't know where I stood in terms of goals, projects and what the hell I was supposed to be doing with my life next. Enter the weekly review, a lifesaver. Thread time!👇
Every Sunday evening I take half an hour to review everything that happened in the previous week and plan for the week ahead. I've been doing this (in Evernote) for about a year. Here's my EOW (end-of-week) template: 
First, I list the achievements of the week. It's usually something personal like finishing a book, publishing an article, booking a trip or doing something nice for my partner. But, I also list team accomplishments that I'm proud of, like shipping out a new product etc. 🙌✨
Next, things that didn't go so well. Maybe I didn't achieve everything I hoped for or hit unexpected roadblocks. It's important to ask Why? to learn from my mistakes and try to figure out how I can do better next time.
Ah, magic moments. This is the place to look back and note all the times my heart was full of joy and gratitude. When I started looking for those moments, I realized that I noticed them more while they are happening. Good stuff. 👍❤️
After that is done, I start going through the checklist. The items there mostly refer to other notes or services that help me stay on top of things. The information I work with gets thrown in many buckets and this is a chance to clear those out.
The first few items are maintenance. Having a look at all the emails I received/sent, what's in my calendar (previous two weeks and next four weeks) and to do list, checking and clearing my downloads folder and reviewing where I spent money in my @RevolutApp. 📩🗓️💸
This makes it safe to ignore non-urgent emails because I know I'll come back to them eventually. Same goes for the next item, processing my thought net and idea soup. These are documents where I throw any random thoughts and half-baked ideas that might prove useful later.
Some of these thoughts might be notes to self that I'll action later. And ideas might seem brilliant at the time they strike me, but if I leave them to soak in my mind for a few days, I can look at them with fresh eyes and see if something can be done about them realistically.💡
Next, I have a separate document for any ongoing projects that might need updating (marking any progress, blockers, timeline updates etc.) Same goes for the learning roadmap, a list of next steps in my journey as a developer. 🤓💻🐒
Monthly goals! These are bigger and more substantial. Here I check how well I'm progressing towards them and make course corrections. Some people find a month is too short and set quarterly goals. Read this for more on those:
nateliason.com/blog/goal-sett…
nateliason.com/blog/goal-sett…
The someday-maybe list is stuff that I'm super curious about, but it would sidetrack me from my main goals and what I want to achieve at the moment. If it's something lightweight, I read about it during a lazy weekend or find a podcast to listen to during a commute.
The last item on the checklist is self-explanatory, adding things to my to-do list and calendar. BUT, I usually do that one last. You'll see why in a second.
The table at the bottom contains three columns, Outcomes, Purpose, and Actions. For everything I want to achieve that week, I write an outcome, the end state I want to be in at the end of the week. You can fail to achieve goals, but you always get an outcome.
Every outcome must have a purpose, a WHY. If I can't fill the Purpose column with a paragraph that generates some emotional juice and makes me want to go out and do things NOW, I might as well scratch the outcome completely. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Finally, I list the actions I deem necessary to achieve those outcomes. Those then get transferred into my to-do list, a document that I look at multiple times per day when I can't remember what my next step is. And that's the last item in the checklist. 😃
Give this weekly review a shot. It has a 10x effect on my life and fills me with a sense of confidence that I know exactly where I'm going and that I have a safety net to fall back on when the going gets tough. Thanks for reading!🚀
