With the switch to OmniFocus, I needed to redo my weekly review process. It was relatively trivial to set something up, but the actual execution still needs some tweaking. The weekly review process generally involves emptying out all the various inboxes such as email inboxes, random thoughts and ideas that I record in OmniFocus or reminders or whatever to be decided later, and a physical inbox for postal mail or the like. The latter I will admit I don’t handle well. I have not properly processed this in months/years and it continually grows; it’s essentially a project all in its own to clear out.

I start by cleaning out the easy stuff. The email I’ve been keeping up on for a while now. Archiving crap that doesn’t have any actionable content and should be kept, deleting mailing list stuff or other items I don’t need, and creating tasks where I do need to do something, like pay a bill. So my personal email is in pretty good shape. (My work email is a completely different story as my task management process using only work approved apps leaves a lot to be desired.) Doing this constant email cleaning helps keep things nice and tidy.

Next I look at “task inboxes.” I always have a default place in whatever tasking system I have where new tasks can go. A project or list where I can record new things to process later. The “later” is this weekly review process at the latest. I am trying to put everything in OmniFocus right now, but occasionally something ends up in the native Reminders app, either because I forget or because it was easier to put it there whenever that was. So I check both. I then decide where to put the task, if it needs some dates, is actionable or dependent on something else, and anything else like tags and such. Sometimes they just get deleted if they’re not something I will actually need to do. This is important so things do not fall through the cracks.

I look at anything on the calendar to see how “busy” my week will be. This helps me gauge whether I can put some additional tasks on my week’s activities Generally, my actual calendar is pretty light outside of work. Doctor’s appointments, family obligations, etc., are the main components of this. I will occasionally record generic, nebulous things like “long work day,” “PTO,” or “this week will be very busy at work” so it helps provide context. I never put specific work items on my personal calendar because I don’t want it cluttering things up. I try to maintain as much separation as possible for mental sanity.

I then review my few number of projects for relevance. Are there tasks in a project that aren’t relevant any more? Sometimes I create tasks under a project because I think I’ll need to do something but it ends up not needing to be done. Or sometimes I even forget to mark items as completed. Sometimes the project itself was dropped for whatever reason. The point is to review these regularly and make sure they’re still accurate.

Then I look at my “Anytime” tasks. These are tasks that don’t have any date commitments at all but I want to do them at some point if I have time and/or motivation. Just random things, mainly. If it’s something I think I can do and it makes sense to do so, I tag it as “next” and assign a defer to date on it. If something that needs a due date because I’ve put it off to the point where it needs to be done, that gets added as well. A good example is today I decided to actually do something about the attic door’s insulation. It’s something I identified a while ago as something I want to do. So I put a defer date of today to actually install something. It’s not due today, but I can start working on it starting today. Summer is coming, and anything I can do to help keep the house cool when the A/C is running will be good.

Next up are the “Someday/Maybe” tasks. These are tasks I put on the list so I don’t forget about them, but I haven’t decided if I really want to do them at all. I review them for relevancy, if they haven’t already been reviewed during the project review process. If a task is something that I still think I may want to do, it stays. If a task is something I know I want to do, then I remove the someday tag and it becomes an Anytime task. I can take it a step further and even schedule it. Some of the tasks in this list may also be dependent on other things and are thought of as “on hold.”

After going through all the reviews and scheduling, I then take a look at my new list of tasks. I see if I was overly optimistic on the things I want to do and adjust if needed. It’s a critical step to make sure I’m not trying to do too much and risk getting discouraged when I can’t complete an overly bullish plan.

The final step is just to review the tasks I’ve completed in the past week. It’s supposed to be a source of “encouragement” that I’ve actually done something. Not really a crucial step in the process, but it also helps me remember what I did because I don’t remember everything I’ve done as well I used to. Life is more complicated than it was 10 years ago. Too many things vying for our attention.

So, that’s my general weekly review process. I generally do this every Sunday, usually in the morning when I’m just putting around. I use it as a way of centering myself as a new week starts up. A chance to set reasonable expectations. Right now all of the above is in a “weekly review” task with subtasks. Not sure I will keep it there. I might change it to a recurring project just because of the way the current software works. I haven’t decided, really. It’s not a primary concern, though, to be honest. It’s just a tool to help with the above. As long as I do the above in some fashion, doesn’t really matter how I do it or what I use. I just need to keep on top of it, review it regularly to make sure I’ve captured everything and don’t have unnecessary stuff, and just to take it one step at a time.

And as a reward, here’s the required dog picture. (Not even his bowl. Just unhappy that it’s not dinnertime.)