Keep on top of your work with a weekly time management review

​Having been a little ill over the last few weeks, I have found that this week, my weekly time management review is even more important than usual. Regular readers will know that I often stress the importance of regulary reviewing your time management and productivity system; preferably weekly. We are all human and we make mistakes, get things wrong and simply forget stuff from time to time. With a weekly time management review, you have an early warning system which enables you pick up on the mistake and rectify the situation, before too much damage is done. Since I first wrote about my weekly time management review, many of my readers have emailed me asking for more information about the process. So, I thought that this week was as a good a time as any to give you an overview of my weekly time management review.

​It is unlikely that your work is the exact same as mine. Therefore, rather than give you a strict list of actions to take and, an order in which to take them, I simply want to give you an overview of the critical steps in my weekly time management review. You can take these steps and modify them to create a weekly time management review which meets your needs. I modified my system from David Allen’s excellent book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.

Unprocessed materials are items which have not been actioned or added to an appropriate action list. When items arrive, rather than stop the task I am completing at the time, I simply place them in my in-basket.  I then try to process them and determine the appropriate course of action, at least once per day.

When I am busy, it is easy to fall behind so, at the end of the week (I perform my weekly time management review on Fridays) there may still be items that have not been processed. In addition to the in-basket, I check anywhere else that I might have an important item e.g.:

​It is important that I do not process these items before they have all been gathered because it is very easy to forget that I have not checked somewhere yet.

I work through each item and determine the appropriate course of action. To do this, I ask myself a few quick questions:

There will be a number of times where I agree to do something but fail to capture it within my system. In addition, I may have had some good ideas and failed to record them. That is why a brain-dump is such an important part of the weekly time management review. ​

It gives me the opportunity to capture all of these commitments and ideas which are buried in my mind. I take a few minutes to just get everything that is on my mind down on paper. I feel so much better when I do and, I have plugged the leaks in my productivity system.

Of course, once I have performed the brain-dump, I process each item as outlined above. It is best to record things immediately, so be prepared to capture your ideas and commitments at the earliest opportunity.

I review each of my task lists. First, I identify any task which has been completed and remove it from my list. Some people just tick it off but I find that my list gets too messy so, I delete it. Then, I use questions to help me with the process.  I read each task and ask the following:

​The calendar plays an important role in my weekly time management review. Once a day has passed, it is easy to forget that there were items scheduled for that day.  I choose the monthly view on my calendar, and check each item to ensure that it has actually been completed. If I find a task which has not been completed, I determine whether it is still important and, if it is, I re-schedule it with priority.

​Just as I look back on my calendar in my weekly time management review, it is important that I also look forward. Again, I choose the monthly view but this time for the upcoming month. I check each item to see if it is still important. If it is not, I remove it and inform anyone that may need to know of the change. For the remaining items, I ensure that I have captured each of the tasks that need to be performed before this event can occur.

There are times when I need somebody else to perform a task or, provide information, before I can move forward with a task of my own. When this happens, I contact the appropriate person immediately by email. I take a copy of the sent email and save it in my ‘waiting for’ folder in my email. When I receive the desired response, I then delete that email.

As part of my weekly time management review, I check for items in my ‘waiting for’ folder and if a response is overdue, I will send a reminder email or, make a call.

​For each of my major projects, I create a project plan which ensures all of the important tasks are completed in a timely manner. The project plan also allows me to assess whether I am making the necessary progress and, if I am not, I can make some changes to improve the situation. As part of my weekly time management review, I review each project plan to assess my progress. If I identify an area where I have fallen behind, I schedule corrective action.

​When I set goals, I may identify some goals which, for any of a multitude of reasons, I may not be able to achieve at this particular time.  Rather than discard these goals, I create a ‘Someday, Maybe’ list. After all, someday, maybe I will be in a position to go for these goals. Each week, I review this list to see if any of the goals, which were not previously realistic, are now realistic. If I find such a goal, I create a project plan and add it to the appropriate action list.

Once I have finished my weekly time management review, I usually have an hour left in my working week. I know that if I use this hour to full effect, I can finish the week on a high with a big sense of accomplishment. 

So, I identify as many small but important tasks as I can, make a list of them and, spend the next hour completing as many of them as I can. Priority is given to tasks which I have fallen behind on.

At the end of the hour, I feel much better about the week which has passed and I am ready to enjoy the weekend.

For more great strategies to improve your organisation and focus, check out The Modern Professional's Guide to Organisation and Focus.

​If you want to improve your productivity and as a result, improve the results which you are achieving; there are many strategies which you can implement. Most of the common strategies will help you to make improvements but without a weekly time management review, you will struggle to stay on track with your changes. Think of it like giving up a bad habit; there will be times when you fall of the wagon and resort to your destructive old ways. A weekly time management review ensures that you never go more than a week before you realise that you have strayed off course. If you have established the most effective process for your weekly time management review, then simply taking the actions which you have set out, will quickly nudge you back on course before any lasting damage is done.