Getting Things Done: Periodic Reviews

In prior pages, I’ve mentioned how I organize under my system. However, all that organization does nothing for you if you loose sight of where you’re going.

A full discussion of goal-setting is beyond the scope of my little monologue here. However, goal-setting relates to one of the common criticisms of GTD.

Several folks, particularly those who were trained to follow the Franklin-Covey "7 Habits" school of thought, complain that GTD is weak when it comes to identifying exactly what it is that you should be doing (whereas under "7 Habits" you have a nice list of rank-ordered tasks to work down).

That is a fair criticism, the appropriate response to which is that priority-setting is beyond the scope of GTD. David Allen argues that in this day and age, many (most?) people’s jobs and lives are so dynamic that priorities can change frequently and dramatically. Rather than worrying about developing and prescribing a means to handle that, he trusts in "natural decision-making".

In English, that’s a fancy way of saying that as long as you’re familiar with where you want to go, you should be able to naturally, intuitively make the best decision about what you should be doing at any given point in time.

Or, if you want to be very blunt — trust your judgment, because trying to over-organize and over-prioritize is time-consuming and frustrating in a dynamic environment.

However, in order to maintain familiarity with your goals, you need to review what’s on your plate and where you’re going.

I have "formal" daily and weekly reviews. I block off 30 minutes or so at the end of each day, and a couple of hours mid-day Fridays, as appointments with myself to review my task lists.

My daily reviews are simple affairs, where I take the time to update my task lists for any changes that occurred during the day ("this now has a due date", "oops, I forgot to check that off"), make notes about what I want to do tomorrow (fire drills willing), and possibly fire off a couple of emails or leave a few voicemails if I know that I’m going to need some information or time from particular folks tomorrow.

My weekly reviews are a little more structured. (Click image for flowchart.) I’ll go back through my low-priority tasks and my projects, and evaluate if they’re still important to me, if they need to be escalated or jump-started, or moved off the table. By having my review mid-day on Friday, if this cycling reveals that I need something from somebody, or need to get on someone’s calendar, I can usually get them before folks disappear for the weekend…or at least be at the front of their queue for next week.

Also during this review time, I’ll try to knock off some of the "to read" items that have accumulated during the week, since these have the potential to generate new tasks, new projects, etc.

And, in general terms, that’s how my system works. By trying to be anal about keeping things in my task list; by reviewing my lists periodically to keep sight of what I’m trying to get done: short-, medium-, and long-term; and by feeling reasonably confident that I can find anything I move out-of-sight/out-of-mind when I need it, I’m free to focus on things that I can do, without stressing over trying to not-forget things, and allowing space in my head to dream up new ideas.

On the next page, I’ll share some tips on how I’ve set up my copy of Outlook, based on my experience and based on from bits and pieces I learned by trolling the net.

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