How I do a Week Review

Every Friday, I conduct a week review to evaluate my progress. This practice allows me to reflect on my accomplishments and challenges.

I’ve adapted the concepts of team retrospectives to suit my individual needs, applying them on a smaller scale.

How I do it

First, I have a task in Todoist that reminds me of the week review appointment every Friday morning.

I’ve broken down this activity into six smaller parts, arranged in a logical sequence:

By structuring it this way, I don’t have to remember the exact order of the retrospective each week. It’s all laid out for me.

The Retrospective Document

I use Notion to compile the retrospective document and maintain a searchable archive over time. The document is straightforward, consisting of the following fields:

• Well: What went well during the week
• Wrong: What didn’t go as planned
• Start: What to begin doing on Monday to improve
• Stop: What to cease doing to avoid future setbacks
• Date: The current day (for archival purposes)
• Completed Pomodoros: As mentioned in my post earlier this year, this helps me track my genuine focus periods. I use one of the many Pomodoro timers available online to count these
• Image: I capture each week with a photo—sometimes one I’ve taken, other times one related to places I’ve visited or the current season

Why do it

It helps me reflect on the things I do, but especially on those I haven’t been able to complete. To understand why something didn’t go as I had imagined.

I think the most useful aspect is self-criticism.

Side effects

I often find myself seeing the reminder notification and thinking, “Oh no, I have to do the week review! 😵‍💫”

This reaction is common for all recurring tasks we schedule that pop up when we’re engrossed in something else.

Another challenge is not knowing what to write.

To address this, I conduct the review every Friday afternoon while the week’s events are still fresh in my mind. Doing it on Monday wouldn’t work for me, as the weekend acts as a mental reset.

Tips

→ Try to take notes during the week about what happens, as if it were a diary, to avoid writer’s block

→ If you really skip a week, it’s not the end of the world!

→ If you want to use my retrospective document, download the Notion template for free! 🙌