How to conduct a GTD-style weekly review in Notion - with template
A weekly review provides regular space for gaining clarity and high-level perspective over what you are doing with your life. This may be desirable to you because, as a human, you are naturally drawn to seeking an understanding of the world and circumstances around you, so that you can limit your anxiety and feel a greater sense of control over your life, occupying the driver's seat in the rocky bus ride that is your existence.
In knowledge work, there's often a lack of emphasis on nurturing one's tools and taking inventory of ongoing activities. This contrasts with traditional manual jobs, where tools are crucial and regularly maintained for optimal, consistent performance. I view the weekly review as a process of "sharpening my tools" and gaining perspective. It allows me to step back from being constantly immersed in daily events, which often seem more significant than they truly are when viewed from a higher vantage point.
A weekly review is a micro-level ritual conducted every week to reflect on the past seven days and lightly plan the week ahead. It's distinct from longer-term reviews (such as quarterly, yearly, or multi-year assessments) and is more practical, grounded in the present reality. The weekly review aligns with the broader vision for your life that you've established during longer-term planning sessions. However, it doesn't challenge your vision or values—those are addressed separately. If you notice during a weekly review that it's time to update your vision or values, you can allocate time to do so later.
The weekly review has been particularly popularized by David Allen in the book “Getting Things Done” (GTD). Here is an official weekly review checklist from the GTD website.
Number of weekly review sessions completed by month
Overview of my weekly review process in Notion
You can customize the structure of a weekly review as you see fit once you have established the habit of doing it. But if you haven’t started yet, or haven’t found consistency in doing it and you desire to find it, then here is a possible starting point you can use as inspiration or get for your use directly (free simple template here; more elaborate paid template here). Here is a full explanation video. Below is the weekly review process I have been following for many years, tweaking each component over time as my life and knowledge changed. Some years ago I wrote about how I started the weekly reflection practice and where I found the first template I used.
Reflection
This is the first section of my weekly review process. Its purpose is to look back at the past week and reflect on it. Reflection serves as a tool for learning and developing inner strength—a foundation that keeps you grounded, mindful, and motivated to pursue your life objectives (i.e., generative drive). As far as I can tell, this is a desirable state, which is why I engage in this practice.
The first step of reflection is reviewing the "Year Manifesto." This is an annual document I create at the year's start to outline my goals, personal development aspirations, and responses to journaling prompts that help clarify my focus in life. During each weekly review, I scan through most of the Year Manifesto to reconnect with my context and remember my direction. Every two to three years, I also create a more extensive five-year vision manifesto, detailing my long-term aspirations, thoughts, and life visions. I've been using the Self Authoring program for this longer-term planning.
Next, I review the objectives set during the previous week's review. This allows me to assess what I've accomplished, what I've avoided, and what I couldn't complete. It provides another objective data point to inform the reflection component of the weekly review.
Third, I review the past week on the calendar. I look for any patterns of over- or under-scheduling, and assess how well the time blocks set during the previous week's review were respected or overridden by other events.
Finally, I engage in a free-flow writing exercise about the past week, using pen and paper. I begin with the prompt "This week I noticed," and jot down whatever comes to mind, regardless of chronological order. This practice serves to clear my mind and uncover potential insights about the past week, which I can then use as takeaways for what to improve or maintain in my life.
Once the writing is done, I answer this question: “Based on what happened, what lessons can you draw? Is there anything you can start doing, continue doing, or stop doing, for living a more examined life? What didn't go so well? How can you improve?” Sometimes there is something to say about this; other times nothing.
Planning
This is the second section of my weekly review practice. The goal of planning is to lay out everything that's happening during the upcoming week and light-heartedly plan the week ahead. Light-heartedly is important, as far as I am concerned, because clinging to plans creates stiffness and unnecessary rigidity in your expectations and schedule. You can't control time, so let go of the attempt to do it. You can have an idea of your ideal week and what it would look and feel like, and such an idea can inform the way you plan your week and the time you block on the calendar. Some intentional planning provides clarity and stability. Excessive planning and the expectation to not drift away from the plan at all is a delusional attempt to control the uncontrollable, and a great setup for disappointment and misery.
The first step of planning involves listing all projects I'll focus on in the coming week and estimating the progress I aim to achieve for each. I draw these projects from my project management system, which houses all ongoing initiatives in my life. Projects, by definition, are endeavors that require multiple sessions to complete and typically consist of several tasks.
Secondly, I block time on the calendar for deep work sessions (i.e., prolonged stretches of time when I work on a specific project), training sessions, writing, and everything else that I prioritize and I want in the calendar.
Finally, I wrap up the weekly review by organizing tasks and projects. This includes updating project review dates, reassessing project timelines, preparing meeting agendas, tracking business metrics, and reviewing saved content from the past week (such as videos, articles, and podcast episodes that I found meaningful and stored in my knowledge management system).
The whole process takes about 60 minutes for me, and it is an enjoyable ritual I look forward to at this stage of my life. During the week, I can merely focus on executing instead of planning, because the planning is taken care of during the weekly review session.
