2009/05/29

#tweekly summary

Kelly hosted a really useful one-hour Weekly review on Twitter yesterday (6pm BST). Every five miutes or so, Kelly would fire out a tweet marching us throught the 11 steps of the GTD weekly review. Why was this a valuable session (as opposed to following the book by oneself on a Friday pm. say):

  1. Having a defined public time was a great way of getting people to actually do the review. For hours, in some cases days, before the event, tweets were going out creating a real buzz.
  2. In addition to someone keeping the time (Kelly), she also sent out advice with each 5 minute period to prompt ( "No waiting on list? Check your sent mail!")
  3. Kelly was able to answer folks questions - for example, when someone expressed a fear of the "mind sweep" adding too many new to-dos, Kelly was able to offer reassurance!
I'm sure these sessions are not strictly necesary, but the crowd and the great advice/coaching are great motivators - with greater experience I'm sure people will be more suceessful in doing Wekly Reviews alone.

Here is a summary ( with helpful tips) from the Tweets:

* GET CLEAR
** Collect loose papers and materials
*** Gather everything that's loose into an Inbox, Tray or folder.
** Get “In” to zero
*** a good way to process in is 4D's: Delete it, Do it (under 2 mins), Delegate it, Defer it (onto a list)
** Empty your head
*** Open a Word doc, or grab and pad and clear your head for 5 minutes
*** SOME MINDSWEEP TRIGGERS: Family, health, meetings you've had, meetings you're going to have...
*** MORE MINDSWEEP TRIGGERS: Your direct reports, finances, 401k, the dog, your car, health appts you've been putting off...
* GET CURRENT
** Review Action Lists
** Review past calendar data
*** Many times reviewing your old calendar (go back about 3 wks) catches things you meant to do. 3 more mins left)
** Review upcoming calendar
*** REVIEW UPCOMING CALENDAR TIP: if you find something you need to process, you can add to your mindsweep for now.
*** if you don't get anything on reviewing your calendar, try going further out. Recurring Tasks are great for calendar
** Review Waiting For list
*** if you've got a list review it. If you don't have one, what are you waiting on?
*** WAITING FOR TIP: Review your email Sent folder. Usually some waiting for's hiding in there.
** Review Project (and larger outcome) lists
*** Projects are your outcomes that require more than one action step
*** PROJECT TIP: If you are not willing to take any next action on a current project, are you sure it's not Someday/Maybe?
*** PROJECT TIP: Most people we coach have 30-100 current personal & professional projects. Don't be surprised!
*** PROJECT TIP: Projects are typically completed within 18 mos. If you can NEVER mark it done, it's likely an Area of Focus.
** Review any relevant checklists
*** birthday checklists? travel checklists? home mntce?
*** CHECKLIST TIP: Maybe you want to CREATE a checklist? Anything recurring that would be good? What to always pack for vacation?
* GET CREATIVE
** Review Someday/Maybe
*** If you have one, update it. If you don't have one, create it!
*** SOMEDAY TIP: You'll trust S/M list(s) more if you know you're actually going to review them again. Otherwise they'll die.
*** SOMEDAY /MAYBE TIP: S/M is not just a "fantasy wish" list. It can be a fantastic place to stage "not yet" projects.
** Be creative & courageous
*** Any new thought-provoking, creative, risk taking ideas to add to your system?
*** What's REALLY got your attention in your job, family, environment? This is the last step!

2 comments:

amoyag said...

Nice work. Thanks for this summary!

kbm said...

A pleasure!