Planning
Weekly review
A weekly review is half an hour, once a week, when you look back at the week that just ended and plan the next one. The steps, in order: write down what is on your mind, read back through the week, add up your hours, answer three questions, look at next week’s calendar, pick three things that matter, and give each one a day.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The steps
How to do a weekly review
A weekly review has 7 steps and takes 30 minutes. The first four look back at the week that ended. The last three plan the next one.
| Step | Minutes |
|---|---|
| Write down what is on your mindEvery unfinished task and worry. | 5 |
| Read back through the weekGo through last week’s calendar and notes. | 5 |
| Add up your hoursWrite how many went to work, sleep and the rest. | 5 |
| Answer three questionsWhat went well? What did not? What will I change? | 5 |
| Look at next week’s calendarSee what is already planned. | 3 |
| Pick three things that matterChoose what you most want done next week. | 4 |
| Give each one a dayPut each on your calendar, with a time. | 3 |
| The whole review | 30 |
The minutes are our own estimates, and your first weekly review will take longer. The first step is a small brain dump.
Do it at the same time every week. On Friday afternoon, the work week is finished before the weekend starts. Sunday evening gives you a plan for Monday, and it fits well after a Sunday reset.
Try it
Tick off your weekly review
The checklist below has the same steps. Tick each one as you finish it. For the third step, type your week’s hours into the list. It starts with a made-up week, so change the numbers to your own.
The checklist
0 of 7 steps done. About 30m to go.
Your week’s hours
- Hours
- Hours
- Hours
- Hours
- Hours
- Hours
- Hours
Type a number, or use the minus and plus. Hours are rounded to the nearest half hour.
Hours you added up
156h
A week has 168 hours. 12h are not in your list.
Copy your ticks and your hours as text.
Your ticks and hours are not saved. They are gone when you close or reload this page. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
An example
A weekly review example
A weekly review example makes the steps easier to picture. We made this one up. Ana works in an office, and these are the hours she wrote down on a Friday.
| What the hours went to | Hours |
|---|---|
| Sleep | 51h |
| Work | 44h |
| Meals and housework | 20h |
| Phone and TV | 19h |
| Family and friends | 15h |
| Getting to work and back | 6h |
| Exercise | 1h |
| Not written down | 12h |
| The whole week | 168h |
Ana’s list adds up to 156 hours. A week has 168 hours, so 12 are missing, which is normal. The number that surprised her was 19 hours of phone and TV, next to one hour of exercise. Then she answered the three questions.
- What went well?
- I finished the budget on Thursday, a day early.
- What did not?
- I went to the gym once. I had planned to go three times.
- What will I change?
- Gym on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday morning. The phone stays out of the bedroom.
The questions
Weekly reflection questions
Weekly reflection questions help when the three questions in step four are not enough. A weekly reflection is the first half of a weekly review, where you look back. Pick two or three of these.
About the week that ended
- What am I glad I did this week?
- What did I keep putting off?
- Which day was the hardest, and why?
- What took longer than I thought it would?
- Where did more hours go than I wanted?
About the week ahead
- What has to be done by Friday?
- What can I drop, or hand to someone else?
- What could get in the way, and what will I do then?
For more, see the page of questions to ask yourself.
Once a month
How to do a monthly review
A monthly review is a weekly review of the last four weeks together. Do it in place of the weekly review in the last week of the month, and give it an hour.
Read your last four weekly reviews.
Look for the thing that shows up more than once.
Add up the month’s hours.
Four weeks like Ana’s come to 76 hours of phone and TV. A month shows that more clearly than a week.
Pick one thing to change next month.
Put it in next week’s three things. At the end of the year, twelve monthly reviews make a year in review much easier to write.
What studies found
Does a weekly review work?
A weekly review has not been tested under that name, as far as we could find. One study of planning a week comes close.
Workers who planned their week left fewer tasks unfinished.
In one study, workers spent about 8 minutes every Monday morning planning their week. They picked three goals, wrote the steps for the most important one, and thought about what could get in the way. In those weeks they reported fewer unfinished tasks on Friday. They also said they spent less of their free time thinking about what went wrong at work (Uhlig and colleagues, 2023). The study had no comparison group, so part of the change may have another cause.
Where it comes from
Where does the weekly review come from?
The weekly review is a main part of Getting Things Done, a method and a book by David Allen that first came out in 2001. His version has 11 steps for clearing your inboxes and bringing your lists up to date. The one on this page is shorter, and it adds the week’s hours.
The test
How do you know your weekly review is working?
The test
You finished your weekly review in half an hour
in 3 weeks out of 4.
The slow step in a weekly review is adding up the hours. By Friday it is hard to remember what you did on Monday, so most people guess, or skip the step.
A good way to make that step easy is to write or say a few words about each day as it goes, and have the hours counted from that. Most journaling apps keep your words and how the day felt. They do not add up where the week’s hours went.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: work, sleep, family, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So when you sit down for your weekly review, the week’s hours are already added up by category. The app also has targets for your hours and a weekly plan. Add the review itself as a once-a-week habit, and when you write that you did it, the app ticks it off and your streak goes on.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Weekly review0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Weekly review this week: 0m
On 1 of 7 days. The gaps are the days without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where do the findings on this page come from?
The study below was read in full for this page. The steps, the minutes and Ana’s week are our own.
- Uhlig, L., Baumgartner, V., Prem, R., Siestrup, K., Korunka, C. and Kubicek, B. (2023). A field experiment on the effects of weekly planning behaviour on work engagement, unfinished tasks, rumination, and cognitive flexibility. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 96(3), 575 to 598.
- Getting Things Done (gettingthingsdone.com), the David Allen Company (read ). Episode #43: The Power of the GTD Weekly Review.
- Getting Things Done (gettingthingsdone.com), the David Allen Company (read ). About: David Allen and the David Allen Company.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- Year in reviewHow to write your own review of a year: four steps, the questions in five groups, and one made-up year written out.
- Time auditA week of writing down what you did, then adding it up.
- Weekly planner templateSeven days, Sunday first: the plan, what happened, and the week's hours.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a weekly review?
A weekly review is half an hour, once a week, when you look back at the week that just ended and plan the next one. You add up your hours, write what went well and what did not, and pick three things for next week.
How long does a weekly review take?
A weekly review takes about half an hour. The checklist on this page has 7 steps that add up to 30 minutes. Your first one will take longer.
When should I do a weekly review?
Do your weekly review at the same time every week. Friday afternoon and Sunday evening both work well.
What is the difference between a weekly review and a monthly review?
A weekly review looks at one week and plans the next. A monthly review looks at the last four weeks together, adds up the month’s hours, and picks one thing to change.
Is there an app for a weekly review?
A notebook and a calendar are enough for a weekly review. If you want an app, look for one that adds up where your hours went. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers counts your hours by category from what you write or say about each day, so the week’s hours are already added up when you sit down to review it.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.