Weekly Review in GTD
Why is the weekly review so frightening? I know people who can’t bear to implement a full GTD system because of what the weekly review represents for them.
It’s frightening because it’s time out of life – resisting the pressure of events that carry us through the day.
More important, it’s a confrontation with promises I’ve made myself. If I my GTD system is watertight, then every initiative will have been noted as project. Every next action step will be in there. In the weekly review, I see my promises, and am confronted with what I’ve done with them. Why does this project have no next action? Maybe I didn’t really mean it, that I wanted that to happen. Why has this N.A. been on my list for 3 months? Is it not actually a single action but a multi-step project?Recently, I’ve started trying to integrate higher horizons. I haven’t even started on that audit yet – but I can feel it coming: why does this area of focus not have any projects… Why does this goal not have an area of focus?
Basically, the weekly review brings me into connection with my intentions. Writing a lovely purpose-statement can be just that – lovely. Noting things down on lists can just be displacement activity. Getting everything connected and being honest about my intentions means meeting myself. Just like the Guardian of the Threshold says: until I take responsibility for what I am, he will seem a monster. I suppose I’ll stop feeling frightened of the weekly review when I’m prepared to take full responsibility for every commitment I make to myself and to others. The moment when one has finished the Review always feels a bit like that.
