The magic of regular reviews
Summary
- A weekly review is a powerful way to look back and strategise the future
Details
- Look back, but also plan ahead
- monitoring what we do helps us to adjust our future
References
Quotes
The main idea is that you engineer pit stops into your life where you pause, look back, strategise, plan ahead.
2 main things need to happen at every weekly review - you need to review (obviously) and then use that review to plan ahead (maybe not that obvious but very important).
I did this week after week after week. Within the first few weeks itself, I started getting answers to important questions - How was I spending my time? Where was most of my energy going? Was I spending my time on activities that replenished my energy or drained it?
I applied what I found out each week to how I planned the following week. For example, if I saw that the reason that I couldn't get my goals done a particular week is because I was engaged socially (house parties, catching up with friends), I would try and not commit to any social meetings the following 1-2 weeks. Or if I saw that my strategy of getting an evening run in when I take a break from work was not working out, I would plan to shift my run timings to the morning.
The goals-review feedback loop is incomplete without action. The point of setting goals is to get them done. Reviewing is how you figure out if you're working on the stuff you should be working on and if not, reviewing is what will help you figure out what's wrong. But a third and crucial step remains after all this, which is to do something about what you are learning through these reviews.