A weekly review that changes what you do next

The short answer

A useful weekly review has four outputs: an evidence-based status, the one gap that matters most, one decision about what changes, and no more than three scheduled actions. If the review does not change the next calendar, it is only a summary.

Prepare evidence, not impressions

Memory overweights the last event and the strongest emotion. Before interpreting the week, collect a small evidence set: completed goals, calendar, focused work time, key results, decisions made and short daily reflections.

Do not begin by asking whether the week felt productive. Begin by comparing what you intended, what you did and what happened.

Run the 25-minute review

1. 1. Status - 5 minutes Record the important outcomes and the inputs actually completed. Separate facts from interpretation.
2. 2. Gap - 5 minutes Find the largest difference between the current trajectory and the most important longer-term goal.
3. 3. Cause - 5 minutes Classify the gap: capacity, execution, strategy, information, dependency or an unrealistic target.
4. 4. Decision - 5 minutes Choose what to continue, change, stop or test. Write why and what would prove the decision wrong.
5. 5. Commitment - 5 minutes Schedule at most three actions that attack the gap. Give each a visible definition of done.

Avoid the completion-rate trap

A high completion rate is not automatically good. Completing twenty low-value tasks can hide the fact that the decisive action was avoided. Weight goals by their connection to the current constraint and to a longer-term objective.

The most useful question is not what remains unfinished. It is: which unfinished or missing action most changes the probability of the long-term result?

Questions

How long should a weekly review take?

Twenty to thirty minutes is enough if the underlying goals, calendar and daily evidence are already captured.

When should I do it?

Use the same time each week, late enough to include the week and early enough to change the next one.

What is the final output?

One current status, one most important gap, one decision and no more than three scheduled actions.