The most critical part of efficient, stress-free productivity management is the weekly review process. This is the piece of the process where we decide what to actually DO! Yet, most of the people I talk to, including myself, find this part of the process the hardest part to implement? Why? Because reviewing doesn't seem as productive as doing. 
 

But how will we know WHAT to most efficiently DO, if we don't review? Reviewing is how we know what to do. Consider the following quote by James Fenimore Cooper:

The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world.

If you've been participating the past few posts, you've collected, processed and organized all of your stuff.  You've impressed yourself or perhaps even overwhelmed yourself with all of the lists you've made of your future "to dos".  It is time now to learn what it means to review.
 
According to David Allen's "Getting Things Done", "everything that might potentially require action must be reviewed on a frequent enough basis to keep your mind from coming back to the job of remembering and reminding." 
 
The weekly review is the time to:

• Gather and process all your "stuff."
• Review your system.
• Update your lists.
• Get clean, clear, current and complete.

If we've done a good job at capturing on paper all of these items that require action in a complete system, we will get the most payoff from the review process.  Then, we can confidently make action decisions taking all the affairs of our life into account.  We will finally know what to do!  
 
Stay tuned next for my next post on the final step in David Allen's process, DO, and learn a model for making choices. For more information about this process, I would be happy to consult with you.  Please use my contact information at left.  Additionally, check out the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.