It’s the first day of Fall 2024 on this warm Sunday. I just used my weekly review system to recalibrate, and now is the perfect time to share the details with you, my fellow coaches and high-achievers.
I love the process and, more importantly, the results it delivers. If you are not taking time to look back at your week and organize the next week, you are missing a key component of success. And I’m thrilled to share why everything I know about it with you.
Buckle up and keep on reading.
The Importance of a Weekly Review System
Before I dive into the details of my system, let’s discuss weekly reviews in general.
Do they really matter? And why?
Yes. They matter a lot.
In my professional and personal opinion, the weekly review is the key. This is the routine that allows you to align your daily actions with your big, hairy, audacious goals.
Here is the thing. When you set a goal, whether it’s something you want to achieve in a few months, a year, or 3 years, the result could be scary. It should actually feel a bit overwhelming and daunting. Because you are saying that in 12 months you want to climb a mountain, so to speak.
Now, while having goals is important and keeping an eye on the destination matters, it can be very discouraging. For example, I want to reach ~145lbs, and as of the writing of this blog post, I’m at ~190lbs. Looking at the goal daily can feel discouraging. It seems so far away.
And this is where the weekly review comes into play. It allows you to look at your goal only once a week to ensure you are moving in the right direction.
It’s like the gyroscope used to ensure that a vehicle (from airplanes to drones) is headed in the intended direction.
So, yes, weekly reviews matter a lot. And I’m about to share mine. Ready?
The System I Use
My weekly review system is largely based on the Living Your Best Year Ever by Darren Hardy. I don’t have any affiliation with this program and I’m only sharing it because I love the process and the results.
Review
It all starts with the review. The key questions you want to ask yourself as part of this process are:
- What worked well this week?
- What didn’t work well?
- What should I keep doing, stop doing, start doing?
After reading “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod, I also started reviewing my journal entries every Sunday as part of my weekly review system. Reading through my notes once a week allows me to start seeing patterns. And the patterns I see enable me to answer the third question above – what I should keep doing, stop doing, and start doing.
So, I highly recommend you review your journal, planner, or whatever you use once a week.
Adjust & Plan
The next part of the process is adjusting and planning.
Based on your review and your goals, what are you doing next week?
What are your most important tasks?
How about your key meetings?
Planning your week allows you to adjust your direction and also manage your workload. For example, let’s say you are working on a new lead magnet that you want to launch in a month. Through your weekly review and planning, you can see that this week, you only need to outline the freebie. Or, you might find out that due to procrastinating, you actually need to outline the freebie and create a first draft.
What do I Review?
I don’t use my weekly review system for all areas of my life. I only use it for the three big goals I’m focusing on this year:
- Business Goal
- Health Goal
- Socializing Goal
That’s it. I have one SMART goal in each of these areas, and every Sunday, I review my progress and re-align my focus for the week ahead.
Oh, I also have another type of review on Sundays – financial. It’s a bit different, and I’ll share more about it in the future, but, in a nutshell, I review my spending and income for the week and manually reconcile all my accounts – business and personal. This allows me to stay in control and know where I am financially at any given time.
Your Turn
If you have a weekly review system, share what it is and how it helps you.
If you don’t have it, start one now. You can do this whole thing of weekly review, adjust, and plan in an hour or so. While I’ve chosen to complete it on Sundays, I also know of people who do this on Monday mornings.
Start small and make the system yours over time.
