{"id":4015,"date":"2010-08-05T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T17:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/?p=4015"},"modified":"2014-10-18T17:51:25","modified_gmt":"2014-10-19T00:51:25","slug":"how-i-learned-to-be-my-own-assistant-and-love-the-gtd-weekly-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/08\/how-i-learned-to-be-my-own-assistant-and-love-the-gtd-weekly-review\/","title":{"rendered":"How I learned to be my own assistant and love the GTD Weekly Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Community Contribution from Carolyn J. Sullivan about her experience with the GTD Weekly Review. We would love to hear your experience with the Weekly Review in the comments.
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I\u2019ve been using GTD principles since I was first introduced to them in 1994-95. I was part of a consulting group at Polaroid responsible for supporting cross-functional new product development teams in the areas of effectiveness, organizational learning, and functional expertise. After some research, a colleague found the Time\/Design system, and before long we had arranged for David Allen to come in and deliver what was then called the \u201cMAP Seminar.\u201d I don\u2019t exaggerate when I say it changed my life, and I have applied the questions \u201cWhat\u2019s the desired outcome?\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s the next action?\u201d to every conceivable personal and professional issue since.<\/p>\n

The thing that astounds me most about GTD is the fact that, 25 years later, I discover nuances and have epiphanies on a regular basis – this is truly an organic approach that grows with the user. My latest epiphany came a few weeks ago and concerns the dreaded Weekly Review.<\/em> I thought: \u201cIf I feel stress in any given week, it\u2019s because I\u2019m trying to think about several \u2018big pictures\u2019 while simultaneously reigning in the chaos that threatens to run away with my sanity!\u201d I realized that my ability to think clearly during the ebb and flow of my days, my ability to be<\/em> with any input that arises for me, is directly proportional to the time I\u2019ve spent that week in reflection. <\/strong>On a daily basis, I am calmer and more focused when I meditate in the morning. When I say \u201cmeditate,\u201d I am using the term loosely – I mean that I\u2019ve been able to have some quiet, non-thinking time either sitting and watching my breath, or perhaps staring out the window or writing in a stream of consciousness way. When I don\u2019t have that little buffer between my sleep state and my full-on, awake, \u201chandling things\u201d state, then I find I\u2019m a little off-kilter.<\/p>\n

On a weekly basis, I have the Weekly Review. It is a time to reflect, and not do.<\/em> Now when I do my Weekly Review, I treat it as a real<\/em> meeting with a real <\/em>assistant. When I frame the weekly review as a session, during which I get to delegate to an assistant (rather than figuring out what I need to do<\/em>) then it takes on a liberating quality instead of feeling like another should.<\/em> I suppose you could really file this approach under \u201cacting as if,\u201d but whatever you want to call it, it works for me. When I\u2019m delegating to someone, I have to be very clear as to what I want them to do. I can\u2019t vaguely say \u201cWork on the Thompson Project.\u201d I need to give that person specific tasks to accomplish. Tasks that I can review with them the following<\/em> week in order to determine how much progress has been made. That way I can re-calibrate and re-negotiate if necessary based on \u201cour\u201d available resources. If it seems as though I\u2019ve been over-loading my assistant, and only a few of the intended tasks have been accomplished, then it\u2019s time to take a step back and see why<\/em> this might be so, and how we might fix it. Obviously this approach can work extremely well between a person and their flesh-and-blood assistant. But it\u2019s an approach that has made a light year of difference in the effectiveness of my own self-review. The Weekly Review becomes less emotionally charged; less about beating up on myself for what I didn\u2019t do, and more about setting myself up for success.<\/p>\n

There is nothing<\/em> like the feeling when I\u2019ve thought through everything<\/em> on my plate, have decided what needs active attention and what can be put on the back burner, and have subsequently identified precisely<\/em> what needs to happen to move it all forward.<\/strong> It allows me to be present<\/em> in each moment, and to move into the daily role of \u201cself-assistant\u201d – fulfilling my \u201cmanager\u2019s\u201d requests and not really worrying about much beyond getting things done<\/em>. How many of us who have been managers haven\u2019t longed for the day when we didn\u2019t have to \u201cworry about stuff all the time\u201d?! The Weekly Review, done consistently and with perhaps a little internal role-playing, has given me the best of both worlds.\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Carolyn Sullivan is Director of Marketing for <\/em>Rosewalker Design Project<\/a>, which specializes in antique restoration and the creation of mixed media decorative arts. She also works a full 40-hour-plus work week as an Executive Assistant for an international logistics company. She loves to write and play music, read, watch films, and just <\/em>be.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Community Contribution from Carolyn J. Sullivan about her experience with the GTD Weekly Review. We would love to hear your experience with the Weekly Review in the comments. I\u2019ve been using GTD principles since I was first introduced to them in 1994-95. I was part of a consulting group at Polaroid responsible for supporting … <\/p>\n