A weekly review for your projects in twenty minutes

A weekly review is a short, fixed moment where you look at all your projects and decide what matters next. It is the habit that keeps a simple system simple. Without it, lists slowly fill with stale tickets, and you stop trusting them. With it, twenty minutes a week is usually enough to stay on top of everything you run.

Where the idea comes from

The weekly review is best known from Getting Things Done by David Allen, where it is the step that holds the rest of the method together. His version covers your whole life and can take a while. This one is narrower: your projects and their tickets. It is meant to be quick enough that you actually do it.

Before you start

• Pick a fixed time. Friday afternoon or Sunday evening both work. The same slot every week matters more than which slot.
• Set a timer for twenty minutes. If you run out of time, stop anyway. A short review every week beats a perfect one every month.
• Do it where you can see all projects. A laptop or a phone is fine, as long as the whole list is in one place.

The checklist, per project

Go through your active projects one at a time. For each one, work down this list. It gets fast after the second or third week.

1. Read the open tickets. Just the titles, top to bottom. You are looking for anything that surprises you.
2. Close what is done. Work often gets finished without the ticket being updated. Mark it done now, with a one-line note if it helps future you.
3. Cancel what you will not do. Be honest. A ticket that has sat untouched for two months and still does not feel important can be cancelled. It keeps its history, it just stops cluttering the list.
4. Look at everything blocked. For each blocked ticket, check what it was waiting for. Has the reply come? Can you make the decision now? Unblock what you can.
5. Read what the agent reported. If an AI agent works on the project, read the new comments and anything it marked blocked or done. Reply where it is waiting on you.
6. Star this week's tickets. Pick one to three tickets that matter most this week. Remove stars from last week's that no longer do.
7. Check the next step. Make sure there is at least one ticket that is small and clear enough to start in a spare hour.

Then move to the next project.

Then, once for the whole list

After the active projects, spend a minute or two on the list of projects itself:

• Is anything active that did not move at all? Two weeks without progress is a sign. Either the next step is unclear, or the project should be parked for now.
• Should a parked project come back? If one keeps coming to mind, swap it in, and park something else to keep the number of active projects down.
• Is there a project that is really finished? Close its last tickets and enjoy it for a second.

If you run more than a couple of projects, the guide on how to manage multiple projects explains why limiting the active ones helps.

What to leave out

This is not the time to do the work. If you find a ticket that takes two minutes, it is tempting to just do it. Resist, or the twenty minutes becomes two hours and next week you skip the review. Write a note and move on.

It is also not the time to redesign your system. If you notice that you want new labels or a new status, write it down as a ticket and deal with it later.

Reviewing an agent's work

If you work with an AI agent, this is also where you stay in charge of it. During the week the agent files tickets, writes progress in threads, and marks things done. That is useful, but it should not replace your judgement.

A few questions to ask once a week:

• Did the agent file several tickets for the same problem? Cancel the duplicates.
• Is something marked done that you have not checked? Check it, or ask in the thread.
• Is the agent waiting on a decision from you? Those blocked tickets are the most valuable ones to answer.

More on keeping that balance in human in the loop for AI agents.

A version to copy

Weekly review, 20 minutes

For each active project:
[ ] Read open tickets
[ ] Close what is done
[ ] Cancel what I will not do
[ ] Unblock what I can
[ ] Read what the agent reported, reply
[ ] Star 1 to 3 tickets for this week
[ ] Make sure there is a clear next ticket

For the project list:
[ ] Park anything that did not move
[ ] Bring back a parked project if it matters now
[ ] Close projects that are finished

Keep it small

A weekly review works because it is short and regular. It is the habit that holds personal project management together. The tool should make it quick to see what is open, what is blocked, and what changed. Very Simple Projects is a simple personal project management app built around that: every project in one list, numbered tickets with a few statuses, a star for what matters, and a thread on each ticket where you and your agent keep the trail. It costs $0.99 a month, with the first month free.