The Weekly Review

James and Jean talk about that awkward year-end period, wedged between two major holidays in the U.S. (not counting Black Friday and Cyber Monday), when important year-end matters vie for attention with holiday-related shopping and travel. How do you stay on track during these challenging seasons? (No, seriously, it’s not a rhetorical question. Help us out with your strategies!)

The Depth of Our Madness, Focused podcast, Episode 85, Oct. 29, 2019.

The FOCUSED 2020 Wall Calendar. “Life is more than cranking widgets.”

During this Thanksgiving week episode Jean and James talk about things they are thankful for. This includes their trusted systems which not only help them accomplish things but also lets them have piece of mind when spending time with family and friends.

The conversation veers into technology more than originally intended: James is very thankful for his new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Jean contemplates getting some Air Pods Pro and James unveils his new service to help people rationalize buying things they want to buy anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our listeners!

In this episode Jean and James talk about different modes of operation. James observes a long-standing pattern in his behavior that automatically flips between project-focus and organizational-focus. Jean and James brainstorm some ways to try to keep this pattern from causing weekly reviews and trusted system updates from slipping.

Plus, a karaoke discussion about projects versus external lists as well as the odd karaoke song selection at the resort where Jean and James attended the Release Notes conference last month.

Jean attended WordCamp Seattle over the weekend to catch up with the latest topics of interest in the WordPress user community. A session on task management caught her attention, so she attended and got some fresh perspective from a non-Getting Things Done point of view.

Many thanks to Annie LaCroix of Brainy Boss for an excellent and thought-provoking presentation.

In this episode, Jean and James talk about some items that have on their project lists for a long time, progress made, next actions taken, and the wonderful feeling of finally completing a long-running project. Also, James celebrates an anniversary and Jean describes how she is using OmniFocus to make the transition back to activity from convelescence.

This week, James and Jean talk about a tool used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: “15 Styles of Distorted Thinking,” a list of common traps our minds fall into when assessing reality, and how those traps prevent us from having the stress-free approach to productivity we are seeking.

Disclaimer: as we frequently like to say, we are not gurus. We are not experts on productivity or psychology. We are just two friends talking about what works for us.

15 Styles of Distorted Thinking

PDF: 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking
Fits on one page, can be printed and used with a ticker file or hung up on your refrigerator

This episode Jean and James talk about getting back into the groove. As Jean continues to recover from her knee injury, getting back in the groove includes picking up her first Lyft passenger in many months and all the little steps that took including finding a power cable. For James, the seemingly simple task of trading in an iPhone threw him out of his groove for a while. Also, a brief poorly-informed discussion of the space program.

Groove is in the Heart (Apple Music)

This week, James and Jean talk about big projects that have been on their lists a while and finally got completed. Why a project finally gets traction is a good question. Deadlines can be helpful (or be flouted). Sometimes the right time and motivation present themselves. In any case, the clearer your next actions are, the more likely your projects move forward.

Still coping with post-travel and time zone exhaustion, Jean and James recap some of their favorite things about attending the Release Notes Conference in Mexico. We managed to check off goals both personal and productive at a gathering that supports both.

Release Notes Conference 2019

TWR 71: Processing That Giant Stack of Physical Email

NY Times: How To Cut Down On Unwanted Junk Mail

WALT: Watched Animation List Tracker

For this international episode, James was in Cancun in advance of the Release Notes conference while Jean was in still in Portland getting packed and ready to come to the conference. Jean and James talk about issues with out-of-date packing lists, strategies for updating external checklists like packing lists, and how Jean’s current mobility issues have affected her travel plans and packing list.

Is there a packing list app that you love using? We’d love to hear about it as well as any tips, tricks, or lifehacks regarding packing lists. Feel free to contact us on Micro.blog or Twitter at @theweeklyreview or send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm.

Release Notes Conference

James and Jean are on a streak of doing their weekly reviews! As we reread the original GTD book, we take a closer look at weekly review “trigger” lists offered by the author and others, and come up with some modifications of our own for ferreting out uncaptured open loop items.

Getting Things Done by David Allen (audio book)

Building Your OmniFocus Workflow by Ryan Dotson and Rosemary Orchard

In this episode find out if Jean and James’ remarkable weekly review streak continues. Since it’s iPhone season, the discussion naturally turns to the new iPhones and Apple Watches, favorite new features in the new products and iOS 13 and whether to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

About a year ago OmniFocus 3 for Mac added the ability to add multiple tags to projects and actions. James recently reviewed all of the tags he has created over the past twelve month.

In this episode James shares his discoveries with Jean, talking about tags he’s found useful and some he’s found to be completely useless. Jean shares thoughts on her use of tags. James describes a new way he is using flags in Omnifocus and Jean and James briefly discuss using guinea pigs and cats as organic reminder systems.

OmniFocus

James and Jean have completed their weekly reviews for two weeks in a row! 🎉

This week we talk about the importance of defining projects. Jean has a bad habit of saving projects as individual actions and not spelling out the steps. Without assigning clear “next actions,” your weekly review will cease to inspire you to get anything done. By clarifying the next step for each project, you’ll never stymied by the question “What should I do now?”

How does it feel to do a weekly review after a long hiatus? That’s the topic of discussion for this episode as Jean and James discuss doing their first weekly review in a while. Jean describes her strategy to getting things done until she is back on her feet again. James reveals how many projects he has in OmniFocus. Jean and James give an update on their efforts to reduce the amount of physical mail they receive.

Direct Marketing Association DMA Choice

Opt Out of Prescreened Credit Offers

There are some great online tools to deal with email inboxes, but what can be done about all the paper mail that comes to our doorstep? Jean and James talk about how they cope with that daunting stack of envelopes, flyers, and catalogs that can pile up especially during extended periods of travel, and discuss solutions for cutting down the amount of junk mail received.

FTC: Stopping Unsolicited Mail, Phone Calls, and Email

NY Times: How To Cut Down On Unwanted Junk Mail

Direct Marketing Association DMA Choice

Opt Out of Prescreened Credit Offers

Paper Karma app

While criss-crossing the country in July, James listened to the Getting Things Done audio book. In this episode, James talks about his newly refined thoughts about his trusted system and how hearing about GTD through a different medium helped him to understand the system in a different way. Jean and James recommit to doing some form of weekly review each week.

This week we turn our focus from Jean’s “tumble in Trieste” to James’ latest adventure in the Canadian maritime province of New Brunswick, where his father was born and raised. After the death of his father last year, James and his sister had many of the typical issues to deal with, plus one unique challenge: how do you best dispose of a U.S.-registered automobile in Canada? (Hint: Roadtrip!)

This episode follows up on Jean’s mishap on her trip with Jean discussing some reflections and lessons learned. Topics range from travel-specific subjects like travel insurance and packing for a day trip to more universal thoughts like being willing to accept help when offered and trying to keep a positive attitude even when things have taken an unexpected turn for the worse.

In this episode Jean tells the story of her ill-fated day trip to Trieste, where she injured herself and had to cut short her summer in Slovenia. Jean talks about her odyssey from an Italian piazza to her arrival back home in Portland, Oregon. Along the way, a few thoughts and tips on what you might want to bring on a day trip even if you are trying to travel light.

For this episode, Jean is in Slovenia and James is about to take a trip to the east coast.

Jean talks about the possibility of declaring OmniFocus Bankruptcy. James suggests that it would be a shame to lose all the work already done capturing items into the trusted system. Jean and James talk about handling to-do items that you will definitely not be able to get to when on a trip.

Finally, a little more about things you can’t wait until the last minute to do, as well as the fate of traveler’s checks.

UPDATE: This past weekend, Jean tripped and tore a tendon in her left knee while on her trip to Slovenia. She had to return home early due to the injury and is now back in Portland. You can send support and well-wishes to Jean via The Weekly Review or directly at @macgenie on Micro.blog or Twitter.

This episode was recorded before Jean’s injury.

Lep pozdrav iz Ljubljane! / Greetings from Ljubljana! 🇸🇮

In our first intercontinental podcast episode, Jean talks about how living away from home, either in a hotel or a small apartment, makes it possible to form new habits that can stay in place once you get back. It’s a lot easier to:

• stay decluttered when your place is small

• prepare (not necessarily cook!) three simple meals a day when your kitchen is minimal

• walk 3-4 miles per day when you don’t have a car.

Leaving things to the last minute is the bête noire of the organized person, right? But Jean and James have found that sometimes the last minute can be your friend, as long as you are cognizant of what absolutely must be settled in advance. Sometimes the choices you make at the last minute can surprise and delight you.

Photo: New fleece cage liner purchased for the guinea pigs in a very whimsical pattern, a last minute choice over DIY fleece liners, which would have been a boring solid dark color.

James is finding that even thought it has been a number of weeks since WWDC, he is still living in his head, not checking in with his trusted system, but still feeling productive. Jean talks about creating a daily ‘punch list’ of items to do on that particular day.

Jean makes the suggestion of setting an OmniFocus reminder to check OmniFocus daily. James is revisiting the book The Power of Habit to try to turn a daily check-in with his trusted system into a daily habit, even when he’s off in ‘in my head’ land.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Libby App

Jean leads off a discussion about the delight of making spontaneous plans and how to decide whether they are feasible in the context of all our other commitments. Making time to be with the people you love has become Jean’s top criteria when deciding whether to make new plans on the spur of the moment. James points out that GTD is designed to make spontaneous joy possible, not to squelch it.

Photo: Spontaneous friends: Jean with New Zealand friends Devon and Maryanne, hosted by LA friends Allison, and Steve