In this bonus-length final episode of The Weekly Review, Jean and James wrap up the series by recalling favorite projects finished and lessons learned since the podcast began. Thank you to all of our listeners who have joined us in this journey of personal productivity successes and setbacks. Although we are still not gurus, we hope our experiences have given you some insights and smiles along the way.
In our penultimate episode, we focus on Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals. Jean talks about how the book influenced her thinking about the time she spends. James reflects on the fact that we have spent 249 of these weeks so far making a podcast that we have both enjoyed.
Jean also mentioned the Yonks app, for counting time up or down, and We Croak for random daily reminders of mortality.
In this episode Jean and James talk about recent conversations which have led to a consequential conclusion. The episode also includes topics such as cardboard boxes and getting your taxes done early as well as an implicit example of the word antepenultimate.
In September 2020, we decided to record an “emergency backup” podcast. We wanted to have one recording in the vault that we could publish if we were ever in danger of missing our weekly Friday publication deadline, because we hated the idea of breaking our perfect streak.
Due to various travel plans and a major life disruption (see Episode 246), this is the week we decided to break the glass and use our backup. The topic is evergreen: productivity lessons we learned in childhood.
On Christmas Eve, Jean had to make a hasty departure from her apartment when a water pipe burst. Thankfully, Jean is safe and well although she is dealing with the aftermath of having an unexpected water feature appear in her living room. Jean and James talk about how the experience made Jean think a lot more about the short mental checklist of items to grab on the way out the door in an emergency.
James and Jean decide not to assign themselves to-dos for the week between Christmas and New Year, other than to take stock of what has turned out to be a busy year filled with things that weren’t exactly planned.
In this episode Jean describes her recent experiences helping family members with a cross-country move. Topics include packing, old-school boarding passes, and the importance of being at the correct gate. James swaps one to-do for another to finish a long-outstanding task—plus a little musing on the foibles of human nature.
James updated his car for several reasons, not the least of which is wireless CarPlay support. On the other end of the accessory spectrum, Jean gets yet another CD-player-slot iPhone mount so she can show off her Deep Purple iPhone 14 Pro.
In this episode, Jean describes how her family’s Secret Santa for adults has made the holiday season less stressful and more enjoyable for everyone. James talks about using his trusted system to keep track of gift ideas throughout the year. Jean and James discuss giving experiences instead of things—especially shared experiences like going to a concert or show. Conversation turns to the belated celebration of James’ garage-iversary as well as the practice of receiving a stocking filled with gifts or goodies.
As is our tradition in this season, we take a moment to express our gratitude for the things in our lives that make them better. So much better. To those that celebrate, we hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
A few months back, Jean starting a journey of journaling with a goal of making it a daily habit. After an uneven start, she received some advice to try during a two month experiement. In this episode, Jean reports on her progress. Also, James ends up doing a panoply of weekly todos all in one week.
James talks about a large Black Friday purchase he is making. Jean will not go Black Friday shopping without a specific list, or otherwise she’ll buy things she doesn’t actually need. Dexter the Cat is unmoved. 😼
In this episode Jean and James both talk about unexpected travel plans due to family matters. The conversation turns to not always knowing the correct course of action, especially as events are unfolding. A trusted system can track the actions you want to accomplish—but we still need to do the work of deciding what those actions should be.
In observance of the holiday, James and Jean discuss some hacks for Halloween. Figurative hacks only! 🪓 We also reveal our favorite Halloween treats and films.
This week Jean talks about a book she read recently about managing your home and how it resonated with her. The author, who also writes the blog aslobcomesclean.com, does not claim to be a guru, just someone sharing her insights of things that work or don’t work for her—a philosophy shared by The Weekly Review. Also Jean and James are happily surprised someone left a review of the podcast!
How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind - Dana K. White
James talks about the advantages of his digital photos, the collection that never needs dusting and never takes over the dining room table. Jean had a flashback to her attempt to pare down her contacts. And we have some Siri silliness at the end. 🤖
Jean and James revisit the topic of habits as Jean tries to establish a regular practice of journaling. Jean describes a new habit-tracking app as well as her idea for an extremely focused, simple habit app. James realizes that he continues to form habits—just not the ones he would like. Jean’s nephew has a comment about her use of Chuck and James talks a bit about the OmniFocus 4 beta.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood
James and Jean talk about how things get done even if they don’t necessarily make it to our to-do lists or our trusted systems, and James reports on how his experiment in paring down Active Projects is going.
In this episode Jean describes how she uses the app Due in her productivity workflow and her weekly MEOW. She also talks about a wonderful related discovery she made just before recording the episode. James compares and contrasts his process with Jean’s. Plus, now that they both have a iPhone 14 Pro, James recaps the features to help Jean impress her nephews.
In this grab-bag episode, Jean and James talk about a variety of topics. Jean continues to refine and formalize her M.E.O.W system for doing a weekly review—see the show notes for a link to her blog post about it. Disney fan James attended the D23 Expo and gives a report of his experiences there. And Jean talks about how some tasks, like her recent need to recover from a laptop mishap, are difficult to interleave with other activities and require a focused block of time.
We celebrate our annual tradition of watching the Apple’s iPhone announcements and then chatting about them. If you are looking for in-depth tech analysis of all of Apple’s products and feature updates, you should listen to a different podcast. If you want to know what we are buying, in what colors, and our reasons (or rationalizations), listen in.
This week James and Jean talk about the importance of backup equipment and backup planning for failure, inspired by a major technical issue that made Jean’s MacBook Pro unusable for podcasting.
Work Clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work, and mind by Dan Charnas
In this episode Jean describes about her recent experience in trying Forest Bathing, which James misremembers as Tree Swimming. The conversation turns to related topics such as mindfulness and that our own well-being is an important piece of being productive. James realizes he hasn’t been for a walk in the woods for a long while but is inspired to do so in the near future.
Association of Nature and Forest Therapy
Forest bathing: What it is and why you should try it
Kaiser Permanente
The secret to mindful travel? A walk in the woods
National Geographic
Your Guide To Forest Bathing (Expanded Edition)
by M. Amos Clifford
James and Jean have been traveling quite a bit this summer. We take a moment to review travel hacks and whether we’ve added anything to our travel toolkits in the pandemic era.
In this episode Jean and James talk about donuts of control, including recognizing things beyond your control. For Jean, this includes the heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. James tells the story of how hearing a song in a drug store reminded him things out of your control can be a happy surprise. Plus, a dash of out-of-date slang. 23 Skidoo!
The serendipitous song mentioned in the episode:
JeanLeloup by Simon Kearney on Apple Music