This week, we ask the question: how exactly did our parents manage their tasks? Both James and Jean have parents who held jobs, raised children, got advanced degrees, and successfully retired without the benefit of OmniFocus or GTD. We reminisce about what organizational strategies we remember from our childhoods, how our parents’ examples influenced us, and how life was simpler back then.
In this episode Jean and James set out to talk about including follow-up tasks in projects to make sure loose ends are tied up. But James‘ friend Dexter the cat has other plans and becomes an unexpected special guest. James coaxes him to share some of his feline organizational tips while other topics range from some OmniFocus wishlist items to unexpected trips.
Our contest is still on:
Send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm with the subject “Weekly Review Week Guess” and pick the Sunday of the week that you think James will actually complete a full weekly review. The correct guess will score something fun from the many cool pop culture tchotchkes at his house.
We start off this year answering a listener question about when and why to use Due versus Omnifocus for reminders. James confesses he still hasn’t done his weekly review and talks about why he is okay with that, while Jean flies under the radar and doesn’t even mention her weekly review (which she hasn’t done either). We wrap up with some travel hacking tips and then James surprises us all by offering prizes for guessing which week he will do that weekly review.
It’s the beginning of a brand new year and in this episode Jean and James take a look back at 2019 with some resolutions and accomplishments and look forward to getting things done in 2020. Topics include getting away from or sticking with social media platforms and getting a new health care plan.
The holiday season can be a time to gather together with those we care about. It can also be a season of not only giving, but receiving. In this episode, Jean and James talk about receiving gifts that can become projects in and of themselves. Topics include everything from clothing in the wrong size, to making a cash gift more personally meaningful, to thoughts on how to handle a gift from someone you care about that leaves you scratching your head with what to do with it.
The holiday season is in full swing. Did you forget to get yourself a gift? Here’s a suggestion.
As we prepare to enter these too busy times, don’t forget to give yourself the gift of spending some time doing absolutely nothing this season.
Patrick Rhone, Rhoneisms, December 1, 2019
The Case For Doing Nothing, Olga Mecking, New York Times, April 29, 2019
We have a special guest this week: David Sparks from the podcast Focused, among many others. David and his co-host Mike Schmitz recently did an episode on the best use of calendars, and we asked David to talk about some of his favorite calendar strategies, including hyperscheduling and a year-at-a-glance wall calendar.
David and Mike even designed a special 2020 FOCUSED Wall Calendar, available for purchase from NeuYear. Jean bought one, and is looking forward to 2020 a little bit more now.
Thanks again, David, for coming on our podcast.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!)