Tim Cross <theophil...@gmail.com> writes: > My point was not that you don't need to review on a regular basis. > Reviewing your tasks and projects regularly is essential. My point was > that creating a todo task telling you to review your tasks/projects is > an example of a 'noise' task.
I guess that it depends on what you mean by review. I would not call it a 'noise', but rather a routine. A non-trivial one that requires deep focus. Having the review routine as a repeated task "review projects" is not very useful by itself. However, you can make such task useful by using checklists: For example: https://gist.github.com/mwfogleman/fbec1cc11f9eaac5e5d36b92c671ec8b Or the one I use: - [ ] Commit all the changes before the review - [ ] Check clocking data for past week using the java app elisp:org-analyzer-start This data will reflect my actual performance, not the way I feel.\\ Related: [[id:benkuhn_my_weekl_review_habit_benkuh][[benkuhn] My Weekly Review Habit]] - [ ] add to [[clock-summary][summary table]] - [ ] Think about undesired actions I have made during the week. What was the trigger for the actions? Reward? Can I avoid the trigger? Can I change the action? Remove reward? [[id:duhigg2012the][Duhigg, Charles [Random House] (2012) The power of habit : why we do what we do in life and business]] - [ ] Am I happy with the time spend on work? - [ ] If not, should I mark some of the areas or common projects SOMEDAY? - [ ] If I feel that I worked too much, but it is not true, consider reducing the number of active work tasks - [ ] [[elisp:org-analyzer-stop]] - [ ] Collect all new legal documents and save them to org-mode - [ ] Add all new contacts to org-contacts - [ ] Commit and push all changed repositories elisp:magit-list-repositories - [ ] Clear the Mobiscribe notes - [ ] Make sure that all the zettels are in sync with org-mode - [ ] Copy the card number as =CUSTOM_ID= - [ ] Copy creation date as =CREATED= - [ ] mark sorted out cards by separator marker - [ ] Process all the REVIEW tasks (link them). If need many more notes, mark them NEXT again - [ ] Look at entire agenda for today =g a v= - [ ] check tasks to archive - [ ] commit the changes - [ ] check *active projects*. Make sure that nothing falls out of control - [ ] check work projects - [ ] check non-work projects - [ ] Check *WAITING and HOLD projects*, move them to someday if necessary - [ ] check *WAITING and HOLD tasks*, mark them NEXT if need to followup (make *note*) - [ ] check ongoing and NEXT tasks, make sure that they have a concrete NEXT action - [ ] make sure that the number of active project for *next week* is manageable. Mark/unmark them HOLD otherwise. I should really set a small number of projects to avoid distracting my attention into too many things at the same time [[id:benkuhn_atten_is_your_scarc_resour_benkuh][[benkuhn] Attention Is Your Scarcest Resource | Benkuhn.net]] - [ ] check SOMEDAY projects and consider if I need to start/continue working on them - [ ] Check next week's agenda - [ ] Schedule deadlines for 3 big tasks (goals) to be finished next week. [[id:small-hack-my-daily-plan-acf][[König von Haunstetten] #daily_goal_tasks A small hack for my daily plan]] If there are no tasks, create them. - [ ] check next month's calendar - [ ] commit all the changes made during the review > A common beginner error I've seen is for people to be so impressed with > org-mode, they decide to create tasks, templates and projects which map > out every aspect of their life. The problem with doing this is that you > then create additional work for yourself in managing these tasks and you > run the risk of being overwhelmed - you have so many tasks that instead > of making your life easier, you now become paralysed by too many task > choices. You are right, which is why I stress on limiting the number of tasks in agenda. However, I would not call review as something that should not be listed in agenda. It requires a good several hours and should be taken into account when planning the day. Best, Ihor