How to do a Weekly Self Review in 11 steps
It’s weeks like this that I am very thankful for my weekly self review habit.
Let me tell you. This week felt like an absolute slog through quicksand. I felt exhausted all week. I did not have the amount of peace and happiness that I would like. I did not sleep great. It felt as if every action I took was met with great resistance.
Now, had I just gone with how I felt about the past week I would have chalked that up to a net loss. I would have viewed it as a “bad” week. And, maybe, that could have lingered into the week ahead. I don’t know. But, I do know that feelings like that tend to build some momentum if left unchecked.
This is exactly why I am thankful for the habit of doing a weekly self review. I like to use a daily values-based checklist. This is the main portion of my weekly self review (If you aren’t using some sort of daily handwritten checklist I suggest you start one). My daily checklist is my data collection process. I am collecting data on myself over the course of the week.
Then, on Saturday or Sunday (usually Sunday) I take a look back at my recorded data from the week. I have a specific set of criteria that I am reviewing for each Sunday.
These are the things I am looking for each Sunday:
An Example Weekly Review Template
Did I write in my flow journal?
Did I have a “high level” flow state?
Did I exercise at high intensity 3 times?
Did I engage in Active Recovery 3 times? (walk, sauna, massage, etc.)
Did I train a weakness of mine? (30 minutes)
Did I spend at least 30 minutes getting feedback from trusted people?
Did I have at least 2 hours of social life?
Valued Actions completed (? out of 35) (5 values times 7 days)
Gratitude Practice completed (? out of 7 days)
Formal Mindfulness practice completed (? out of 7 days)
Did I write a blog post?
This is the same outline I use every time. I wrote it out and it is my bookmark in my daily journal so I constantly see it. I have found this is a great way to remind myself to do the weekly self review.
Having a weekly self review habit serves a few purposes.
Faster Course Correction
Firstly, a weekly self review helps you get back on track faster if you fall off. The data you collect on your desired targets throughout the week gives you clear information about how you are doing. Then on your self review day you can gather that data and it tells you the story of your past week.
If you find that your valued actions were low, you can be more conscious of that and put more effort into them next week.
More Accurate Reflection
This was exactly me this week. Like I said earlier. This week was not great at all. But, thankfully this weekly self review habit showed me that I actually completed a high amount of my desired valued actions. More than the previous 3 weeks!
Instead of feeling defeated or down on myself, I can now see accurately that I actually have a very good week as far as my valued living goes.
This is in line with what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy teaches. In ACT we focus on living better not trying to “feel better”. Trying to feel better leads us to focus too much on what is going wrong. A better option is to focus on living out your values and the feeling better tends to take care of itself.
Faster Progress
Research shows that simply tracking a behavior can account for up to 40% of the changes that are made. Put another way. Collecting data on yourself helps you reach your goals faster. This is because tracking things gives us clear feedback. And, feedback is a vital piece of progress. Without feedback we feel lost. Unsure of how well or poorly we are doing.
A weekly self review is your dose of accurate feedback. That feedback will tell you how well or how not well you are doing. This feedback then helps you progress more quickly.
So, don’t allow your emotions or feelings to be the only thing that influences how you feel about the past week. Yes, they are a piece of the puzzle, but a weekly self review practice can provide you with some very helpful information!
For more posts about living with vitality check this out.
LIVE BETTER!
