The Weekly Review

Organizational fun begins with the calendar. James and Jean talk about the journey from paper to digital calendars, to iCal on the Mac and the array of choices from third-party developers. We also discuss our approaches to the important question of what things actually belong on a calendar versus what should go into our trusted task management systems. Finally, we look at how sharing a calendar requires one to define even more clearly what is really happening and what is not.

XOXO Festival, Portland, Oregon

Fantastical

BusyCal

WhenWorks

This week James celebrates his one year organizationiversary! Jean and James mark the occassion by swapping stories of garages, cooking, oppresive summer heat, and some thoughts on using your trusted system to help in establishing habits.

This week we take a deep dive into managing a particular type of unwanted email, the many messages we get that are meant for someone else named Jean MacDonald or James Dempsey. This kind of “personal” spam inspires us to brainstorm all kinds of plans to take advantage of the fun life of travel and parties that our doppelgängers enjoy. James dissuades Jean from her potentially felonious idea to fix the problem.

In this episode Jean and James recount tales of cross-country relocation and new car purchases spurred on by a desire to avoid DMV-related tasks. Jean continues to rebuild her trusted system from the ground up, while James is reworking his daily and weekly workflow to use the new capabilities of OmniFocus 3.

This week, we talk about the crucial role of laundry as a step in getting back on track after a trip. Jean discovers that “Unpack” doesn’t work as a next action. James shares some insights from the beta of OmniFocus 3 for the Mac. Jean wonders if it’s worth tagging tasks with a duration. And we congratulate listener @agilelisa for hitting Inbox Zero. We need to design some stickers to send out to reward listener milestones!

Recuperation and recommitting is the theme this week. Jean has been under the weather and James has been on an epic roadtrip to the Great White North on a family visit. How do you get yourself back on track when something knocks you off your routine? Can you renegotiate your commitments with yourself so you can move forward without guilt or stress? (Or can you at least get your Star Trek artwork framed so you can hang it in your office?)

Lee Draws 365 Star Trek Scribbles

Jean returns from her trip to Chicago and talks about being on the verge of archiving her Omni Focus database and starting from scratch as part of her initial capture reboot. James spent some time re-reading the book Getting Things Done while travelling to New Brunswick, Canada and describes how it has helped refine his thoughts around his trusted system.

This week Jean reports on re-initializing her trusted system and discovers that processing papers can be more profitable than expected. James describes how he uses deferred items in Omni Focus and talks about planning for an upcoming trip.

This week, Jean reviews her plans and reasons for starting over with GTD. She shares her ideas with James for clearing her calendar to focus on the initial processing of everything in the “inbox” that is her office, while also making space in that office to work. James talks about the importance of having the right equipment and furniture—especially easy-to-use file cabinets.

Following on the conversation from last episode, Jean and James each find themselves mid-way through their weekly review. The discussion of what a weekly review should consist of continues. Jean finds it to be more comprehensive than she has been doing. James finds that very full inboxes can take up almost all of the time alloted for a review.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog ([@TheWeeklyReview]) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).