The Weekly Review

Prompted by our sad admission that neither of us has done our weekly review this week, we get back to basics and examine what a weekly review should consist of. As we dig into the list of what needs to be done at each review, we recognize our stumbling blocks and strategize how to overcome them.

This week, Jean and James discuss some approaches to keeping the flat surfaces in your home and office from becoming places for clutter to accumulate. We take a virtual look inside Jean’s medicine cabinet and talk about the ‘scan and shred’ approach that has freed James’ kitchen table from being an open-air filing cabinet.

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 The scanner James has been happy using.

New York Times Tidy Home Challenge (subscription required)

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).

This week we reply to our first listener question about processing and batching incoming email. We also catch up on Jean’s ongoing story of making decisions and phone calls to get her car serviced. James talks about how his single share of Disney stock generates a surprising amount of inputs to be processed.

Tires Tires Tires, the story of overcoming writer’s block while getting the car serviced.

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).

This week Jean and James record out of the studio for the first time. They talk about how their trusted organizational systems held up to the demands of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose. Topics include handling an unexpected monkey wrench thrown into the works for the James Dempsey and the Breakpoints LIVE near WWDC 2018 benefit concert for App Camp For Girls, and planning on some time to recuperate and recover after a busy event week like WWDC.

Photos from LIVE near WWDC 2018, courtesy of photographer Adam Tow.

Recorded at the historic McMenamins Edgefield in beautiful Troutdale, Oregon.

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).

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This week, Jean and James talk about the phone context and how phone calls can be as enticing as a red hot poker to get done. Also, real time problem-solving with Jean and her car’s maintenance.

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).

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week, we celebrate James’s extraordinary accomplishment of reaching Inbox Zero, down from over 100K messages! We talk about the role of the inbox as a temporary waystation for email that needs to be processed, and we share our strategies for processing email. And we can hardly contain our excitement over the release of OmniFocus 3 for iOS.

Mail Act-On by the SmallCubed team

MsgFiler by Adam Tow

OmniFocus 3 for iOS by the OmniGroup team

If you’ll be in San Jose during WWDC week, you’ll find James and Jean performing LIVE near WWDC at the James Dempsey and the Breakpoints benefit concert for App Camp For Girls. Tickets are available at http://livenearwwdc.com . 💃🕺

Congratulations to Eddie Hinkle for hitting Inbox Zero.

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).

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week, Jean and James discuss attempting to bounce back from weeks that turn out far from perfect as well as trying to balance personal accountability with not beating yourself up too much when things don’t go as planned. The conversation moves to identifying the next actionable task in a project and how that can take ‘big rocks’ and turn them into manageable pebbles.

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).

And if you’ll be in San Jose during WWDC week, you’ll find James and Jean performing LIVE near WWDC at the James Dempsey and the Breakpoints benefit concert for App Camp For Girls. Tickets are available at http://livenearwwdc.com .

This week, James and Jean review their respective crazy weeks (ukulele conference! three nights of nephew wrangling!) and how their task management goals suffered. Progress was made, because we didn’t let ourselves give up and adapted our methods to fit reality.

Listeners: do that weekly review, if you haven’t already! We find it to be a great stress reliever, even when we are way behind on what we are trying to get done.

Going to be in San Jose on June 6? Come out for a fun night of geeky music and support App Camp For Girls at the Seventh Annual LIVE near WWDC show, featuring the inimitable James Dempsey and the Breakpoints! (Jean will be there, as always, playing guitar on a couple of numbers, as well as many of your favorite Mac and iOS developers.) Tickets are on sale now!

This week, James and Jean look at that gaping maw that devours time and motivation that we call email. We’ve tried a couple of tools for clearing out our inbox, and we are pleased with the results.

Have you done your weekly review yet?

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The true test of a system is whether it works when the going gets tough. Our well-planned recording schedule was unexpectedly thrown off when James’s father passed away a few weeks ago. James talks about how having a trusted system and doing weekly reviews helped him keep his focus where it belonged during a stressful time.