So, if you’re up on GTD, you know that the key to success is a weekly review. The weekly review is periodic maintenance for my GTD system.  Now this is all well and good. In fact it is critical. However, over the course of a year, my system tends to develop a lean, a list, a somewhat off-center sort of look. Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, my main GTD system is in order, but it is somewhat out of line with its foundation. I address this with a yearly review.

A mentor of mine once said that it takes a year to do anything significant. I think he was right.  So it is important when I take the time to do my yearly review that I think about where I’ve been the last year and where I want to be in the next year.  In other words, it is an opportunity to think strategically instead of tactically.  My family likes to head off to a warmer climate in spring, and that is the perfect opportunity for me to do this.

The yearly review is a big task, much like setting up GTD the first time. But make no mistake, it is not setting up GTD the first time. If you are not set up and ready for a review, you are not ready for a yearly review. I. e. advanced GTD’ers only for this one. The way it works is to take a day to work bottom up and then top down.  I hole up in my office/cave and work through tasks like these.

• After completeing a normal review I look at the catagories of projects I am working on.  I look for overall changes in the nature of the work I am doing.  There could be patterns in how the work is now being done (i.e. more computer time these days).  Or, maybe there is a new kind of project that is regularly showing up (i.e. keeping the web site fresh).
• If you don’t have a list of responsibilities, work on making one.  GTD defines these as “key areas within which you want to achieve results and maintain standards”.  What are the roles you occupy?  Parent, Vice President of Engineering, PTA President, janitor every Saturday morning?
• What are the key people in my life?  Best to keep a list.  Often new projects and new directions modify this list.  The yearly review is a great time to realize who we need to connect with on a regular basis.
• What are the areas of my life I am trying to focus on for the next year?  One of the “weaknesses” of GTD is that now we can manage so much, we often do.  That’s not the best path to whatever success you seek.  Write down the areas you want to drive on.
• What are the personal development goals I have set for myself in the next year?  What capabilities do I want to add?  What skill set do I want to sharpen?  What books do I want to read, classes I want to take, sports I want to play?  Am I getting ready for a new level of activity in some role I’m in?  What do I need to prepare?
• What lies beyond the next year?  What lifelong goals and desires need to be factored into the next year?

The last point is worthy of attention.  Time moves pretty fast.  Most of us don’t flinch at planning a year in advance.  However it gives me pause to realize, I will only do a relatively small number of these reviews in my life (I’m planning for 40 more).  This thought helps me realize that this review is the time to put in what I really care about, not what I want now, but what I need over the course of my life. What do I want to leave behind?  Who do I want to spend time with?  What are my true priorities?  Are my goals really oriented around those priorities?  Now’s the time to figure it out.

It is not uncommon to have my yearly review overflow a bit.  After all this is a bunch of thinking to get done.  Sometimes if I can’t get it done at home, I do it on a lengthy business trip, or part of a vacation.  The review isn’t worth anything if the thinking isn’t behind it.  But if you’ve gotten the time to think these things through, make sure they get captured in lists and the GTD system.

There will be times over the next year when your intuition will tell you something is wrong about your direction.  It is then you can return to these key high-level lists to discover the map of where you were headed, so you can correct and not have that awful feeling that another year has slipped away.  Trust me, a yearly review can and will prevent such feelings.  You’ll feel next year like taking on much bigger horizons with the strength that comes from moving in a consistent direction over an entire year.

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