Want to Know the Ultimate 1-2 Punch as a Professional Knowledge Worker?

You've made it to Friday, woohoo!

Before you start convincing yourself it's 5 pm somewhere, I urge you to incorporate a weekly review.

Spending 30-60 minutes on a weekly review will magnify your results and give you clarity and peace of mind that you've never experienced before.

Here's 5 simple ways to perform an effective review of your work week.

1. Block the time on your calendar

Add a recurring calendar entry on Friday afternoon for 60 minutes.

Don't let another meeting get scheduled over top and don't spend this time doing something else.

You need the headspace with your thoughts to recap the week.

2. Check your performance

If you prepped your Week Ahead the prior Sunday, review how you did with those 3 simple questions.

• Were you able to complete your most important actions. Is there anything that didn't get accomplished that you planned to get done?
• How did those key meetings go? Were the outcomes what you expected?
• Were you able to advance your priorities?

3. Look Backward

Review all of the notes taken over the course of the week. Capture new commitments, possible risks that were raised, anything that you need for the following work week.

I like to look back 2 weeks. While looking back over the current week is the objective, I've found by going back the week prior, I usually identify 1-2 things to capture because my context and frame of mind has changed.

4. Look Forward

Open your calendar and look ahead 4 weeks.

This one step is powerful.

While most are living day to day, you know what's coming. You know that you have an important meeting to lead in a month and you are prepping weeks in advance to give yourself the time to be ready.

Another hidden gem in this step is the calendar is always booked less and less each week you look out into the future, so take advantage of that. Add blocks for deep work on your calendar before it fills up with other people's priorities.

5. Start priming for Sunday

You will begin to notice as you are reviewing your week that you are already getting a sense for what is going to be important next week. I go ahead and start populating key actions, meetings, or priorities while doing this process.

This accelerates the time it takes on Sunday to feel ready for the work week ahead and you get back to spending time as you wish.

Each week, if you prepare for the week ahead on Sunday and then perform a review on Friday, as a knowledge worker you now have a powerful 1-2 punch that puts you in an elite class.