Review
Stage 4: OTD extends GTD's Weekly Review into a dual rhythm — daily and weekly.
Why review matters
The system doesn't run itself. Flows surface Actions, but someone has to ask whether those Flows are still the right ones. Flows advance, but someone has to check whether they're heading toward the right goal. Someday items wait, but someone has to decide when to activate them.
That someone is you, during Review.
Without Review, the system decays in a predictable pattern:
- Inbox fills up without getting processed
- Active Flows surface Actions that no longer reflect current priorities
- Flows stall without anyone noticing
- Someday grows without being reconsidered
- The system feels stale and you stop trusting it
- You stop using it
Weekly Review is the maintenance that prevents decay. Daily Review is the daily calibration that keeps Today honest. Together, they're the habits that keep everything alive.
Daily Review
Every morning. 5–10 minutes.
This is not a deep audit. It's setting the stage for the day.
Steps:
1. Check what's in Today. Each active Flow's first uncompleted Action surfaces automatically. Look at what's there. Confirm it all makes sense for today.
2. Add anything missing. Is there something not surfaced yet that needs to happen today? Pull it in manually. Did a Review Action just arrive (an AI output, a colleague's reply)? Add it.
3. Check capacity. Before moving on: is Today realistic? Can you genuinely complete everything in it today? If not, remove something — move it back to its Flow or push it to a future date. A Today you can't finish isn't a Today. It's a wish list.
The automatic surfacing from Flows is calibrated to your active work. Trust it. Manual additions are intentional overrides — make them sparingly.
4. Adjust if needed. Does anything in Today feel wrong for today? Move it out. Is the sequence of Mode-based execution (Review → Delegate → Do) already clear? Good.
5. Check for Chronic Today. When was Today last empty? If it's been 3+ consecutive days, that's Chronic Today — resolve it before any other decision. Audit Action sizes, reduce active Flows, or restrain manual additions.
6. Begin. You've spent 5–10 minutes. Today is set. Start working.
Daily Review is deliberately short. Its purpose is not to think deeply about your system — it's to confirm that Today contains the right Actions for the day and that nothing urgent was missed. Deep thinking happens in Weekly Review.
When Daily Review breaks down
If you skip Daily Review, Today doesn't get curated. You work from whatever the system surfaced automatically. On most days, that's actually fine — the auto-filled slate is calibrated to your active Flows, and executing it as-is is a valid working mode (see Principle 2).
What's not fine is skipping Weekly Review on top of that. Daily skips are recoverable; weekly skips are where agency actually erodes. If you've been running on auto-fill for a week, your Weekly Review becomes the moment that everything depends on — what's stuck, what's closing, what's activating. Skip both and you're in Drift: the system runs, but no one is steering.
The honest test: when did you last decide something about your active set? If the answer is "I can't remember," it's been too long.
Weekly Review
Once a week. 30–60 minutes.
This is the full system audit. Same purpose as GTD's Weekly Review.
Checklist:
Inbox zero
Process any remaining captures. Nothing unprocessed should be sitting in Inbox after Weekly Review.
Review every Area
Look at each Area from above. Is anything being neglected? Are there Areas where nothing has moved in weeks? That neglect is information — either something important is being avoided, or the Area isn't as active as you thought.
Audit Stuck Signals
Work through the five Stuck Signals systematically. For each flagged item, pick a resolution — don't defer to next week.
- Stuck Action (3+ days in Today): Split / Rewrite / Keep (deliberate) / Delete
- Stale Await (7+ days no response): Follow up / Re-delegate / Cancel
- Stalled Flow (2+ weeks no completion): Keep active (with reason) / Someday / Wishlist / Delete
- Dormant cluster (1+ month no progress across the cluster): Park cluster / Demote to Wishlist / Dissolve / Keep
The point of this section is threshold-based auditing by category. A vague "are my Areas and Flows OK?" scan is less honest than checking against explicit thresholds.
Investigate Chronic Today causes
If Daily Review hit a Chronic Today state this week, use Weekly Review to find the structural cause: Too many active Flows? Actions consistently too large? Relying on manual additions? Fix the cause, not the symptom.
Review Someday and Wishlist
These are two layers, not one. Treat them differently.
Someday — apply aging-out honesty. For each item:
- Is this ready to activate now? (If yes, activation triggers Principle 3 — decide what's closing.)
- Has this lived in Someday for 6+ months without serious activation consideration? Demote to Wishlist, delete, or re-commit with a stated trigger.
- Does this still have a real activation trigger? If you can't say what would make you start, the intention isn't real. Demote or delete.
Someday should be small and honest. It's a waiting room, not a graveyard.
Wishlist — light scan. For each item:
- Does this still spark interest? If yes, leave it. If no, delete.
- Is this crystallizing into a real plan? If you can now say what step 1 would be, promote to Someday.
Wishlist has no aging pressure. Items can live there indefinitely without cost.
Review Goals
Look at your active Goals. For each one: are there Flows currently advancing toward it? Is anything blocked or missing? This doesn't need to be deep — two minutes scanning the list is enough. If a Goal has no active Flow, consider activating one.
Review calendar
Upcoming commitments in the next 1–2 weeks that need preparation? Any conflicts between Today-type work and time-bound commitments? Create Actions now for preparation you'll need.
Quarterly Review
Once every three months. 60–90 minutes.
The Weekly Review keeps the system running. The Quarterly Review keeps it pointed in the right direction.
Checklist:
- Review each Goal. Is it still relevant? Update the wording, retire Goals that no longer apply, add new ones that have emerged.
- Map Goals to Flows. For each Goal: which Flows are currently serving it? Are there Goals with no active Flows? Activate one — and apply Principle 3 to make room. Are there Flows that don't serve any Goal? Consider moving them to Someday or Wishlist.
- Re-evaluate dormant clusters. For any
[[keyword]]cluster flagged as dormant during Weekly Review, revisit its Goal mapping now. Three paths:- Reactivate — the Goal is real and the cluster maps to it. Open the trade required by Principle 3.
- Park to Someday — the Goal still matters but the timing isn't right. Define the trigger that would activate it.
- Demote to Wishlist or dissolve — the Goal is no longer central. Don't keep clusters as commitments when they aren't.
- Audit the active Flow set. Is the active set still inhabitable? If Chronic Today recurred this quarter, this is where to fix it — at the level of which Flows are activated, not which Actions are surfacing.
- Look ahead. What's coming in the next quarter that needs preparation now?
- Sweep Someday and Wishlist. Quarterly is the deeper cleanup pass that Weekly Reviews don't have time for. Items aged 6+ months in Someday — demote to Wishlist or delete. Items in Wishlist that have lost interest — delete.
The Quarterly Review is where Goal ↔ Flow alignment happens explicitly. Weekly Review checks it briefly. Quarterly Review does the proper audit.
Annual Review
Once a year. A few hours, unhurried.
Pull out your Vision and Purpose from Reference. Ask the honest questions:
- Do my current Goals reflect where I actually want to go?
- Is the way I've been spending my time consistent with my Purpose?
- What do I want the next year to look like?
Update your Goals list for the coming year. Adjust if your Vision has evolved. The Annual Review is not a task-management exercise — it's a life-orientation exercise. The system serves it, but it happens above the system.
What happens when Review breaks down
Weekly Review is the single most important habit in the system. Here's what happens when it slips:
- Week 1 missed: Someday gets a bit stale. A stuck Flow goes unnoticed for a week. Minor.
- Month without Weekly Review: Inbox accumulates. Several Flows are stuck but still surfacing stale Actions. A Flow that should have moved to Someday is still active and generating noise. Your Areas haven't been looked at, so a neglected domain keeps being neglected.
- Quarter without Weekly Review: You've stopped trusting the system. You're maintaining a parallel mental model of what actually matters because the system has drifted from reality. You've essentially reverted to the state before OTD — carrying things in your head because the system can't be trusted.
The decay is real and progressive. One missed Weekly Review is harmless. A habit of missing them is a silent failure.
Making Weekly Review stick
- Fix the time. Not "whenever I have time on Sunday." A specific day, a specific window. Treat it as a commitment on your calendar.
- Lower the bar when needed. A partial Weekly Review is infinitely better than none. If you only have 15 minutes, do the most important parts: process Inbox, check stuck Flows, scan Someday. The full checklist is the ideal. The partial checklist is the minimum viable version.
- Notice the reward. After a good Weekly Review, your system is clean. Today feels trustworthy. You know what's active and why. That feeling is the reward — and it's a reliable one. Systems people who have a Weekly Review habit reliably report it as the most satisfying part of their practice.