A 15-minute weekly review that actually fits in 15 minutes

The weekly review has a reputation for being a 90-minute ritual involving multiple notebooks, candle, and the entire GTD methodology. That version exists, and a small number of people genuinely love it. For everyone else, the question is simpler: can you take 15 minutes to figure out what just happened and what's next, without it becoming another thing you fail at?

Yes. Five questions. Sit somewhere quiet. Use whatever you're already using - a planner, a notes app, the back of an envelope. Set a 15-minute timer if you're prone to spiral. Begin.

1. What got done?

Skim last week. Notice the things you finished. Not just the big stuff - everything that's no longer hanging over you. The point of starting here is morale: most people drastically underestimate what they actually got through in a week, and starting the review with the wins makes the rest of it less punishing.

Time budget: 2 minutes.

2. What didn't get done?

Now the slipped tasks. Don't fix them yet. Just list them. Some will be obviously still important; some will, on honest inspection, no longer matter. You can tell the difference more easily once you see them written down together than when they're scattered across days.

Time budget: 3 minutes.

3. What was the actual reason?

For each thing that didn't get done, write down why - honestly. The categories are usually:

• Wrong estimate. You thought it would take an hour, it's three.
• Blocked. Waiting on someone else, or on information you don't have.
• Avoiding it. You don't want to do it. There's a reason.
• Genuinely overtaken by events. Something else came up that mattered more.

The point of naming the reason is that the right next move is different for each. Wrong estimates need re-budgeting. Blocked tasks need a chase. Avoidance needs a real conversation with yourself. Overtaken-by-events tasks may not need to come back at all.

Time budget: 4 minutes.

4. What does next week need?

Three buckets. Write a few words against each:

• Has to ship. The non-negotiables.
• Want to ship. The things that'd be good but aren't critical.
• Personal. The bit that's for you - rest, exercise, a person you owe a message.

The third bucket is the one that disappears first when work is bad, which is exactly when it shouldn't. Write something in it.

Time budget: 4 minutes.

5. What's missing from the plan?

A 30-second sweep. Things you keep meaning to do but never plan. Calls you owe. Bills you should pay. The dentist appointment you've been putting off for six weeks. They never make it onto a day, because there's never a “right” day. Pick one and put it on a real day.

Time budget: 2 minutes.

That's it

15 minutes. Five questions. No app required, no system to adopt, no method to defend. The review's job is to give you 30 seconds of clarity about each open thread - what's done, what slipped and why, what's next. That's enough.

The trap to avoid: turning the review into a project of its own. The review that takes 90 minutes is a review you'll do twice and abandon. The 15-minute version is one you can actually keep doing. Showing up beats optimisation.

If you do the review inside Kavro, the planner is already showing you last week (left arrow) and next week (right arrow), with the rolled-over tasks visibly marked. That makes questions 1-3 a quick scan instead of a memory exercise. How the planner works.