Tier 4

wr - Weekly Review

Weekly Review

Overview

Weekly review procedure to maintain visibility across all active projects, identify stalled work, and ensure continuous progress.

Steps

Step 1: Gather project status

Review all active projects:

  1. List all projects with status != COMPLETE/ARCHIVED

  2. For each project, check STATE.md:

    • Last updated date
    • Current phase
    • Health indicator
    • Progress percentage
    • Current blockers

  3. Note key metrics:

    • Days since last update
    • Phase progress
    • Any explicit blockers listed

Quick status check (can be automated):

  • Run: find projects/ -name “STATE.md” -mtime +7
  • This finds projects not updated in 7+ days

Step 2: Identify issues

Flag projects needing attention using these criteria:

STALLED: STATE.md not updated in >7 days

  • These projects are drifting
  • Action: Update status or explicitly pause

BLOCKED: Has explicit blocker listed

  • Progress cannot continue until resolved
  • Action: Escalate or work around blocker

AT RISK: Health indicator is yellow or red

  • Project is struggling but not blocked
  • Action: Diagnose cause, consider recovery procedure

OFF TRACK: Behind milestone schedule

  • Dates slipping from original plan
  • Action: Adjust plan or increase focus

For each flagged project:

  • Note the specific issue
  • Identify potential action
  • Estimate effort to address

Step 3: Update stale projects

For each project with stale STATE.md:

  1. Open STATE.md and review current state

  2. Update progress indicators:

    • Progress percentages by phase
    • Key metrics if defined
    • Health indicator based on reality

  3. Update blockers list:

    • Add any new blockers discovered
    • Remove resolved blockers
    • Note blocker age if persisting

  4. Update “Last Updated” timestamp

  5. If project is actually paused:

    • Change status to PAUSED
    • Document why paused
    • Set expected resume date if known

Goal: Every active project has STATE.md updated within last 7 days.

Step 4: Plan coming week

Set focus for the coming week:

  1. Review capacity

    • How many hours available for project work?
    • Any scheduled commitments that affect capacity?
    • Energy level and sustainability?

  2. Select priority projects (1-3 max)

    • Which projects need attention most?
    • Which are closest to milestone/completion?
    • Which have external dependencies or deadlines?

  3. Set specific weekly goals for each priority

    • What concrete deliverable by end of week?
    • What would “good progress” look like?
    • What’s the minimum acceptable progress?

  4. Schedule time blocks if helpful

    • When will you work on each priority?
    • Are there dependencies between projects?

  5. Note dependencies and deadlines

    • External meetings or reviews scheduled?
    • Blockers that must be resolved first?

Step 5: Retrospect on last week

Review what happened last week:

  1. What got completed?

    • List accomplishments
    • Celebrate progress (even small wins)

  2. What didn’t get done?

    • List items that slipped
    • Identify why they slipped
    • Decide: reschedule, delegate, or drop

  3. What worked well?

    • Practices to continue
    • Conditions that helped

  4. What didn’t work?

    • Obstacles encountered
    • Practices to change
    • Patterns to watch

  5. Procedure usage

    • Which procedures were used?
    • Log significant uses for effectiveness tracking

Step 6: Log procedure usage

If any procedures were used significantly this week:

  1. For each procedure used:

    • Which procedure?
    • Which project?
    • What was the outcome?
    • How valuable was it? (HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW)

  2. Add entries to PROCEDURE_USAGE.md

  3. Note any procedure improvements needed

    • Was anything unclear?
    • Were any steps missing?
    • Did it produce expected output?

This feeds the procedure_effectiveness tracking system.

Step 7: Generate review document

Compile all findings into weekly review document:

  1. Create document using template

  2. Fill in all sections:

    • Portfolio Status table
    • Flags section (stalled, blocked, at risk)
    • This Week’s Focus (priorities and goals)
    • Last Week Retrospective
    • Notes and observations

  3. Save to reviews/ directory or designated location

    • Filename format: YYYY-MM-DD_weekly_review.md

  4. Update any project STATE.md files with links to review

When to Use

  • Every week at a consistent scheduled time
  • When returning from vacation or extended break
  • After completing a major project milestone
  • When feeling overwhelmed by multiple projects
  • Before starting a new project to assess capacity
  • When project status feels unclear or uncertain
  • After any significant life or work change that affects capacity

Verification

  • All active projects have current status captured
  • Stalled projects are either updated or explicitly paused
  • 1-3 priority projects selected with specific goals
  • Last week’s goals are accounted for
  • Review document is saved for future reference
  • Time to complete review is reasonable (30-60 min)