When you're building something on the side, weeks blur together. You feel busy, but you can't say what you actually got done. A month goes by and you're not sure if anything moved.
A weekly review fixes that. It's a short check-in, about twenty or thirty minutes, where you look back at your week and plan the next one.
By the end of this lesson, you'll have a simple review you can run every week, plus a basic way to track it in a notebook or a spreadsheet. No apps to learn, no system to buy.
The short version
- Once a week, sit down for a short check-in and answer the same few questions every time.
- Track a handful of things you control, plus a couple of simple results, in a notebook or a spreadsheet.
- End every review by picking two or three tasks for next week, so you never start Monday wondering what to do.
Why a weekly review helps
Memory is a bad record keeper. You'll remember the one bad week and forget the three good ones. Or you'll feel like you've been "working on it forever" when it's really been five weeks.
Writing things down gives you a fair picture. You can see if you're actually doing the work. You can spot patterns, like always skipping Thursdays. And when you hit a checkpoint and need to decide whether to keep going, you'll have real notes instead of a fuzzy feeling.
It also gives you a small win every week. Checking off what you did feels good, even when the results haven't shown up yet.
Pick your time and place
Choose one time a week and stick with it. Sunday evening and Saturday morning are popular because the week is fresh in your head. Any time works as long as it's the same time each week.
Put it on your calendar like an appointment. Keep it short so you'll actually do it. Twenty to thirty minutes is plenty.
Pick a spot too. Same chair, same notebook, same coffee. The habit gets easier when it feels like a routine.
The five questions
Every week, answer the same questions. Keeping them the same makes it easy to compare one week to the next.
- What did I plan to do this week? Copy last week's task list.
- What did I actually do? Check off what got done. Be honest about what didn't.
- What happened? Write down any results, even small ones. A new subscriber, a reply, a question from a stranger.
- What did I learn? One or two lines. What worked, what didn't, what surprised you.
- What will I do next week? Pick two or three specific tasks.
That's the whole review. Five questions, a few lines each.
Option 1: The notebook method
If you like paper, this is the easiest way to start. Get a cheap notebook and use one page per week.
At the top, write the date. Then write the five questions down the page, leaving a few lines under each. Fill them in during your review.
A few tips:
- Use the same notebook for nothing else, so it doesn't get lost among grocery lists.
- Leave a box in the corner for your hours that week.
- Flip back through the last month's pages before you plan next week. Patterns show up fast.
Paper is quick, it doesn't need a password, and it doesn't distract you with notifications. The downside is that it's harder to add things up over many weeks.
Option 2: The simple spreadsheet
If you'd like to see numbers over time, use a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is a grid of rows and columns, like a digital ledger. Free tools like Google Sheets work fine.
Make one row per week. Then add columns across the top. Here's a starter set:
- Week of: the date the week started.
- Hours worked: your rough total for the week.
- Tasks planned: how many tasks you set.
- Tasks done: how many you finished.
- Posts or pieces published: if you make content.
- New subscribers: if you have an email list.
- Sales or inquiries: any money or real interest that came in.
- What I learned: a short note.
- Next week's tasks: your two or three picks.
Leave out any column that doesn't fit your project. If you don't have an email list yet, don't track subscribers. Track what you're actually doing.
Keep it boring
It's tempting to build a fancy spreadsheet with charts and colors. Don't, at least not yet. Every minute spent decorating the tracker is a minute not spent on the project.
You can always add more later. Start with the plain grid and fill it in every week. That habit is worth more than any chart.
If your project has money coming in or going out, keep that in its own place. The lesson on simple bookkeeping covers a separate money tracker.
How to read your review
After a few weeks, look across your notes or rows and ask a few plain questions. You're looking for patterns, not perfection.
- Am I doing what I planned? If you're finishing most of your tasks, good. If not, your plans may be too big for your time.
- Is anything moving? Early results are usually small or zero, and that's normal. Most first attempts earn little or nothing. Look for any sign of life, like a reply or a signup.
- What keeps getting skipped? The task you keep pushing to next week is often the one you're avoiding. Name it and give it a time slot.
Track what you did, not just what happened. You control the first part, and it explains the second.
When it's time for a bigger decision, the lesson on reading your results honestly shows how to use these notes to decide whether to keep going, change course or stop. Your weekly notes are the evidence that decision needs.
Do this next
Nobody's grading your notebook. It's just there so you stop guessing.
Veteran. Gen Xer. Thirty-plus years building things on the web. I write these so you can skip some of the expensive mistakes.