Hey, what is going on, guys?
So, the semester just started for most of you,
and today I wanted to share a really quick tip
that can help you retain a lot of that motivation
that we get when we start new semesters
and keep it going throughout the semester's entirety.
Because I know when you start a new semester,
you're kinda turning over a new leaf,
all these new classes are coming into your schedule,
and you're really excited to learn them.
And, honestly, you haven't yet realized
just how much work they're gonna be.
So, you are naturally fired up
and you've probably got your task management systems,
your organizational systems, calendar, all that stuff
cleaned out, reset and ready to go.
So, today I wanna tell you about a habit you can adopt
to keep these systems in order,
which is going to keep your motivation levels high,
and that habit is to establish a weekly review day.
Now, on this channel before,
I've talked about how it's a really good idea
to have a weekly planning day where you kind of sketch out
what's gonna come in the week ahead.
You kind of know exactly what you need to do,
all the due dates, and all the events
that are coming in the coming days.
But I think it's also a good idea
to take this particular day,
which I think Sunday is a really good day for this,
to also review the previous week.
Now, here is why I think this is a really good idea.
In my case, and I'm sure that many of you
have the same exact problem,
I find that my task management systems get kind of crufty,
maybe that's the word for it.
They get a little bit disorganized,
some tasks don't get checked off,
some things just don't get done.
And after a few weeks, I find that my task management system
is not a perfect one-to-one representation
of everything that I need to get done.
And that is a huge problem
because that means I can no longer trust that system
as well as I could before.
And as the productivity researcher David Allen once said,
"Your brain is for having ideas, not for storing them."
I shouldn't be storing anything up in here.
My systems should be well taken care of
and be the place in which all those ideas
are stored and perfectly updated,
and this is what a weekly review does.
So, what exactly goes into a weekly review process?
Well, this is largely up to you, but I do wanna make
a few specific suggestions for you guys here.
Number one, I think it's a good idea to ask
what exactly did you get done last week
and what didn't get done?
So, look at your plan for the last week
and ask yourself, "Out of all these things,
"which ones did I actually accomplish?"
And you can make this even easier on yourself
if you adopt a daily habit
of writing an accomplishment journal.
Now, this isn't a big long journal
where you're pouring your deepest feelings
into some secret book with a lock on it.
No, this is just a simple habit
where you write down exactly what you got done
on a day-to-day basis in something really simple
like an Evernote account or a notebook
or just your arm, whatever.
And I've actually found that doing this
can increase my motivation and make me feel
like I'm kind of on a roll in the days that come afterward.
So, this kind of boosts your motivation as a singular habit,
but it also helps with your weekly review
because you can simply go back,
look at your accomplishment journal and say,
"Yeah, I was really, really productive this week."
Or, on the flip side,
"This wasn't such a good week after all."
And that allows you to do something
really, really important with the weekly review,
and that is to make course corrections
and small changes to your habits
and to the way that you work.
So, say you've been studying in your dorm room
and you find that friends keep coming in
and they're really, really persuasive
when they ask you to go to get something to eat
or to play Guitar Hero
or to do anything other than studying.
Well, that's something that's gonna stick out
like a sore thumb when you ask yourself
during your weekly review why you didn't get things done.
And from there, you can fix that
by changing your study location
or by putting a sign in your dorm room
or texting your friends that you're busy, what have you.
The point is if you're doing the weekly review,
you're noticing the problems on a weekly basis
and then you can fix them.
Now, in addition to mentally running through
the past week's accomplishments,
giving yourself a pat on the back,
giving yourself that little productivity score,
and making those course corrections and habit changes,
the last part to this weekly review process
is simply to reset your task management systems
and your calendar back to where they should be.
So, make sure that all events have their due dates updated,
make sure you check things off
that you maybe forgot to check
when you actually got those tasks done,
and make sure you update any details
with any updates from your professor
or group members from group projects.
Just basically make sure that, across the board,
your systems are where they should be
and that they're an accurate representation
of everything you have to do.
That way, you never start to feel overwhelmed
or confused about what's on your plate.
So, I really hope you guys found this video to be useful.
And for those of you who use Habitica,
I'm hoping that after watching this video,
you're gonna log in and add weekly review
to your dailies list and set it to once per week,
because that is going to remind you to do this process
and that will help it become a habit.
If you have comments or questions,
definitely leave them down below.
And if you liked this video,
you can leave it a like to support this channel.
Also, if you wanna get new videos every single week
on being a more effective student,
you can click your mouse button
on that big red subscribe button right down there.
You can also get yourself a free copy
of the book I wrote on earning better grades
by clicking the picture of the book right over there.
And if you missed last week's video,
we talked about how to get over
the fear of starting college.
So, if that's something that's still on your mind,
check it out if you missed it.
And as always, you can find the full article for this video
by clicking the full article button right there.
If you wanna connect with me,
you can do so on Xanga by going over to eBay
and buying the one time machine that works,
it's the one with the pink crystals,
and then adding me as a friend there.
I am looking forward to discussing
your favorite My Chemical Romance album.
See you there.