The 5-Minute Weekly Review That Actually Sticks (And Why It Matters)

Here's the thing about quarterly goals:

They're great on January 1st. By February, most of them are dead.

Not because the goals were bad. Not because you're lazy. It's because you set a quarterly goal and then never looked at it again.

I learned this the hard way. Q1 2025, I set three goals for my 90-day sprint. Nailed two of them. The third one? I literally forgot I set it by week 3. Opened my planning doc in March and was like "oh right, that thing."

That's when I realized: the quarterly goal isn't the system. The weekly review is.

A quarterly goal is a direction. A weekly review is what keeps you pointed in that direction instead of drifting.

Why Weekly Reviews Actually Work

The research is clear: regular reflection reduces stress, prevents task accumulation, and keeps you from building up resentment about unfinished work. David Allen's GTD system made the weekly review foundational for exactly this reason — it's the reset that keeps the system from becoming noise.

But here's what most people do wrong: they turn the weekly review into a two-hour performance audit where they judge themselves for not being more productive. That's not a review. That's self-flagellation.

I tested that version for three weeks. Hated it. Felt like homework.

So I built a different one. Five minutes. Sundays at 9 AM with coffee. No judgment. Just data and direction.

The 5-Minute Weekly Review System

Here's exactly what I do:

Minute 1: Capture

Brain dump everything that happened this week. Not organized. Not filtered. Just: what did I actually do?

I open my notes and type:

• Shipped [X project]
• Read [X chapters]
• Met with [X people]
• Learned [X skill]
• Wasted time on [X distraction]

The last one matters. I always include what I procrastinated on or what sucked my time.

Minute 2: Clarify

Look at my three quarterly goals. Ask one question: did I move the needle this week?

Not "did I hit the goal?" That's a quarterly question. The weekly question is simpler: did I do something that moved me closer?

I write a one-sentence answer for each goal:

• Goal 1 (Promotion): Shipped the feature that my manager specifically mentioned wanting. Moved needle: YES.
• Goal 2 (Blog growth): Published two posts. Email list grew 2.1%. Moved needle: YES.
• Goal 3 (Side project): Did nothing. Moved needle: NO.

No shame on goal 3. Just honest data.

Minute 3: Organize

Look at the next week and identify one obstacle that will probably derail at least one goal.

This week: I have back-to-back meetings Thursday and Friday. That's going to kill my deep work time. So I'm going to block Tuesday and Wednesday mornings as sacred writing time. No meetings. No Slack. Just work.

I write this down. One sentence. One obstacle. One response.

Minute 4: Reflect

This is the honest part. I ask myself: what's the pattern here?

Am I consistently moving needles on all three goals, or am I ignoring one? (I'm ignoring goal 3 — the side project. That's real data.)

Am I procrastinating on something specific? (Yes — the side project because I haven't defined what "done" looks like.)

What surprised me this week? (The blog posts got way more engagement than expected. That changes my content strategy.)

I write three bullet points. That's it.

Minute 5: Engage

This is the forward-facing part. I write down three things I'm committing to for next week:

• Block Tuesday/Wednesday mornings for deep work
• Define "done" for the side project by Wednesday
• Follow up with the three people I met with this week

These aren't aspirational. They're realistic. I know I can do these three things because I've built in the time.

Then I close the doc and I'm done. Five minutes. Coffee's still warm.

What This Actually Prevents

Here's what happens if you skip the weekly review:

Week 1-2: You're riding the momentum of the quarterly goal. Feels good.

Week 3-4: Life happens. Meetings pile up. You forget what you're working toward. You feel like you're just reacting.

Week 5-6: You open your quarterly goals doc and realize you haven't looked at it in a month. Shame spiral. Motivation dies.

Week 9-12: You open it again at the end of the quarter and realize you hit maybe 40% of what you planned. Tell yourself you'll do better next quarter. Repeat.

The weekly review breaks that cycle. It's the difference between having a goal and actually working toward it.

The Honest Part: What Doesn't Work

I tested a bunch of versions before landing on this one:

The 30-minute deep dive: Too long. I never did it consistently. By week 3 I was skipping it.

The daily review: Overkill. You don't have enough data in one day to see patterns.

The monthly review: Too late. By the time you realize you're off track, it's hard to course-correct.

The performance audit version: Felt like self-judgment. Made me dread Sundays.

The five-minute version works because it's fast enough that you'll actually do it, and frequent enough that you catch drift early.

How This Fits Into the 90-Day Sprint

The quarterly goal gives you direction. The weekly review keeps you on course.

Without the weekly review, your 90-day sprint is just a goal you set and forgot about.

With it, you're actively steering toward something. That's the difference between hope and a system.

Try This Week

Sunday morning. Coffee. Five minutes. Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, Engage.

You don't need a special app or a fancy template. Notepad works. Google Doc works. I use Obsidian because I'm that person, but the tool doesn't matter.

What matters is the ritual. Same day. Same time. Same five minutes.

After two weeks, it'll feel automatic. After four weeks, you'll realize you're actually on track with your goals instead of wondering where the quarter went.

That's when you know it's working.