The Weekly Review (The Weekly Review)

Welcome to the first episode of The Weekly Review. Whether you are new to task management or you’ve fallen off the wagon a few times, this podcast is for you.

Once a week, Jean and James review their progress toward a more organized (and less stressful) way of life, and talk about highlights, challenges, and questions. Two friends, who are not productivity gurus, hold each other accountable for sticking to the program and doing that important weekly review.

This week, we review our histories with getting organized and make plans to tackle some of the big projects like email box reduction and home decluttering.

We also debut our fabulous original theme song, The Weekly Review.

🎵 Credits: - 🎼 Composed by James Dempsey - 🎹🎸 Instrumentation and Production by Jonathan Mann - 🎤 Lead Vocals: James Dempsey - 🎤🎤Backup Vocals: Jonathan Mann and Jean MacDonald

The true test of a system is whether it works when the going gets tough. Our well-planned recording schedule was unexpectedly thrown off when James’s father passed away a few weeks ago. James talks about how having a trusted system and doing weekly reviews helped him keep his focus where it belonged during a stressful time.

This week, James and Jean look at that gaping maw that devours time and motivation that we call email. We’ve tried a couple of tools for clearing out our inbox, and we are pleased with the results.

Have you done your weekly review yet?

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week, James and Jean review their respective crazy weeks (ukulele conference! three nights of nephew wrangling!) and how their task management goals suffered. Progress was made, because we didn’t let ourselves give up and adapted our methods to fit reality.

Listeners: do that weekly review, if you haven’t already! We find it to be a great stress reliever, even when we are way behind on what we are trying to get done.

Going to be in San Jose on June 6? Come out for a fun night of geeky music and support App Camp For Girls at the Seventh Annual LIVE near WWDC show, featuring the inimitable James Dempsey and the Breakpoints! (Jean will be there, as always, playing guitar on a couple of numbers, as well as many of your favorite Mac and iOS developers.) Tickets are on sale now!

This week, Jean and James discuss attempting to bounce back from weeks that turn out far from perfect as well as trying to balance personal accountability with not beating yourself up too much when things don’t go as planned. The conversation moves to identifying the next actionable task in a project and how that can take ‘big rocks’ and turn them into manageable pebbles.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already! And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

And if you’ll be in San Jose during WWDC week, you’ll find James and Jean performing LIVE near WWDC at the James Dempsey and the Breakpoints benefit concert for App Camp For Girls. Tickets are available at http://livenearwwdc.com .

This week, we celebrate James’s extraordinary accomplishment of reaching Inbox Zero, down from over 100K messages! We talk about the role of the inbox as a temporary waystation for email that needs to be processed, and we share our strategies for processing email. And we can hardly contain our excitement over the release of OmniFocus 3 for iOS.

Mail Act-On by the SmallCubed team

MsgFiler by Adam Tow

OmniFocus 3 for iOS by the OmniGroup team

If you’ll be in San Jose during WWDC week, you’ll find James and Jean performing LIVE near WWDC at the James Dempsey and the Breakpoints benefit concert for App Camp For Girls. Tickets are available at http://livenearwwdc.com . 💃🕺

Congratulations to Eddie Hinkle for hitting Inbox Zero.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week, Jean and James talk about the phone context and how phone calls can be as enticing as a red hot poker to get done. Also, real time problem-solving with Jean and her car’s maintenance.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week Jean and James record out of the studio for the first time. They talk about how their trusted organizational systems held up to the demands of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose. Topics include handling an unexpected monkey wrench thrown into the works for the James Dempsey and the Breakpoints LIVE near WWDC 2018 benefit concert for App Camp For Girls, and planning on some time to recuperate and recover after a busy event week like WWDC.

Photos from LIVE near WWDC 2018, courtesy of photographer Adam Tow.

Recorded at the historic McMenamins Edgefield in beautiful Troutdale, Oregon.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week we reply to our first listener question about processing and batching incoming email. We also catch up on Jean’s ongoing story of making decisions and phone calls to get her car serviced. James talks about how his single share of Disney stock generates a surprising amount of inputs to be processed.

Tires Tires Tires, the story of overcoming writer’s block while getting the car serviced.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

This week, Jean and James discuss some approaches to keeping the flat surfaces in your home and office from becoming places for clutter to accumulate. We take a virtual look inside Jean’s medicine cabinet and talk about the ‘scan and shred’ approach that has freed James’ kitchen table from being an open-air filing cabinet.

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 The scanner James has been happy using.

New York Times Tidy Home Challenge (subscription required)

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

Prompted by our sad admission that neither of us has done our weekly review this week, we get back to basics and examine what a weekly review should consist of. As we dig into the list of what needs to be done at each review, we recognize our stumbling blocks and strategize how to overcome them.

Following on the conversation from last episode, Jean and James each find themselves mid-way through their weekly review. The discussion of what a weekly review should consist of continues. Jean finds it to be more comprehensive than she has been doing. James finds that very full inboxes can take up almost all of the time alloted for a review.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog ([@TheWeeklyReview]) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

This week, Jean reviews her plans and reasons for starting over with GTD. She shares her ideas with James for clearing her calendar to focus on the initial processing of everything in the “inbox” that is her office, while also making space in that office to work. James talks about the importance of having the right equipment and furniture—especially easy-to-use file cabinets.

This week Jean reports on re-initializing her trusted system and discovers that processing papers can be more profitable than expected. James describes how he uses deferred items in Omni Focus and talks about planning for an upcoming trip.

Jean returns from her trip to Chicago and talks about being on the verge of archiving her Omni Focus database and starting from scratch as part of her initial capture reboot. James spent some time re-reading the book Getting Things Done while travelling to New Brunswick, Canada and describes how it has helped refine his thoughts around his trusted system.

Recuperation and recommitting is the theme this week. Jean has been under the weather and James has been on an epic roadtrip to the Great White North on a family visit. How do you get yourself back on track when something knocks you off your routine? Can you renegotiate your commitments with yourself so you can move forward without guilt or stress? (Or can you at least get your Star Trek artwork framed so you can hang it in your office?)

Lee Draws 365 Star Trek Scribbles

This week, we talk about the crucial role of laundry as a step in getting back on track after a trip. Jean discovers that “Unpack” doesn’t work as a next action. James shares some insights from the beta of OmniFocus 3 for the Mac. Jean wonders if it’s worth tagging tasks with a duration. And we congratulate listener @agilelisa for hitting Inbox Zero. We need to design some stickers to send out to reward listener milestones!

In this episode Jean and James recount tales of cross-country relocation and new car purchases spurred on by a desire to avoid DMV-related tasks. Jean continues to rebuild her trusted system from the ground up, while James is reworking his daily and weekly workflow to use the new capabilities of OmniFocus 3.

This week we take a deep dive into managing a particular type of unwanted email, the many messages we get that are meant for someone else named Jean MacDonald or James Dempsey. This kind of “personal” spam inspires us to brainstorm all kinds of plans to take advantage of the fun life of travel and parties that our doppelgängers enjoy. James dissuades Jean from her potentially felonious idea to fix the problem.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

Our Email Processing Tools
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)
Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

This week James celebrates his one year organizationiversary! Jean and James mark the occassion by swapping stories of garages, cooking, oppresive summer heat, and some thoughts on using your trusted system to help in establishing habits.

Organizational fun begins with the calendar. James and Jean talk about the journey from paper to digital calendars, to iCal on the Mac and the array of choices from third-party developers. We also discuss our approaches to the important question of what things actually belong on a calendar versus what should go into our trusted task management systems. Finally, we look at how sharing a calendar requires one to define even more clearly what is really happening and what is not.

XOXO Festival, Portland, Oregon

Fantastical

BusyCal

WhenWorks

Jean and James share their excitement for the upcoming releases of macOS Mojave and OmniFocus 3 for Mac. James follows up on last week’s calendar discussion with some thoughts on using the Forecast perspective in OmniFocus 3. Jean considers options for finishing her taxes since her longtime accountant has retired. Jean and James assure TurboTax that neither of them have a railway pension.

Listeners: We encourage you to do your weekly review, if you haven’t already. And after you finish your weekly review or if you reach a goal like hitting Inbox Zero, we’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog (@TheWeeklyReview) or Twitter (@WeeklyReviewFM).

Recorded on September 21, the Autumnal Equinox or, as we know it, iPhone Delivery Day. James’s phone was delivered right before we started while Jean’s was still out on a UPS truck circling Portland. We were maybe just a tiny bit distracted. But we do manage to discuss some of the new productivity features in iOS 12, such as Screentime, Shortcuts, and Memoji. (OK, maybe that last one is an anti-productivity example.)

Episode 23 was all about getting started with our new iPhones and iOS 12. But there was other big news this week: OmniFocus 3 for the Mac was released. We realized we needed to do a special second episode to talk about James’s article What’s The Forecast?, which appeared on the Inside OmniFocus blog. Learn more about how James uses the Forecast perspective in OmniFocus 3 to manage his work and meet his deadlines.

Jean and James explore the potential for increased productivity by incorporating RSS feeds into their daily workflows. Jean has been using RSS readers for years while James jumps in with both feet and reports on his experiences. Both are excited by a feature of the RSS service Feedbin that can move email newsletters out of your inbox and into a feed. Also, James makes the biggest faux pas yet in his brief podcasting career.

RSS Tools We Talked About:
Feedbin
Feed Wrangler
Reeder for Mac and iOS

Jean and James discuss that dilemna of the digital age: Use third-party apps or the apps built-in to iOS and macOS? Jean uses a fair number of third-pary apps while James tends to stick to the built-in apps, with a few exceptions. Topics include launchers, timers, clipboard managers, and a shout out to the built-in Reminders app.

We’d love to hear from you about the third-party or built-in apps that you use and what makes them useful to you. Mention us in your Micro.blog: @theweeklyreview or on Twitter: @weeklyreviewfm.

Third-Party Tools We Talked About:
Alfred
EggTimer 2
Fantastical
OmniFocus
Reeder

Jean and James trade stories of productivity milestones, as well as tasks they need help with. Jean finally completed her 2017 tax return, with help from PDFpenPro and TurboTax. James is working on an app that he’s not ready to announce yet, and he’s using Sketch to design the interface. We finish up with an extended discussion about how to decide what gets tagged “Next” in our OmniFocus systems.

PDFpenPro

TurboTax

Sketch

What’s The Forecast?

In this bonus-length episode Jean and James compare and contrast two services they use to keep their email inboxes manageable: Mailstrom and SaneBox. Each service has its own core ‘superpower’ and philosophy as well as areas where their functionality overlap.

We’d love to hear from you about your experience with these services or other ways you’ve found to manage your inbox. Just mention us in your Micro.blog: @theweeklyreview or on Twitter: @weeklyreviewfm.

Our Email Processing Tools
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)
Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

Trick or treat? It’s the week of Halloween and a major Apple product announcement, aka two productivity busters. We look at human failure in scheduling and Jean’s epic red wine bottle disaster. There’s no trusted system that can overcome human fallibility, and life sometimes throws you a curve ball that your task management system will not be ready for.

On the productive side, we process some email episode follow-up from last week, including Jean’s discovery of the iOS app Chuck, put out by the Mailstrom folks, for effectively slashing your inbox while mobile.

Our Email Processing Tools
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)
Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

In this episode Jean and James talk about the capture phase—getting things out of your head and into your trusted system. Topics include capturing commitments with a short timeline, some Siri frustrations, Post-it Notes, and techniques to avoid being mortified when attending the opera. James offers up a fleeting ten dollar word or two. Both Jean and James manage to go an entire episode without mentioning Mailstrom or SaneBox.

Do you have a life-hack for capture you’d like to share?
Let us know on Micro.blog at @theweeklyreview or Twitter at @weeklyreviewfm.

Articles and tools mentioned in this episode:
iMore Article: Siri: The ultimate guide
Do Not Distrub Tool: Parallels Toolbox for Mac
Apple Article: Use Do Not Disturb on your Mac
iMore Article: How to set up and use Do Not Disturb on Mac

(Jean mentioned she uses Parallels Toolbox for Mac for Do Not Disturb. James forgot to mention he uses the built-in option-click on the Notification Center icon in the toolbar to turn on Do Not Disburb.)

James and Jean share little ideas and hacks for making the holidays less stressful. We also take a moment to reflect on what we are thankful for, and it turns out we are very thankful for our favorite software.

Do you have any holiday hacks or productivity gift ideas? Share them with us on Micro.blog, Twitter or email us, and we’ll regift them to the community.

Our Gift Ideas

Kiva.org Gift Cards

Davero Farms and Winery

Brother P-touch Label Maker

What We’re Thankful For

Omni Focus 3

Mailstrom and Chuck

Micro.blog’s Microcasting

… but we are especially thankful for our listeners and all the people who made it possible for us to launch a this podcast.

For the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Jean and James talk about travel tips, flight anxiety, and packing lists. They also tell anecdotes of trips gone awry that show sometimes life can be enjoyable when you don’t reach your destination quite the way you planned.

Do you have any travel tips, hacks or stories?
Share them with us on Micro.blog, Twitter or email us.

The Weekly Review welcomes its first guest! Aleen Simms, founder of App Launch Map and long-time App Camp For Girls volunteer, has been on the hunt for the perfect to-do list app. She even has a bulleted list of 10 requirements for what she is looking for. Jean and James suggest various ideas and strategies that might help Aleen get the task management life she wants, but we all agree that no app or system fits our needs perfectly.

Listeners, if you have suggestions for Aleen, let us hear them! You can reach us on Micro.blog, Twitter, or via email.

Jean and James talk about making bigger plans that go beyond keeping on top of the day to day routine. Jean challenges James to a game of twenty questions about a big plan for the coming year. James talks a bit about an upcoming trip to Europe. The conversation ranges from pursuits like learning languages to necessary todo items like renewing a passport.

Do you have any big plans in mind?
Share them with us on Micro.blog, Twitter or email us.

Jean and James do a trusted system status review. Are we still keeping in our heads? (Spoiler alert: a few things.) Are we still using our email inboxes as to-do lists? (Spoiler alert: sometimes.) Nevertheless, a weekly podcast is a clear sign that we have built trusted systems that are effective at meeting goals.

Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)
Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

In this episode Jean and James reach into the holiday grab bag to see what they will find. Topics include gift wrapping, making your own personal ‘Best of 2018’ list, thoughts on gift exchanges and sharing experiences as opposed to giving things. Plus, Jean closes out 2018 by closing a lingering open loop.

The gift wrapping tutorial mentioned in this episode can be found at:
Gift Wrap Field Guide

As the year 2018 draws to a close, Jean and James decide to take a week off from worrying about the state of their inboxes as they look ahead to plans for the New Year. We look at the efficacy of resolutions and when is really the best time to resolve to do better. (Spoiler alert: January 1st isn’t the best date.) On both of our calendars: to continue doing The Weekly Review Podcast. See you in 2019!

On our 2019 Calendars:

PodCon, January 19-20

dotSwift, January 28

Gallifrey One, February 15-17

LIVE near WWDC, TBD but likely June 2019

As the new year begins, Jean and James review the model of natural planning described in our favorite personal productivity book. Jean talks about her plan for leaving corporate social media platforms in 2019 and how that will affect how she connects with the people in her life. James talks about a few spots he can get stuck in the planning process and how that affects his ability to get things done. And both Jean and James take a moment acknowledge the magic of the postal system.

We have a special guest this week, Rosemary Orchard, co-author of Build Your OmniFocus Workflow. Rosemary was inspired to create a task management system that worked the way she wanted it to, thanks to by her school experience with planners and a little website called 43 Folders.

Special event! Rosemary and her Automators co-host David Sparks will be attending PodCon in Seattle January 19-20, and they are organizing an Automators meetup. James and Jean will be attending too!

In this episode, Jean and James talk about those times when organizational fun turns into organizational fatigue. James describes his experience going off the rails of his trusted system while traveling over the holidays. Jean recounts her difficulty establishing daily habits. Jean seeks grace in the new year while James managed to successfully transport a fragile, vintage ukulele cross-country.

James and Jean are back from PodCon 2 in Seattle, a gathering of podcasters and podcast fans of all stripes. They share some of the fun moments as well as their tips for getting the most out of a conference.

TripIt

Mac OS Calendar Suggestions

Photo: Rosemary Orchard, David Sparks, James Dempsey, Jean MacDonald, Brent Simmons at the Automators Podcast meetup hosted by the Omni Group.

In this episode, our interpid organizers delve into that alternate dimension that seems to defy organization: the junk drawer. Join Jean and James for suggestions, tips, and laughter as they discuss items ordinary and extraordinary (but mostly ordinary) that they have found in those ever-present drawers that sometimes seem might contain life, the universe and everything.

Have you found something interesting, amusing or astounding in your junk drawer? Do you have a tip for keeping your junk drawer organized?
We’d love to hear from you on Micro.blog, Twitter or email us!

This week, we look at some principles of budgeting your money and whether these principles can also apply to budgeting your time.

You Need A Budget aka YNAB

YNAB Podcast: Rule One

This week Jean and James discuss those unexpected things in life that can mentally and emotionally knock the wind out of you. James shares the sad news of the sudden passing of his cat Dinah. Jean talks about a long-planned trip being disrupted by a combination of feeling under the weather and temporary dental work.

This week’s episode is in memory of Dinah.
She was such a sweet and beautiful cat and companion.

By definition, curveballs are not anticipated and they don’t fit neatly into your time management system. Last week was not the best week, and we have been working through some unanticpated disruptions to our plans to be productive since then. Turns out, the universe is still not done throwing us curveballs, but we do find a couple of silver linings.

Get $5 off Mailstrom and Chuck (referral link)
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

This week Jean and James discuss collections and the seemingly conflicting goals of accumulating collectables and reducing clutter. Jean describes the few things she collects and how she resists the temptation to begin new collections. James talks about his treasure trove of Disneyland Guidemaps and reveals why it is a practically perfect collection for him in every way. Conversation turns to digital collections and James’ fascination with hotel carpet designs.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Author Jean Stafford

Ann’s Restaurant

Reno Air

James’ visual history of Disney California Adventure:

This week, Jean tells James about her latest productivity strategy, the micro project, and how she used a repeating 30-minute timer to get ready for the trip and actually leave the house early with all her pre-flight actions checked off. It is amazing how much you can get done in a short amount of time if you prevent yourself from dawdling.

Please take a moment to rate The Weekly Review in the iTunes Store. We really appreciate it!

The weekly review is a key piece of keeping your trusted system humming along, but it can also feel like a daunting, onerous task to be avoided. This week James talks with Jean about his diagnosis as to why he has not performed a full weekly review in a while. Topics include the crucial step of clarifying, the difference between unprocessed and work-in-progress items, some thoughts on inbox zero, and rethinking when a project should be actively tracked as opposed to living in the someday / maybe list.

Note: Our Twitter handle has changed!
Now you can find us on Micro.blog and Twitter at the same handle: @theweeklyreview.

As James continues to identify the points of friction that have hindered regular weekly review completion, Jean looks at doing daily reviews to process all the inboxes that silently accumulate obligations as a way of minimizing the weekly procrastination.

Links:
Get $5 off Mailstrom and Chuck (referral link)
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

Tally, a quick counter app by Agile Tortoise (@agiletortoise on Micro.blog)

Note: Our Twitter handle has changed!
Now you can find us on Micro.blog and Twitter at the same handle: @theweeklyreview.

Jean and James celebrate their 50th episode by actually doing full weekly reviews.

The discussion includes recommiting to doing full weekly reviews and techniques to help get back on track. In a celebratory mood, the conversation ranges from including a review of your lofty goals in a weekly review, to some behind-the-scenes podcast production revelations, to dealing with pet poop.

Events during WWDC week (June 3-7) in San Jose, CA:
LIVE near WWDC (Jean and James)
AltConf (James)

Links:
Jaimee Newberry
Picture This Clothing

Jean and James continue to ferret out overlooked inboxes and lists as part of our efforts to make sure that obligations and projects are correctly categorized. This week we look at a common spot where Someday/Maybe dreams hang out: the domain names that we own. We look at a few of the domains for which we have had ambitious if not actionable plans for, and talk about how to make the tough triage decisions.

One of those domains that we are definitely using is livenearwwdc.com, the information central for all things about LIVE Near WWDC 2019, the annual James Dempsey and the Breakpoints benefit show for App Camp For Girls, June 5th in San Jose! Tickets will go on sale soon, and you can be notified first by signing up for our mailing list.

It’s been a whole year since Jean and James started their quest to get their email inboxes under control. Find out how they did over the past twelve months. Jean talks about the satisfaction of banishing marketing emails from her inbox. James reveals the secret little cheat that has kept his inbox from overflowing and steps he is taking to eliminate it. Plus, a bonus Emailiversary greeting card to download.

From all of us, to all of you, a very merry emailiversary!
Emailiversary Greeting Card

Links:
Get $5 off Mailstrom and Chuck (referral link)
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

In this episode Jean and James discuss how finding the right tool or appliance can change your daily routine for the better as well as have a significant effect on your day to day life. Jean tells the story of a hair dryer so good that it has put a bit of a strain on her relationship with her longtime hairdresser. James talks about switching to an electric razer that keeps him from letting his beard grow - eliminating the need for a periodic unpleasant whisker ‘hackathon’. Both describe the tradeoff between the expense of a really nice applicance or tool and how its affects can make your life better over time.

Jean and James talk with Ish ShaBazz, an app developer whose company Illuminated Bits recently released Capsicum, a new approach to the task management notebook. We learn what led Ish to the idea of building a notebook app, the power of round-trip translation with Boomerang, and how it felt for Ish be featured in the documentary App: The Human Story.

We also find out what the weather was on our birthdays in our respective hometowns in Florida and New Jersey, a nifty little feature of Capsicum’s integration with historical weather information.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Capsicum

Boomerang

App: The Human Story

Jean returns from a week in Florida with her dad and siblings, where they took on the task of clearing out the home that the family has occupied since 1963. She shares her fresh insights into how to deal with stuff that has sentimental value, how to organize a family photo swap, and the joys of hiring a junk pickup service. Jean also describes the benefits of doing hard work on a project that has an immediate payoff.

Photo: Jean and brother Bob, circa 50 years ago, uncovered in the decluttering.

As the annual James Dempsey and the Breakpoints LIVE near WWDC benefit concert for App Camp For Girls approaches, James reports he has spent the past few days being ‘whelmed’ with show preparations.

Jean and James talk about these sort of times when you are so focused on a set of urgent tasks at hand that you might not look to your trusted system for guidance for a day or two. James wonders if it is okay to operate keeping a finite number of pressing tasks in mind for a short period of time.

Have you been ‘whelmed’ before? If you have tips, tricks, suggestions, or life hacks of how you deal with similar situations, we would love to hear from you on Micro.blog, Twitter or email us!

On June 5th, Jean and James will be performing nerdy music:
LIVE near WWDC

So we lasted a whole five weeks since our Emailiversary show (Ep. 52) before we took up the topic of email processing again, probably because it has been a hard week and we are behind on email. Luckily we both have a sense of humor about it.

We also discuss listener follow-up to last week’s episode Whelmed, with a pledge to try a new suggestion as soon as we get unwhelmed after LIVE near WWDC.

Links:
Get $5 off Mailstrom and Chuck (referral link)
Get $5 off Sanebox (referral link)

This past week, App Camp For Girls announced some difficult news. In this episode, Jean talks about her history as founder of the non-profit and aspects of the program, including the curriculum and volunteers, who have had such an impact on many lives. James describes some of the challenges of producing a big benefit concert with changes being announced just weeks away from the event.

On June 5th, Jean and James will be performing nerdy music in San Jose:
LIVE near WWDC

James explains that the show will go on and other details in this show update:
LIVE near WWDC 2019 Update

James and Jean review their plans for WWDC week in San Jose, and what is still on their to-do lists. James reveals the secret phrase needed to obtain The Weekly Review stickers (hint: just ask!), and Jean talks about efforts not to overthink the Micro.blog meetup.

There are still some tickets left for Live near WWDC. Get yours today to avoid disappointment, because they will sell out before the show on June 5th. We hope to see you there!

If you want to come to the Micro.blog Meetup, here are the details.

Your trusted system holds commitments you have made to others and also to yourself. From there, you can fulfil your commitment or drop the ball. In this episode, Jean and James talk about a third option—renegotiating your committments.

This episode also represents a renegotiated commitment of its own — shorter episodes for the summer while Jean and James are traveling and not able to record every week.

Plus: Jean gets some Slovenian phrase homework and James mentions the comedic properties of the phrase “Where is my hat?” in French.

This week Jean and James talk about their time at WWDC 2019. Bringing a long-planned project to its conclusion, the LIVE near WWDC concert was well-received. The annoucements from Apple hold promise to make developers and users alike more productive. Also, James is trying out new style of blogging, inspired by Brent Simmons. Jean is making preparations for her trip to Slovenia.

Show Links:

Brent Simmons
My Blogging Setup These Days

James Dempsey
The Shortest Path To A Great App

And in the name of Twitting Quitter:
An evergreen post by Jean MacDonald
A Guide to Micro.blog For People Who Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Twitter

Jean leads off a discussion about the delight of making spontaneous plans and how to decide whether they are feasible in the context of all our other commitments. Making time to be with the people you love has become Jean’s top criteria when deciding whether to make new plans on the spur of the moment. James points out that GTD is designed to make spontaneous joy possible, not to squelch it.

Photo: Spontaneous friends: Jean with New Zealand friends Devon and Maryanne, hosted by LA friends Allison, and Steve

James is finding that even thought it has been a number of weeks since WWDC, he is still living in his head, not checking in with his trusted system, but still feeling productive. Jean talks about creating a daily ‘punch list’ of items to do on that particular day.

Jean makes the suggestion of setting an OmniFocus reminder to check OmniFocus daily. James is revisiting the book The Power of Habit to try to turn a daily check-in with his trusted system into a daily habit, even when he’s off in ‘in my head’ land.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Libby App

Leaving things to the last minute is the bête noire of the organized person, right? But Jean and James have found that sometimes the last minute can be your friend, as long as you are cognizant of what absolutely must be settled in advance. Sometimes the choices you make at the last minute can surprise and delight you.

Photo: New fleece cage liner purchased for the guinea pigs in a very whimsical pattern, a last minute choice over DIY fleece liners, which would have been a boring solid dark color.

Lep pozdrav iz Ljubljane! / Greetings from Ljubljana! 🇸🇮

In our first intercontinental podcast episode, Jean talks about how living away from home, either in a hotel or a small apartment, makes it possible to form new habits that can stay in place once you get back. It’s a lot easier to:

• stay decluttered when your place is small

• prepare (not necessarily cook!) three simple meals a day when your kitchen is minimal

• walk 3-4 miles per day when you don’t have a car.

For this episode, Jean is in Slovenia and James is about to take a trip to the east coast.

Jean talks about the possibility of declaring OmniFocus Bankruptcy. James suggests that it would be a shame to lose all the work already done capturing items into the trusted system. Jean and James talk about handling to-do items that you will definitely not be able to get to when on a trip.

Finally, a little more about things you can’t wait until the last minute to do, as well as the fate of traveler’s checks.

UPDATE: This past weekend, Jean tripped and tore a tendon in her left knee while on her trip to Slovenia. She had to return home early due to the injury and is now back in Portland. You can send support and well-wishes to Jean via The Weekly Review or directly at @macgenie on Micro.blog or Twitter.

This episode was recorded before Jean’s injury.

In this episode Jean tells the story of her ill-fated day trip to Trieste, where she injured herself and had to cut short her summer in Slovenia. Jean talks about her odyssey from an Italian piazza to her arrival back home in Portland, Oregon. Along the way, a few thoughts and tips on what you might want to bring on a day trip even if you are trying to travel light.

This episode follows up on Jean’s mishap on her trip with Jean discussing some reflections and lessons learned. Topics range from travel-specific subjects like travel insurance and packing for a day trip to more universal thoughts like being willing to accept help when offered and trying to keep a positive attitude even when things have taken an unexpected turn for the worse.

This week we turn our focus from Jean’s “tumble in Trieste” to James’ latest adventure in the Canadian maritime province of New Brunswick, where his father was born and raised. After the death of his father last year, James and his sister had many of the typical issues to deal with, plus one unique challenge: how do you best dispose of a U.S.-registered automobile in Canada? (Hint: Roadtrip!)

While criss-crossing the country in July, James listened to the Getting Things Done audio book. In this episode, James talks about his newly refined thoughts about his trusted system and how hearing about GTD through a different medium helped him to understand the system in a different way. Jean and James recommit to doing some form of weekly review each week.

There are some great online tools to deal with email inboxes, but what can be done about all the paper mail that comes to our doorstep? Jean and James talk about how they cope with that daunting stack of envelopes, flyers, and catalogs that can pile up especially during extended periods of travel, and discuss solutions for cutting down the amount of junk mail received.

FTC: Stopping Unsolicited Mail, Phone Calls, and Email

NY Times: How To Cut Down On Unwanted Junk Mail

Direct Marketing Association DMA Choice

Opt Out of Prescreened Credit Offers

Paper Karma app

How does it feel to do a weekly review after a long hiatus? That’s the topic of discussion for this episode as Jean and James discuss doing their first weekly review in a while. Jean describes her strategy to getting things done until she is back on her feet again. James reveals how many projects he has in OmniFocus. Jean and James give an update on their efforts to reduce the amount of physical mail they receive.

Direct Marketing Association DMA Choice

Opt Out of Prescreened Credit Offers

James and Jean have completed their weekly reviews for two weeks in a row! 🎉

This week we talk about the importance of defining projects. Jean has a bad habit of saving projects as individual actions and not spelling out the steps. Without assigning clear “next actions,” your weekly review will cease to inspire you to get anything done. By clarifying the next step for each project, you’ll never stymied by the question “What should I do now?”

About a year ago OmniFocus 3 for Mac added the ability to add multiple tags to projects and actions. James recently reviewed all of the tags he has created over the past twelve month.

In this episode James shares his discoveries with Jean, talking about tags he’s found useful and some he’s found to be completely useless. Jean shares thoughts on her use of tags. James describes a new way he is using flags in Omnifocus and Jean and James briefly discuss using guinea pigs and cats as organic reminder systems.

OmniFocus

In this episode find out if Jean and James’ remarkable weekly review streak continues. Since it’s iPhone season, the discussion naturally turns to the new iPhones and Apple Watches, favorite new features in the new products and iOS 13 and whether to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

James and Jean are on a streak of doing their weekly reviews! As we reread the original GTD book, we take a closer look at weekly review “trigger” lists offered by the author and others, and come up with some modifications of our own for ferreting out uncaptured open loop items.

Getting Things Done by David Allen (audio book)

Building Your OmniFocus Workflow by Ryan Dotson and Rosemary Orchard

For this international episode, James was in Cancun in advance of the Release Notes conference while Jean was in still in Portland getting packed and ready to come to the conference. Jean and James talk about issues with out-of-date packing lists, strategies for updating external checklists like packing lists, and how Jean’s current mobility issues have affected her travel plans and packing list.

Is there a packing list app that you love using? We’d love to hear about it as well as any tips, tricks, or lifehacks regarding packing lists. Feel free to contact us on Micro.blog or Twitter at @theweeklyreview or send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm.

Release Notes Conference

Still coping with post-travel and time zone exhaustion, Jean and James recap some of their favorite things about attending the Release Notes Conference in Mexico. We managed to check off goals both personal and productive at a gathering that supports both.

Release Notes Conference 2019

TWR 71: Processing That Giant Stack of Physical Email

NY Times: How To Cut Down On Unwanted Junk Mail

WALT: Watched Animation List Tracker

This week, James and Jean talk about big projects that have been on their lists a while and finally got completed. Why a project finally gets traction is a good question. Deadlines can be helpful (or be flouted). Sometimes the right time and motivation present themselves. In any case, the clearer your next actions are, the more likely your projects move forward.

This episode Jean and James talk about getting back into the groove. As Jean continues to recover from her knee injury, getting back in the groove includes picking up her first Lyft passenger in many months and all the little steps that took including finding a power cable. For James, the seemingly simple task of trading in an iPhone threw him out of his groove for a while. Also, a brief poorly-informed discussion of the space program.

Groove is in the Heart (Apple Music)

This week, James and Jean talk about a tool used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: “15 Styles of Distorted Thinking,” a list of common traps our minds fall into when assessing reality, and how those traps prevent us from having the stress-free approach to productivity we are seeking.

Disclaimer: as we frequently like to say, we are not gurus. We are not experts on productivity or psychology. We are just two friends talking about what works for us.

15 Styles of Distorted Thinking

PDF: 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking
Fits on one page, can be printed and used with a ticker file or hung up on your refrigerator

In this episode, Jean and James talk about some items that have on their project lists for a long time, progress made, next actions taken, and the wonderful feeling of finally completing a long-running project. Also, James celebrates an anniversary and Jean describes how she is using OmniFocus to make the transition back to activity from convelescence.

Jean attended WordCamp Seattle over the weekend to catch up with the latest topics of interest in the WordPress user community. A session on task management caught her attention, so she attended and got some fresh perspective from a non-Getting Things Done point of view.

Many thanks to Annie LaCroix of Brainy Boss for an excellent and thought-provoking presentation.

In this episode Jean and James talk about different modes of operation. James observes a long-standing pattern in his behavior that automatically flips between project-focus and organizational-focus. Jean and James brainstorm some ways to try to keep this pattern from causing weekly reviews and trusted system updates from slipping.

Plus, a karaoke discussion about projects versus external lists as well as the odd karaoke song selection at the resort where Jean and James attended the Release Notes conference last month.

During this Thanksgiving week episode Jean and James talk about things they are thankful for. This includes their trusted systems which not only help them accomplish things but also lets them have piece of mind when spending time with family and friends.

The conversation veers into technology more than originally intended: James is very thankful for his new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Jean contemplates getting some Air Pods Pro and James unveils his new service to help people rationalize buying things they want to buy anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our listeners!

James and Jean talk about that awkward year-end period, wedged between two major holidays in the U.S. (not counting Black Friday and Cyber Monday), when important year-end matters vie for attention with holiday-related shopping and travel. How do you stay on track during these challenging seasons? (No, seriously, it’s not a rhetorical question. Help us out with your strategies!)

The Depth of Our Madness, Focused podcast, Episode 85, Oct. 29, 2019.

The FOCUSED 2020 Wall Calendar. “Life is more than cranking widgets.”

We have a special guest this week: David Sparks from the podcast Focused, among many others. David and his co-host Mike Schmitz recently did an episode on the best use of calendars, and we asked David to talk about some of his favorite calendar strategies, including hyperscheduling and a year-at-a-glance wall calendar.

David and Mike even designed a special 2020 FOCUSED Wall Calendar, available for purchase from NeuYear. Jean bought one, and is looking forward to 2020 a little bit more now.

Thanks again, David, for coming on our podcast.

The holiday season is in full swing. Did you forget to get yourself a gift? Here’s a suggestion.

As we prepare to enter these too busy times, don’t forget to give yourself the gift of spending some time doing absolutely nothing this season.
Patrick Rhone, Rhoneisms, December 1, 2019

The Case For Doing Nothing, Olga Mecking, New York Times, April 29, 2019

The holiday season can be a time to gather together with those we care about. It can also be a season of not only giving, but receiving. In this episode, Jean and James talk about receiving gifts that can become projects in and of themselves. Topics include everything from clothing in the wrong size, to making a cash gift more personally meaningful, to thoughts on how to handle a gift from someone you care about that leaves you scratching your head with what to do with it.

It’s the beginning of a brand new year and in this episode Jean and James take a look back at 2019 with some resolutions and accomplishments and look forward to getting things done in 2020. Topics include getting away from or sticking with social media platforms and getting a new health care plan.

We start off this year answering a listener question about when and why to use Due versus Omnifocus for reminders. James confesses he still hasn’t done his weekly review and talks about why he is okay with that, while Jean flies under the radar and doesn’t even mention her weekly review (which she hasn’t done either). We wrap up with some travel hacking tips and then James surprises us all by offering prizes for guessing which week he will do that weekly review.

• Send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm with the subject “Weekly Review Week Guess” and pick the Sunday of the week that you think James will actually complete a full weekly review. The correct guess will score something fun from the many cool pop culture tchotchkes at his house.

In this episode Jean and James set out to talk about including follow-up tasks in projects to make sure loose ends are tied up. But James‘ friend Dexter the cat has other plans and becomes an unexpected special guest. James coaxes him to share some of his feline organizational tips while other topics range from some OmniFocus wishlist items to unexpected trips.

Our contest is still on:
Send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm with the subject “Weekly Review Week Guess” and pick the Sunday of the week that you think James will actually complete a full weekly review. The correct guess will score something fun from the many cool pop culture tchotchkes at his house.

This week, we ask the question: how exactly did our parents manage their tasks? Both James and Jean have parents who held jobs, raised children, got advanced degrees, and successfully retired without the benefit of OmniFocus or GTD. We reminisce about what organizational strategies we remember from our childhoods, how our parents’ examples influenced us, and how life was simpler back then.

Inspired by an article by J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly, Jean and James talk about the appealing concept of starting with a clean slate. The conversation covers a range of variations on the clean slate theme—from hotel rooms that contain only what you’ve brought on a trip, to declaring OmniFocus bankruptcy and starting again, to the thought that a weekly review is a way of getting to a clean slate state, without starting from scratch every time. Plus, a movie pitch and a sure-fire idea for an app.

The clean slate by J.D. Roth at getrichslowly.org

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+ and more. With the proliferation of streaming services, home entertainment has become more complex. In this episode Jean and James talk about their streaming subscriptions including strategies to keep from breaking the entertainment budget. Also, Jean moves to the next iCloud storage tier and James wonders if he should dump Hulu and watch Picard instead.

App for tracking subscriptions:
Bobby

Thanks to an email from a listener, Jean did a weekly review this week on the theory that it’s better to do a shoddy one than not to do one at all. James is still getting things done, but a full weekly review is still on his list. (Which means the contest to guess which week James does a review is still on. Details below.)

Send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm with the subject “Weekly Review Week Guess” and pick the Sunday of the week that you think James will actually complete a full weekly review. The correct guess will score something fun from the many cool pop culture tchotchkes at his house.

This episode Jean talks about progress on her proposal to add a guinea pig emoji, including the emoji proposal process and some details from the reasearch Jean has done so far. Using this particular project as an example, Jean and James talk about how their trusted system might help them to get things done, but doesn’t necessarly help you get things done early or ahead of a deadline.

James announces that he has completed a weekly review after a spell of not doing one (while being otherwise productive). We talk about how it feels to get that done, why it took this long, and what lessons we can learn about getting back on track. We also discuss about how tags and flags can be a help or a distraction in tackling our tasks in OmniFocus.

In this episode the topics range from the practical to the fanciful. James and Jean revisit the notion of a clean slate. James has begun thinking about his weekly review as a way to start with a clean slate which has been helpful motivation in the past few weeks. In more fanciful matters, Jean and James talk about desired superpowers and James contends that a common inspirational phrase is a load of hooey. Finally, the winner of the “When will James Do His Next Weekly Review?” contest is announced!

To mark the occasion of the 100th episode, James and Jean talk about our favorite moments and accomplishments, and talk about new ideas for our second hundred episodes.

Some stats so far:
Total minutes: 2517
Total hours: 42
Average length: 25.5 minutes
Number of special guests: 4 (+ 1 🐱)
Holidays invented: 2
Episodes recorded outdoors: 1
Podcasting conferences attended: 1

Episodes mentioned:

1: My Whole House Is An Inbox

8: The Usual Monkey Wrench

16: The Unbearable Lightness of OmniFocus Bankruptcy

19: That’s Too Devious, Jean

20: Organizationiversary

21: A Day Without A Dot 🎉

33: On The Hunt For The Perfect To-Do List App, with Special Guest Aleen Simms

35: James Is My Trusted System

39: A Very Long Story, with Special Guest Rosemary Orchard

41: Productivity + Fun = PodCon 2 in Seattle

42: Life, The Universe, and What’s In Our Junk Drawers

47: The Time Sensitive Micro Project

52: Emailiversary

54: A Very Tasty Pepper, with Special Guest Ish ShaBazz

69: The Odyssey of the Ford Taurus

87: Reviewing Our 2020 Calendar Strategies, with Special Guest David Sparks

92: Cat Bombed, with Special Guest Dexter

94: The Clean Slate