Optimization: The Weekly Review
A static system quickly becomes obsolete. To keep your Focus Block System effective and aligned with your goals, you need a simple feedback loop. This is the weekly review, a 30-60 minute block you should schedule for every Friday afternoon.
The purpose of the weekly review is not to judge your performance but to learn from it. It’s a moment of objective reflection that helps you make better decisions for the week ahead. During this session, you look back at your calendar from the past week and look forward to the commitments of the next.
Here are a few key metrics and questions to guide your review:
1. Energy Levels: Where Did You Thrive?
Scroll through your past week’s calendar. Don’t just look at what you did; try to remember how you felt. When did you feel most energized and focused? Was it during your Tuesday morning deep work block? When did you feel most drained? Was it after three back-to-back meetings on Wednesday? Energy is a critical metric for productivity. Poor sleep, for instance, has a well-documented negative impact on cognitive performance, as noted by organizations like the Sleep Foundation and research supported by the NIH. If you notice you’re consistently tired by 3 PM, maybe you need a longer lunch break or a short walk scheduled in the early afternoon.
2. Deep Work Count: Did You Protect Your Priorities?
Count the number of “Blue” (Deep Work) blocks you scheduled versus how many you actually completed without major interruption. This is a direct measure of how well you protected your focus time. If you scheduled ten but only managed four, why? Were meetings the primary culprit? Were you overly optimistic? This data helps you adjust your strategy for the next week, perhaps by blocking your focus time more assertively or communicating your schedule to your team.
3. Rollover Rate: What Didn’t Get Done?
How many tasks did you have to move from one day to the next? A high rollover rate can indicate a few things: you’re overestimating what you can do in a day, you’re not building in enough buffer time, or you’re allowing low-priority tasks to crowd out important ones. This is where the 80/20 Principle (also known as the Pareto Principle) comes in handy. This principle suggests that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Applied to your work, it means a small number of your tasks will generate the majority of your results. During your weekly review, identify that critical 20% and ensure they get a non-negotiable “Blue” block next week.
4. Planning for the Week Ahead
After looking back, look forward. Review your calendar for the upcoming week. Are there any major deadlines? Big meetings? Personal appointments? Start creating a tentative structure. Drag your key tasks from your to-do list onto your calendar, creating deep work blocks for them. Schedule your recurring routines. This simple act of pre-planning is one of the most powerful decision fatigue solutions, ensuring you start Monday morning with clarity and purpose, not confusion.
