Weekly Review
Every week, I sit down on a Friday afternoon, at 2 PM, to do my Weekly Review. Well, almost every week. Uhm, 2 PM-ish. Fridays can be weird sometimes.
I've been doing this through 2024. It's been a helpful practice and one that I'd like to continue into my professional career.
My recurring calendar event for the Weekly Review pretty much sums up the practice:
Weekly Review
Friday, June 14 ⋅ 2:00 – 2:30pm
Weekly on Friday
1. File reimbursement requests for the week, if any.
2. Update brag document with accomplishments from the week.
- Reference: https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents
3. Take stock of Jira tickets in the current sprint.
- Create milestones for following week on each deliverable.
4. Look through technical notes from the week.
5. Surface a random note from the archive and improve it.
It's a fairly short exercise. I feel that it has helped me develop some perspective. Stepping away from the minutiae of the tasks or projects I'm currently working on provides the space to reflect on broader things.
How has this week been in the context of the month? Of the year? Are things progressing in the right direction?
1.
The first step is self explanatory. Just admin stuff.
2.
The most useful part of the whole process is the brag document. The raw form of my brag document is for my own records; it's quite comprehensive, with almost too many details about the things I've worked on. When it comes time to share my achievements, for a performance review or a resume update, the task is relatively easy - trim the fat and share what's left. As the quote goes, "I apologize; had I had more time I would've written a shorter letter."
I found this to be very handy during a quarterly 1-on-1 meeting I had with my manager this week. My preparation was a short read through my brag document, from which I was able to summarize the various projects I'd worked on this quarter and how I felt they contributed to my career.
3.
The Jira stuff is helpful, when applicable. Agile, sprints, and Jira tickets warrant a wholly separate post. I do this occasionally.
4.
My daily notes can get messy as I scribble notes by hand or paste random code snippets into my notes file. Taking the time to review the week's notes helps separate out the useful thoughts to save them in an easily searchable manner. Sometimes this involves fleshing out a thought, adding in some keywords, or consolidating similar notes.
5.
This is largely similar to the previous item. My note-taking system, Foam, provides a useful "Open Random Note" feature, which I take advantage of.
This part of the Weekly Review is mostly self-indulgent, to do a bit of gardening and organizing that feels good, but ultimately doesn't matter. I find it's the little joys that help keep the overall endeavour afloat.