Recurring reviews are a cornerstone of a well-managed life.

Recurring, periodic reviews are key to a well-managed, organized life.

Without a structured set of recurring review appointments, you can never be sure you’ve covered all your bases. No list you use to keep track of your tasks will be fully trusted. No personal metrics can be assured to be used. You can never have certainty that you’ll be prepared for the other appointments on your calendar.

Periods

There is a valid argument to be made for reviews on just about any frequency. Having multiple, overlapping types of reviews, held on different cadences allows you to ensure your bases are well-covered, while minimizing unnecessary efforts. It is good to check your weight every few days to weeks, but checking it nightly is going to give you more noise than useful signal. Meanwhile only checking in on your finances when taxes are due is a pretty sure fire way to go broke.

Align each reviewed area with a frequency that makes sense.

More frequent reviews should be quick, even if they are shallow. More infrequent reviews should be deep, even if they take a while. There’s a threshold between scope and period to aim for. You can multiply the frequency by the duration and get a rough order-of-magnitude of the energy they take. Nightly review that takes 1 minute would be 365 minutes over the course of a year. An equivalent annual review would then take ~6 hours.


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