The GTD weekly review: a step-by-step checklist you will keep doing

The GTD weekly review is a regular appointment with yourself to bring your whole Getting Things Done system up to date. You empty your inboxes and your head, check every list and your calendar, and look at the ideas you parked for later. It is what turns a pile of lists into something you trust. David Allen's checklist has three parts: Get Clear, Get Current and Get Creative.

This guide walks through every step, the mistakes that make people drop the habit, and how to set up a weekly review in Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, so a fresh review note appears on your schedule.

What the GTD weekly review is for

Getting Things Done has five steps: Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect and Engage. The weekly review is the core of Reflect, which the official site sums up as "Review frequently". Its job is to update and review the system so you can trust it.

Without it, lists drift. Tasks that are done stay on them, new commitments never make it in, and projects stall without anyone noticing. After a few weeks you stop believing your lists and go back to keeping things in your head. The weekly review stops that drift.

Allen also offers a note of flexibility: "Best to not be too tied up in how often you 'should' be doing a Weekly Review." Weekly is the name and a good default. What matters is a rhythm you keep.

The GTD weekly review checklist

The checklist on gettingthingsdone.com, published in 2009, has three parts. Here they are in order, in our own words.

Get Clear

1. Collect loose papers and materials. Gather receipts, notes, business cards and anything else lying around, and put them in your inbox.
2. Get "In" to zero. Process every inbox until it is empty: decide what each item is and put it where it belongs.
3. Empty your head. Write down every new project, task, worry and idea that has your attention.

Get Current

1. Review action lists. Tick off what is done, and add any new next actions.
2. Review the past calendar. Look back over the last week for anything that still needs follow-up.
3. Review the upcoming calendar. Look ahead for what needs preparing.
4. Review your Waiting For list. Chase what is late, and tick off what arrived.
5. Review your project lists, and larger outcomes. A useful test: does each active project have a next action?
6. Review any relevant checklists. Any recurring list you use, such as one for a role or a routine.

Get Creative

1. Review Someday/Maybe. Move anything that has become a real commitment into your projects, and drop what no longer interests you.
2. Be creative and courageous. The checklist's own words are "be creative & courageous": add the new ideas and projects you want to take on.

Common weekly review mistakes

• Skipping it in busy weeks. Busy weeks create the most loose ends, so they are when the review helps most.
• Doing tasks instead of reviewing them. The review decides what to do; it is not the time to do it, beyond a few two-minute actions.
• Only reviewing the task list. The calendar, the Waiting For list and the projects are where surprises hide.
• No fixed time. A review that happens "sometime this week" slips. Put it in your calendar like a meeting.
• A checklist too long to finish. Keep the steps that matter to you, and finish every time.

How to do the GTD weekly review in Barside

In Barside, your to-dos are checklist items in your notes, and the Tasks board gathers them by due date. Templates and repeating notes turn the weekly review into a note that arrives by itself, ready to tick.

Make the review note come to you

1. Create a note titled GTD weekly review with three headings, Get Clear, Get Current and Get Creative, and a checklist under each with the steps above. Add a Notes heading at the end for new ideas.
2. Open Note options and choose Save as template. Name it and choose Save template. Ticked boxes are cleared in a template, so every review starts fresh.
3. In Settings, find Templates & repeating notes and click Templates, then New repeating note.
4. Pick your template and a workspace. Under Repeats, choose Weekly and tick Friday, or your day. Set the Time, such as 16:00, and click Save.

Barside then makes a new review note every week and shows a quiet New note ready notification. If your computer was off at that time, Barside makes the latest missed note when it starts, never a pile of them. You can also start from the built-in Weekly review template, which has Wins, What did not go well, Next week's priorities and Notes, and add the GTD steps to it. See note templates and repeating notes.

Get Clear in Barside

• Your inboxes. Process each to empty: tasks captured with task in the search bar wait under No due date on the Tasks board; articles wait in Reading's Inbox; quick notes made with nn sit in your first workspace. If you use AI agents, check the Inbox in Agents & approvals too.
• Loose papers. Type them up, or paste a photo of each into a note.
• Your head. Under Get Clear, write every new item as a checklist line. Each one becomes a task on the board.

Get Current in Barside

• Action lists. Open Tasks with All workspaces. Tick what is done, and drag what slipped into Next 7 days or Later. Show done lists what you finished, a good place to see your week. See the task board.
• Past calendar. Barside's Calendar view shows today and the next 7 days, so look back over last week in Google Calendar or Outlook itself.
• Upcoming calendar. Barside's Calendar view lists the week ahead next to your notes, with a Meeting note button on each event to prepare. See the calendar next to your notes.
• Waiting For. Open your Waiting for note. The Reminders list, from the bell in the top bar, shows every note and task with a reminder, soonest first.
• Projects. Open your Projects hub note and each project brief. Every active project should have at least one unticked item.

Get Creative in Barside

Open your Someday/Maybe note and read it slowly. Turn anything you are ready to commit to into a project note, and delete what no longer excites you. Write new ideas in the review note's Notes section, and link them with [[ to the notes they grow from.

Let AI prepare the review (optional)

Barside has no AI of its own, but if you connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or OpenRouter in Settings → AI, the scheduled agents in Agents & approvals include a Weekly review preset that runs on Fridays at 4:00 PM. It writes a note from your open tasks, reminders, recent notes and calendar events, and any reminders or tasks it suggests wait in the approval inbox until you approve them. Read it before your own review, not instead of it. See AI agents that ask before they act.

Between reviews, the daily briefing shows what is due today without any AI.

Who the weekly review suits

Anyone running GTD needs it, and most people with a task list benefit from it, whatever method they use:

• Freelancers and consultants, to catch every client follow-up before the week starts.
• Managers, to see delegated work, upcoming meetings and stalled projects in one sitting.
• Students, to look at the coming week's deadlines across courses.
• Anyone who feels behind, because one honest review often shows the list is shorter than it felt.

Related methods

• Getting Things Done, the full five-step method the review belongs to.
• Inbox Zero, for the email part of Get Clear.
• Time blocking, to turn next week's priorities into a plan for each day.
• Personal kanban, a board you can review each week alongside your lists.