Review TODO Workflow

Purpose

Regular review processes to maintain a healthy TODO system and stay on top of commitments.

When to Use

Daily: Morning planning and evening review (10 minutes total)
Weekly: Comprehensive review and planning (20-30 minutes)
Monthly: Big picture review and cleanup (45-60 minutes)

Daily Review

Morning Planning (5 minutes)

Goal: Know what to work on today

1. Check Inbox

# How many items?
grep -c "^\*" ~/desktop/org/inbox.org

# Quick scan
head -20 ~/desktop/org/inbox.org

Action: If >5 items, do quick refile

2. View Today’s Schedule

today=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")
echo "=== Scheduled for Today ==="
grep -B2 "SCHEDULED: <$today" ~/desktop/org/todos.org | grep "^\*\*"

Action: Review and confirm still relevant

3. Check Deadlines

echo "=== Due Today or Soon ==="
for i in {0..2}; do
  day=$(date -d "+$i days" +"%Y-%m-%d")
  result=$(grep -B2 "DEADLINE: <$day" ~/desktop/org/todos.org | grep "^\*\*")
  if [ -n "$result" ]; then
    echo "[$day]"
    echo "$result"
  fi
done

Action: Prioritize deadline items

4. Review NEXT Actions

echo "=== Available Next Actions ==="
grep "^\*\* NEXT" ~/desktop/org/todos.org | head -10

Action: Pick 2-3 to focus on today

5. Set Today’s Intention

What 1-3 things MUST get done?
Mark one as STRT to begin with
Leave others as NEXT

Template:

Today's Focus (Dec 4):
1. [STRT] Fix authentication bug
2. [NEXT] Review upstream PR #123
3. [NEXT] Update roadmap discussion

Evening Review (5 minutes)

Goal: Capture progress and plan tomorrow

1. Check What’s STRT

echo "=== Currently In Progress ==="
grep "^\*\* STRT" ~/desktop/org/todos.org

Action:

Mark as DONE if completed
Add progress note if still working
Move back to NEXT if blocked

2. Capture New Items

# Any new TODOs from today?
echo "* TODO [thing that came up]" >> ~/desktop/org/inbox.org

Action: Quick capture anything from email, meetings, discussions

3. Update Progress

Add notes to in-progress items:

:LOGBOOK:
- Note taken on [2025-12-04 Thu 17:30] \\
  Completed analysis phase. Ready to implement tomorrow.
:END:

4. Tomorrow’s Setup

Anything to schedule for tomorrow?
Any urgent items to mark as NEXT?
Quick scan of tomorrow’s calendar

Weekly Review

Time: Sunday evening or Monday morning (20-30 minutes)

Goal: Clean system, clarify priorities, plan the week

1. Archive Completed Items (5 min)

# Find items to archive (older than 7 days)
week_ago=$(date -d "7 days ago" +"%Y-%m-%d")
echo "=== Completed Last Week ==="
grep -B5 "CLOSED:.*\[$week_ago" ~/desktop/org/todos.org | \
  grep "^** \(DONE\|CANX\)" | wc -l

Action: Archive all DONE/CANX items from last week

2. Process Inbox (5 min)

# Empty the inbox
cat ~/desktop/org/inbox.org

Action: Refile all items to appropriate sections

3. Review All NEXT Items (5 min)

echo "=== All NEXT Actions ==="
grep "^\*\* NEXT" ~/desktop/org/todos.org

Action:

Still relevant? Keep as NEXT
No longer next? Move to TODO
Cancelled? Mark CANX
Goal: Keep NEXT to 5-7 items max

4. Check for Stale TODOs (5 min)

# Items created >30 days ago, never scheduled
awk '/^\*\* TODO/ {
  p=1
  todo=$0
  scheduled=0
}
p && /CREATED:.*\[2025-10/ {
  old=1
}
p && /SCHEDULED:|DEADLINE:/ {
  scheduled=1
}
p && /^$/ {
  if (!scheduled && old) print todo
  p=0
  old=0
}' ~/desktop/org/todos.org

Action:

Still want to do? Schedule it
Not doing? Cancel it
Unclear? Keep but review next week

5. Review Projects (5 min)

echo "=== Active Projects ==="
sed -n '/^\* Projects/,/^\* Systems/p' ~/desktop/org/todos.org | \
  grep "^\*\* \(TODO\|NEXT\|STRT\)" | head -10

Action:

Update progress counters [n/m]
Mark completed subtasks as DONE
Archive completed projects
Add next subtasks if needed

6. Check This Week’s Schedule (5 min)

echo "=== This Week's Schedule ==="
for i in {0..7}; do
  day=$(date -d "+$i days" +"%Y-%m-%d %a")
  echo "=== $day ==="
  grep -B2 "SCHEDULED: <$(echo $day | cut -d' ' -f1)" ~/desktop/org/todos.org | \
    grep "^\*\*" | head -5
done

Action: Verify schedule is realistic

7. Plan Next Week’s Priorities

What are the top 3 priorities?
Which projects to advance?
Any deadlines coming up?
Set SCHEDULED dates for priority items

Template:

Week of Dec 2-8 Priorities:
1. Complete authentication refactor
2. Review 3 upstream PRs
3. Setup MQTT on rhea

Projects Focus:
- Keyboard improvements: Leader keys implementation
- Home automation: MQTT broker setup

Monthly Review

Time: Last Sunday of month (45-60 minutes)

Goal: Big picture review, system maintenance, learning

1. Review Accomplishments (10 min)

# What got done this month?
this_month=$(date +"%Y-%m")
echo "=== Completed This Month ==="
grep -r "CLOSED: \[$this_month" ~/desktop/org/archive/*.org | wc -l

# Show details
grep -r "CLOSED: \[$this_month" ~/desktop/org/archive/*.org | \
  grep "^**" | head -20

Questions:

What did I accomplish?
What patterns do I see?
What am I proud of?

2. Review Cancelled Items (5 min)

echo "=== Cancelled This Month ==="
grep -r "^** CANX" ~/desktop/org/archive/*.org | \
  grep "CLOSED: \[$this_month" | head -10

Questions:

Why were these cancelled?
Should I have said no earlier?
Any patterns to avoid?

3. Review Active TODOs (10 min)

echo "=== TODO Counts by Section ==="
for section in Work Projects Systems Personal; do
  count=$(sed -n "/^\* $section/,/^\* [A-Z]/p" ~/desktop/org/todos.org | \
    grep -c "^\*\* TODO")
  echo "$section: $count TODOs"
done

Action:

Too many in one section? Prioritize or cancel
Any old TODOs to cancel?
Redistribute as needed

4. Review Projects (10 min)

# All projects with progress
sed -n '/^\* Projects/,/^\* Systems/p' ~/desktop/org/todos.org | \
  grep "\[.*/..*\]"

Questions:

Which projects progressed?
Which stalled?
Any to cancel?
Any to start?

5. System Health Check (10 min)

Check:

Inbox reasonable size? (<10 items)
NEXT actions limited? (3-7 items)
Sections organized?
Archives working?
Properties consistent?

Action: Fix any issues found

6. Extract Learnings (5 min)

Questions:

What worked well this month?
What didn’t work?
Any system improvements needed?
Time estimates accurate?
Priorities aligned with goals?

Action: Create note with learnings

7. Plan Next Month (10 min)

Consider:

Major deadlines?
Projects to focus on?
Areas to improve?
Anything to delegate/defer?

Template:

* December 2025 Planning

** Focus Areas
- [ ] Complete keyboard firmware improvements
- [ ] Setup home automation basics
- [ ] Upstream OSP roadmap work

** Projects to Start
- [ ] Personal finance tracking
- [ ] Blog post about NixOS

** Experiments
- Try time-blocking for deep work
- Limit NEXT to 5 items max

** Goals
- Ship 2 major features
- Review 10 upstream PRs
- Write 1 blog post

Review Checklists

Daily Morning Checklist

Check inbox count
View today’s schedule
Check upcoming deadlines (3 days)
Review NEXT actions
Pick 1-3 focus items
Mark one as STRT

Daily Evening Checklist

Update STRT items (DONE or progress note)
Capture new items to inbox
Quick tomorrow scan
Celebrate today’s wins

Weekly Review Checklist

Archive completed items (>7 days old)
Process entire inbox
Review all NEXT (keep to 5-7)
Cancel or schedule stale TODOs
Update project progress
Review this week’s schedule
Plan next week’s priorities

Monthly Review Checklist

Review month’s accomplishments
Analyze cancelled items
Check TODO counts per section
Review project progress
System health check
Extract learnings
Plan next month

Review Habits

Make it Easy

Same time: Consistency builds habit
Same place: Dedicated review location
Same tools: Keep scripts handy
Quick access: Bookmarks, aliases

Make it Valuable

Track insights: What did you learn?
Celebrate wins: Acknowledge accomplishments
Improve system: Fix friction points
Stay honest: Cancel what you won’t do

Make it Stick

Start small: 5-min daily before 30-min weekly
Link to existing habit: After morning coffee
Set reminder: Calendar event
Review the review: Monthly check if process works

Metrics to Track

Weekly

TODOs completed
NEXT actions count
Inbox size
Items archived

Monthly

Completion rate (done vs created)
Average TODO age
Projects progressed
Cancelled percentage

Tips

Schedule reviews: Make them non-negotiable appointments
Batch process: Faster than continuous micro-reviews
Be ruthless: Cancel liberally
Celebrate wins: Acknowledge what you completed
Learn continuously: Each review improves the system
Keep it simple: Don’t over-engineer
Trust the system: Capture and let it go
Stay honest: System only works if you use it

Integration with Other Workflows

After Review, Take Action

Add workflow: Create TODOs from review insights
Update workflow: Reschedule or reprioritize
Archive workflow: Clean up completed items
Refile workflow: Process inbox

Link to Notes

Create review notes:

#+title:      Weekly Review 2025-W49
#+date:       [2025-12-08 Mon 09:00]
#+filetags:   :review:planning:
#+identifier: 20251208T090000
#+category: planning

* Accomplishments
- Completed keyboard firmware improvements
- Reviewed 3 upstream PRs

* Insights
- Need to limit NEXT to 5 items
- Projects stalled without scheduling

* Next Week Focus
- [[file:~/desktop/org/todos.org::*Setup MQTT broker][Setup MQTT on rhea]]
- [[file:~/desktop/org/todos.org::*Review roadmap][Update upstream roadmaps]]

Common Pitfalls

❌ Skipping reviews: System degrades quickly ❌ Too long: Reviews shouldn’t take hours ❌ Not actionable: Review should lead to decisions ❌ No followthrough: Plans mean nothing without action ❌ Over-planning: Don’t schedule every minute ✅ Consistent: Better imperfect weekly than perfect never ✅ Focused: Clear outcome for each review ✅ Honest: Cancel what you won’t do ✅ Actionable: Every review leads to next steps ✅ Sustainable: Find rhythm that works long-term