A weekly review checklist you can finish in 30 minutes

By Basil, maker of Alcove · Updated 8 October 2026 · 9 min read

A to-do list only works while you trust it, and the weekly review is what keeps it trustworthy. Once a week you catch what slipped, clear what piled up and check that everything on your lists still matters. It's also the first habit to go when a week gets busy. Here's a checklist with a time for each step, a shorter version for bad weeks, and how to run it in Alcove or another app. There's nothing to sign up for or download: copy it.

The weekly review checklist

It follows the three parts of David Allen's GTD Weekly Review, the "reflect" step of Getting Things Done. The minutes are a guide for a review you do every week; the first one takes longer.

Get clear (10 minutes)

• ☐ Gather loose ends: paper notes, receipts, screenshots, voice memos and flagged emails (2 min)
• ☐ Get every inbox to zero: do anything that takes under two minutes, give the rest a list or a date, and delete what you don't need (6 min)
• ☐ Empty your head: write down anything still on your mind (2 min)

Get current (15 minutes)

• ☐ Go through your action lists: tick what's done and rewrite vague tasks as next actions (4 min)
• ☐ Look back at last week's calendar for anything that needs a follow-up (2 min)
• ☐ Look at the next two weeks: what needs preparing or booking? (3 min)
• ☐ Check what you're waiting for, and chase anything late (2 min)
• ☐ Go through your projects: does each one have a next action? (3 min)
• ☐ Glance at any checklists you keep, such as monthly bills (1 min)

Get creative (5 minutes)

• ☐ Read your someday list: move anything that's ready into a project, and delete what no longer interests you (3 min)
• ☐ Write down any new ideas (2 min)

Copy the list into any app. In an Alcove note, a pasted line that starts with ☐ or [ ] becomes a box you can tick.

The 15-minute version

For weeks when half an hour won't happen, these four steps do most of the work:

1. Inbox to zero (5 minutes), so nothing new gets lost.
2. The next two weeks of calendar (3 minutes), so nothing ahead catches you out.
3. Projects, one line each (5 minutes), so every project has a next action.
4. Two or three priorities for the week (2 minutes). See how to plan your week.

A short review every week does more than a full one you keep putting off.

When and where to do it

• The same slot every week. A review that floats gets skipped. Friday afternoon works well: the week is still fresh, and Monday starts with a clear list. Sunday evening suits people who plan better with the week ahead in view.
• Somewhere you won't be interrupted. A Mac's bigger screen helps for the full review; the 15-minute version works on a phone.
• Make it a task. A repeating task with a reminder turns "I should do a review" into something on today's list.

Doing it in Alcove

Alcove: Tasks & Notes, which I make, has no special review mode, but every step has a place.

1. Make it a repeating task. Press ⌥ Space on the Mac and type Weekly review every friday 4pm 30m. Alcove reads the repeat, the time and the length. Add a reminder so it doesn't slide. See repeating tasks.
2. Keep the checklist in a linked note. Paste the checklist into a note, then link the two: on the Mac, open the task and choose Link a note; on iPhone, open the note and tap Link a task. Ticking a repeating task moves it to its next date rather than making a copy, so the note stays linked week after week. Untick the boxes when you start. See notes and tasks in one app.
3. Get clear in the Inbox. Tasks you add without a list wait in the Inbox, in the sidebar on the Mac and in the Lists tab on iPhone. Give each one a list, a date or a deletion. During the week, capture with quick add or Speak tasks so the Inbox catches everything. See adding tasks from any app.
4. Look back with Progress. The Progress screen shows what you finished against what you added over the last 7 days (or 30 days, 3 months or a year), how much was done on time, and which lists hold the overdue work. It's worked out on your device, with no streaks and no scores.
5. Look ahead. On the Mac, Upcoming lists every task with a future date, soonest first. The calendar's Week view (3 Days on iPhone) shows the coming days on an hour grid, with your calendar events beside them if you've turned them on.
6. Check what you're waiting for. Tag those tasks #waiting and open the tag to see them together.
7. Keep someday out of sight. Make a Someday list and choose Hide from Overview from its menu. Its tasks stay out of Today, Overview and the counts until you open the list, which is exactly what the review is for.

If you'd rather start each week with a fresh copy, a shortcut can make one: Alcove's Take a Note action turns lines that start with - [ ] into boxes. See Shortcuts automations for your to-do list.

If you've connected an assistant such as Claude through Alcove's local MCP server on the Mac, it can read your lists and go through them with you. See connecting an AI assistant to your to-do list and planning with Claude.

Doing it in other apps

The checklist works anywhere. Here's what each app's own documentation offers for it:

• OmniFocus has a Review perspective built for this. Every project has its own review interval, and Mark Reviewed sets the next date. If you want the app to track which projects are due for a look, OmniFocus is the better fit; Alcove has nothing like it.
• Things 3: Cultured Code's guide suggests looking over the Inbox daily, using Anytime and Upcoming when you plan the week, and reviewing Someday regularly to decide whether it's time to act.
• Todoist has a free Weekly Review template with steps for before, during and after the review, and a recurring task for every Friday.
• Apple Reminders has Scheduled and Completed Smart Lists for looking ahead and back, and a custom Smart List filtered by a tag such as #waiting can collect what you're waiting for.

Why weekly reviews fall apart, and what helps

A January 2026 thread on r/gtd put it plainly. A year into GTD, with capture and processing going well, the poster had done about four weekly reviews, because the review felt like a big formal event that needed an hour blocked out. That's the usual story. The common causes:

• It's too long. A review that takes more than an hour is doing two jobs, usually catching up on a backlog as well. Cap it at 30 minutes, and use the 15-minute version when you must.
• There are too many lists. If you dread opening them, merge some, and hide the ones you don't need every week.
• It has no fixed slot. Give it a day, a time and a reminder.
• Reading instead of deciding. Looking over a list without changing anything isn't a review. Every item gets a decision: do it, date it, hand it on or drop it.
• It's the only check. The same thread asked about smaller check-ins through the week, and a short daily plan does carry part of the load: see how to plan your day. Keep the weekly look at everything, though. It's the part a daily check misses.

Review or plan?

They're two halves of one sitting. The review cleans up and looks back: inboxes empty, lists current, nothing forgotten. Planning looks forward and picks what this week is for. Do the review first, because you can only choose priorities from lists you trust, then spend a few minutes on planning your week.

Sources

Checked in October 2026:

• GTD Weekly Review checklist (PDF), David Allen Company. GTD and Getting Things Done are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company.
• Review perspective, OmniFocus manual, The Omni Group
• The Things guide, Cultured Code
• Weekly Review template, Todoist
• Use Smart Lists in Reminders on iPhone, Apple Support
• I think the weekly review is where my whole GTD system falls apart, r/gtd, 16 January 2026

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