So I broke the cardinal rule of any Getting Things Done (GTD) system. I have not carried out a review my productivity system for weeks.

Reviewing (or “Reflect”) is step four of the GTD process and is essentially a check in on your projects and tasks to ensure that you have captured everything there is to do as tasks and that these are organized by priority.

Despite the fact that I know how critical it is do this review and worse that I have been written about it for this website; my “busyness” got the better of me and I deferred it time and time again.

I am telling you this now because I have recovered my system and was able to work through around 90 active projects in OmniFocus, the productivity tool I use. OmniFocus even builds in a repeating reminder to review each project and yet I focussed my attentions elsewhere. In the end it only took 90 minutes to do this full review and I know that it would take 10% of that time if I kept the discipline.

But the real reason for sharing is not to seek any platitudes or recognition, but to simply state,

“It feels good”

I go in to my working week knowing that my OmniFocus projects and the tasks that they contain, are accurate and timed realistically for my attention in the days and weeks to come.

Even though I did have to add some additional tasks to follow up on some items, when I was reviewing; I now have confidence that I have captured all that I know today that needs to be done.

I will continue to strive to maintain my personal review discipline.

I also hope that, no matter what productivity system you use, that you will also realize the power of review.