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Originally Posted by curt.clifton

Christopher,

....

And here's my monthly review checklist, heavily laden with Steven Covey's first-things-first ideas:

- [ ] Go somewhere calm
- [ ] Review Personal Mission Statement.
- [ ] Consider each role
    - [ ] Brainstorm for any projects that should be started or put on
          Someday/Maybe
    - [ ] Are there any projects that are stalled or ideas that keep
          popping up?
        - [ ] Do you need to do some project planning?
                  See Allen's natural planning model (see GTD, ch. 3)
            - [ ] Is the purpose of the project clearly defined?  Why
                  do it?
            - [ ] Have you envisioned what a successful outcome looks
                  like?  What is success on this project?
            - [ ] Have you brainstormed possible routes to success?
            - [ ] Have you organized the steps in the process?
            - [ ] Have you identified clear, actionable next actions?
        - [ ] Need more clarity about what to do?  Move up the list.
        - [ ] Need more to be happening?  Move down the list.
    - [ ] Review Someday-Maybe Ideas
- [ ] Review Past Monthly Goals
    - [ ] Evaluate performance
    - [ ] Consider reasons for success
    - [ ] Determine reasons for failures, plan remediation
- [ ] Review general performance issues
    - [ ] Are you being conscientious about daily and weekly reviews?
    - [ ] Are you keeping appointments with self?
    - [ ] Have you maintained balance across roles & responsibilities?
- [ ] Set monthly goals in each role
    - [ ] Relate to One and Five Year Goals
    - [ ] “What are the one or two most important things I could do in
          this role this month that would have the greatest positive
          impact.”
    - [ ] Big Rocks First
    - [ ] Effective Goals:
        - [ ] are driven by conscience
        - [ ] are often Quadrant II goals
            - [ ] Q1 Urgent & Important
            - [ ] Q2 Not urgent but important
            - [ ] Q3 Urgent but not important
            - [ ] Q4 Neither urgent nor important
        - [ ] reflect our four basic needs (to live, to love, to learn,
              to leave a legacy) and capacities (conscience, creative
              imagination, independent will, self-awareness)
        - [ ] are in our Center of Focus
        - [ ] are either determinations or concentrations
- [ ] Flag monthly goals in project outline
          Show all flagged in project mode, select all, Cmd-Shift-L
          Set more frequent review intervals for flagged goals.

These checklists have evolved over time. My monthly review checklist is particularly detailed, because I need more help to do that well, and it happens less often.

Curt,

your monthly review template has some project planning steps under "Consider each role". Why do you brainstorm projects and next actions this early on in the monthly review, even before getting into next months goals? To me, this seems very operative on this high level review and something I do on a weekly basis. Does this has anything to do with reviewing current roles?

I'm also in the process of connecting GTD and Covey and your kind sharing of your lists has really helped me a lot.

Thanks!

//Mattias