Make a little sense of the week you had.
Maybe the week went to plan. Maybe Tuesday had other ideas. These six prompts help you look at what happened and choose a useful next step. A few honest sentences will do.
Start with the week you actually had.
Try these as you go. The ticks stay here until you leave or reload.
0 of 3 readyWhen to do it
Give the review a place in your week. Here are two places you could start:
- Friday, before you finish. The details are still fairly fresh, and you can leave yourself a starting point for next week.
- Sunday evening. You can look back before you plan Monday. Though if Sunday is your day off, it is fine to keep it that way.
A regular slot helps you remember, but it can move when life does. In the planner, you can draft your review before the week ends. You can submit it on the final calendar day of that chapter week.
The six prompts
A sentence or a short list is plenty. Answer the prompts that help you see something useful. There is no prize for the longest review.
What moved?
Name something concrete: a page published, a practice session, a conversation that cleared something up. It can be small. If nothing comes to mind, look at where your time went.
What got stuck?
Look for work you started but couldn't finish, or kept putting off. Was something unclear, missing, or simply too much for this week?
What should change next week?
Choose one adjustment: make a task smaller, protect a work slot, or ask for the missing information.
What should be dropped?
Some work has stopped being worth doing. You can let it go without finishing it first.
What should be carried?
Keep the unfinished work that still matters and fits next week. Give it another place in the plan deliberately.
One thing that would make next week easier?
Try something small: leave yourself a starting note, book the work slot, or send the question you have been sitting on.
From reflection to a finished week
These six prompts are a writing template. In the planner, the review has four stages: Progress to look at measures and finished work, Reflect to notice what you learned, Next step to choose an adjustment, and Confirm to check your review before you submit. You can go deeper when that helps, or keep it short.
Review the week
20% 20 of 100 planned XP
What would you change?
Protect one writing session before adding more work to the week.
Readers · 18 / 50
Unfinished work
Write the first newsletter draft
When you submit, you get a weekly boarding pass. Tear off the stub and add it to your collection. A small bit of ceremony for showing up and looking back. Starting the next week is still a separate decision.
What the weekly score can tell you
The planner divides earned XP by planned XP to show how much of your plan you finished, using the weights you gave each task. With Balanced thresholds, 85% or more is green and below 70% is red. You can change those thresholds in chapter settings. The score gives you a place to start asking questions. It can't tell you the whole story, or whether your outcome improved.
- 🟢 85%+: You finished most of the plan. What helped?
- 🟡 70% to below 85%: Some work slipped. What would make it easier next week?
- 🔴 Below 70%: Take a closer look. Was the plan too big, did something block you, or did life need the time?
Decide what happens next
Before you leave the review, give the unfinished work somewhere to go:
- Carry work that still matters and fits next week. If the same task keeps coming back, have a closer look. It may need a smaller first step, some help, or a different place in the plan.
- Park work you want to return to later. It can stay within reach without taking up space in next week's plan.
- Drop work you have decided to let go. You do not have to keep carrying it because a past version of you wrote it down.
Build next week from those choices. If you want a hand, ask Planko for task ideas, then edit and approve the ones that fit. You start the next week yourself once its scheduled start date arrives.
- Outline the first chapter, planned
- Ask two readers for feedback, planned
- Revise the opening, planned
100 XP planned · 0 earned
Plan
Choose a few tasks that move one outcome.
Keep the review with your plan
The Boring Middle keeps your weekly score, outcome check-ins, reflection and next steps together. You can look more closely at how you spent your time when that helps. Pair the review with a 12-week chapter and a few clear outcomes so you can come back to the plan with the week still in view.