02/06/2023, 09:21 Seven Days - Scott H Young

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Seven Days
 February, 2006 | Comments | Share

What did you do in the past seven days?

What things did you learn? What life lessons did you draw from them? Ho
your life improved from their passing? Where did you succeed? Where did
have an opportunity to learn from your mistakes? What challenges did you

One of the most effective techniques I can offer for putting your life on trac
weekly review. I usually take an hour or two on Sunday to carefully exami
preceding week and ask myself the above questions. Everything I did wron
the past week I take steps to learn from so I won’t repeat those mistakes. I w
also examine my successes looking to see what strengths I possess allowed
make those small accomplishments.

This postmortem of a week will allow you to have some clear insight into y
progress or lack thereof. If you can’t find anything you’ve learned from the
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02/06/2023, 09:21 Seven Days - Scott H Young

week then it was wasted. When you take a look at your past week, looking
what you have learned and how you have improved yourself, you can real
how appropriately you are using your time.

Just remember that this week has past. Don’t beat yourself up about waste
or your failures, focus instead on how you can use that knowledge to avoid
succumbing to the same faults in the week ahead.

Use this process to motivate you in your week ahead. Looking back at you
week can be a very motivating exercise because it gives you the tools to pu
focus what is important to you. Now that you know what you did wrong,
more importantly, why it went wrong, you can take steps to change so that
week ahead will be better.

The next step is to decide what you want to accomplish in the week ahead
what you want to pay attention to and focus on. Using the problems you
encountered last week, come up with solutions to possible problems that m
come up in the week ahead. So if you had a dietary goal and blew it on a b
Oreo’s, then come up with some steps to preventing that from happening i
next week.

Using these week blocks for reflection and planning can be ideal. Often tim
people only use the calender year blocks (which explains all those New Years
Resolutions!) to reflect and plan. While I think that yearly reviews are an ex
practice, I believe that doing a similar form of reflection every week can all
to make improvements far more readily.

While I also advocate short daily review times, I don’t find them as signific
the weekly review. It is unpractical for most people to spend a few hours

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02/06/2023, 09:21 Seven Days - Scott H Young

reviewing their day. More importantly, a day is often too short to see the la
accomplishments or behavioral trends that we can see in a week. Occasion
can have a big interruption which can throw much of our day. However ov
course of seven days, if each day gets off-course from an interruption we ca
larger trend which needs attention.

Use this week to really reconnect with your long-term and mid-range goals
is the time to review and make adjustments or add new ones. Taking your
term goals into account can allow you to effectively plan out your week to
you closer to achieving them.

For example, if you have a goal to own your own business by a certain dat
what steps can you take in the next week to move you closer to that goal? A
very least you could try to read a book on operating your own business.

So allot yourself a period of time each week, completely undisturbed when

can spend some time reflecting on your past week and planning for the we
ahead. Don’t tell me you’re too busy. You are too busy not to spend some ti
reflecting about your past week. Doing this review might be the most impo
thing you do all week, so I’m sure in the 168 hours per week you can find
two to do this.

How was your last seven days?

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12 Comments 
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Nick
5 years ago

Hi Scott,

do you have a detailed example of one of your weekly reviews or have you seen one somewhere else I
to? I'm implementing this and have been for the last few weeks but I'm keen to get more detail. Perh
failing of how I've set up my life right now but a lot of it feels focused on endless admin type tasks rat
moving the big rocks so to speak. Perhaps I shouldn't separate my work and normal life as much.

Please continue the excellent posts.

Nick

0 0 Reply • Share ›

Elina McGill
7 years ago

When you do these weekly reviews, do you write down your questions and answers or do you prefer m
rehearing your week? With that being said, how do you set yourself up for a productive week?

0 0 Reply • Share ›

A Ashley
12 years ago

I'm going to start implementing this weekly review. I also was just reading Peter Drucker's essay "Ma
Oneself", and he recommended to write down one's expectations before engaging in a key action or m
key decision. Then annually or so, compare the actual results with your expectations. The goal of this
to identify strengths, although it would complement your weekly review of what you've learned and h
grown.

0 0 Reply • Share ›

O Ola
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2006/02/23/seven-days/ 5/10
 O
02/06/2023, 09:21
15 years ago
Seven Days - Scott H Young

hi scott, thanks for the great article. i have set a few goals for myself lately and i believe a weekly revi
exactly what i need. i keep daily to do lists and i think a checklist of what i have achieved in the last w
be equally helpful.

the key to this method is not to beat yourself up when you realize that you wasted a week as this migh
counter-productive. having this kind of deadline is great to keep yourself motivated (well, at least for
if you slack off for 6 days, you'd want to maximise your efforts on the 7th day so you could avoid the
not accomplishing anything at your review. it's like having a paper due in 7 days and writing everythi
night before it's due!

0 0 Reply • Share ›

SS SANJAY SHARMA
15 years ago

hello,

very nice article and i thanks to you. i just read only 2-3 articlesand all are excellent. this is my first t
am become fan of you.

thanks for these articles,

sanjay sharma, india

0 0 Reply • Share ›

MN
max night
16 years ago

For some reason the title of this post made me think about creationism. You dont have to, but it wou
compelling to see what kind of theologic arguments you have or theologic agreements you have.

0 0 Reply • Share ›

G
GramBorder
16 years ago

Hello

I want to all of you know, World is mine, and yoursite good

Bye

0 0 Reply • Share ›

A
arvind
17 years ago

great advice.
I have read your 3 articles.
All of them are excellent.

0 0 Reply • Share ›
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02/06/2023, 09:21 Seven Days - Scott H Young

SY Scott Young
17 years ago

You should read my latest entry at:

http://www.scotthyoung.com/...

It is about this very phenomena you are describing. Discipline is the ability to work through short-te
gain long-term pleasure.

It is important to note that discipline won't work if you don't believe there is more long-term pleasur
short-term pain. I know this sounds a bit obvious, but if you try to just use willpower where there is n
motivation, you won't get far.

0 0 Reply • Share ›

X Xin
17 years ago

Motivation is extremely important. One of my goals is to practise yoga daily. Whenever my motivatio
falter, I say to myself "Come on! It'll make me feel great. Healthy body, healthy mind!". I kind of kne
was doing, but didn't too, if you're with me. Thanks for reminding me how significant that is.

My discipline has been improving since I realized what I was doing: rationalizing. I now either will m
motivate myself to do something I had planned out to do. I find thinking discipline in terms of freedo
enormously. This is opposed to thinking of it as limiting. Discipline is doing what is important, and w
benefit me the most in the long run, rather than succumbing to the impulses.

0 0 Reply • Share ›

SY Scott Young
17 years ago

Thanks for the comments, Xin!

Part of the solution is discipline. The other part is motivation.

If you create an emotionally compelling reason to do what is important, then you will do it.

For example, if I tell you that I am going to kill you if you don't do what is important, you'll do it, won

Discipline can be built by training it. Don't expect yourself to be perfectly disciplined, just focus on b
just a little more disciplined at a time. Most of personal growth is on optimization not fancy secrets.
understand discipline is a skill like anything else.

The weekly review is incredibly important to your upcoming week, so I would ensure you have plenty
do it. Plan out a lot of time, because even if you spend three or four hours on it, the review would eas
itself in saved time.

And in case you say you don't have enough time:

http://www.scotthyoung.com/...

R l Sh
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02/06/2023, 09:21 Seven Days - Scott H Young
0 0 Reply • Share ›

X
Xin
17 years ago

Hi Scott.

This is a great piece of advice. I have been this on and off mostly for social encounters. This helps me
my social skills. It is definitely worth doing. The chanllenge is doing this review every week!

Just a quick question for you if I may. I find discipline hard at times. Doing what I should be doing. F
that 20%. How do you discipline yourself?

Cheers,
Xin

0 0 Reply • Share ›

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