So, the semester just started for most of you,

and today I wanted to share a really quick tip

that can help you retain a lot of that motivation

that we get when we start new semesters

and keep it going throughout the semester's entirety.

Because I know when you start a new semester,

you're kinda turning over a new leaf,

all these new classes are coming into your schedule,

and you're really excited to learn them.

And, honestly, you haven't yet realized

just how much work they're gonna be.

So, you are naturally fired up

and you've probably got your task management systems,

your organizational systems, calendar, all that stuff

cleaned out, reset and ready to go.

So, today I wanna tell you about a habit you can adopt

to keep these systems in order,

which is going to keep your motivation levels high,

and that habit is to establish a weekly review day.

Now, on this channel before,

I've talked about how it's a really good idea

to have a weekly planning day where you kind of sketch out

what's gonna come in the week ahead.

You kind of know exactly what you need to do,

all the due dates, and all the events

that are coming in the coming days.

But I think it's also a good idea

to take this particular day,

which I think Sunday is a really good day for this,

to also review the previous week.

Now, here is why I think this is a really good idea.

In my case, and I'm sure that many of you

have the same exact problem,

I find that my task management systems get kind of crufty,

maybe that's the word for it.

They get a little bit disorganized,

some tasks don't get checked off,

some things just don't get done.

And after a few weeks, I find that my task management system

is not a perfect one-to-one representation

of everything that I need to get done.

And that is a huge problem

because that means I can no longer trust that system

as well as I could before.

And as the productivity researcher David Allen once said,

"Your brain is for having ideas, not for storing them."

I shouldn't be storing anything up in here.

My systems should be well taken care of

and be the place in which all those ideas

are stored and perfectly updated,

and this is what a weekly review does.

So, what exactly goes into a weekly review process?

Well, this is largely up to you, but I do wanna make

a few specific suggestions for you guys here.

Number one, I think it's a good idea to ask

what exactly did you get done last week

and what didn't get done?

So, look at your plan for the last week

and ask yourself, "Out of all these things,

"which ones did I actually accomplish?"

And you can make this even easier on yourself

if you adopt a daily habit

of writing an accomplishment journal.

Now, this isn't a big long journal

where you're pouring your deepest feelings

into some secret book with a lock on it.

No, this is just a simple habit

where you write down exactly what you got done

on a day-to-day basis in something really simple

like an Evernote account or a notebook

or just your arm, whatever.

And I've actually found that doing this

can increase my motivation and make me feel

like I'm kind of on a roll in the days that come afterward.

So, this kind of boosts your motivation as a singular habit,

but it also helps with your weekly review

because you can simply go back,

look at your accomplishment journal and say,

"Yeah, I was really, really productive this week."

Or, on the flip side,

"This wasn't such a good week after all."

And that allows you to do something

really, really important with the weekly review,

and that is to make course corrections

and small changes to your habits

and to the way that you work.

So, say you've been studying in your dorm room

and you find that friends keep coming in

and they're really, really persuasive

when they ask you to go to get something to eat

or to play Guitar Hero

or to do anything other than studying.

Well, that's something that's gonna stick out

like a sore thumb when you ask yourself

during your weekly review why you didn't get things done.

And from there, you can fix that

by changing your study location

or by putting a sign in your dorm room

or texting your friends that you're busy, what have you.

The point is if you're doing the weekly review,

you're noticing the problems on a weekly basis

and then you can fix them.

Now, in addition to mentally running through

the past week's accomplishments,

giving yourself a pat on the back,

giving yourself that little productivity score,

and making those course corrections and habit changes,

the last part to this weekly review process

is simply to reset your task management systems

and your calendar back to where they should be.

So, make sure that all events have their due dates updated,

make sure you check things off

that you maybe forgot to check

when you actually got those tasks done,

and make sure you update any details

with any updates from your professor

or group members from group projects.

Just basically make sure that, across the board,

your systems are where they should be

and that they're an accurate representation

of everything you have to do.

That way, you never start to feel overwhelmed

or confused about what's on your plate.

So, I really hope you guys found this video to be useful.

And for those of you who use Habitica,

I'm hoping that after watching this video,

you're gonna log in and add weekly review

to your dailies list and set it to once per week,

because that is going to remind you to do this process

and that will help it become a habit.

If you have comments or questions,

definitely leave them down below.

And if you liked this video,

you can leave it a like to support this channel.

Also, if you wanna get new videos every single week

on being a more effective student,

you can click your mouse button

on that big red subscribe button right down there.

You can also get yourself a free copy

of the book I wrote on earning better grades

by clicking the picture of the book right over there.

And if you missed last week's video,

we talked about how to get over

the fear of starting college.

So, if that's something that's still on your mind,

check it out if you missed it.

And as always, you can find the full article for this video

by clicking the full article button right there.

If you wanna connect with me,

you can do so on Xanga by going over to eBay

and buying the one time machine that works,

it's the one with the pink crystals,

and then adding me as a friend there.

I am looking forward to discussing

your favorite My Chemical Romance album.

See you there.