A weekly review is a chance to recover useful thoughts before they disappear into a folder. It is not a requirement to process every note you have ever written. Start with recent material and work that still needs attention.

Collect the open loops

Look through your capture inbox, active project notes and recent meeting actions. Identify commitments, unanswered questions and ideas worth keeping. Separate things you promised to do from possibilities you merely considered.

If an item has no context, add a short explanation while you still remember it. An unexplained phrase can become difficult to interpret surprisingly quickly. Move reference material to its appropriate place without inventing a new project for it.

Choose the next useful action

For each active project, name one next step or waiting condition. Make it small enough to begin without another planning session. If the project has no current reason to continue, mark it paused rather than leaving a vague task in the active list.

Keep the review in a simple MeatPad note or Markdown file. Record decisions that changed the plan; do not copy every unchanged task into a new document merely to prove you reviewed it.

Close with a manageable week

Archive completed projects and remove obsolete reminders deliberately. Check that new notes and supporting files fall within your backup routine. Set a reasonable limit on the actions you expect to complete before the next review.

If the review repeatedly takes too long, narrow its scope to the recent inbox and current commitments. The aim is a trustworthy picture of what deserves attention. A short review that you actually do is more useful than a comprehensive routine that becomes another unfinished task.

Sources and product details

Start with a note. MeatPad gives notes, Markdown and project files a local workspace on your Mac, without an account requirement.

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