Your day to day
Planning the week in fifteen minutes
Four checks on Monday that prevent Thursday's emergencies.
Day-to-day work runs off the inbox, and that is enough to react. What prevents emergencies is something else: a fixed slot each week looking at what is **not yet** urgent. It is four checks and they fit in fifteen minutes.
The four
- 1
What expires in the coming weeks
Not this week's, which you already know: three or four weeks out. It is the only thing that gives margin.
- 2
What has been stuck longest
The oldest file with no movement. Not the most urgent: the oldest.
- 3
Who has not replied to the second reminder
At that point it stops being chasing and becomes a decision you have to take.
- 4
And what you promised last week
The check that saves the most credibility and that nobody does.
Important
The second is counterintuitive and pays off most. Urgent things already have someone pushing them; what has sat for six weeks has nobody, and that is exactly where next month's crises come from. Look at the old, not the loud.
What does NOT fit in those fifteen minutes
| Not this | Why |
|---|---|
| Reviewing file by file | If that is needed, the problem is delegation, not routine |
| Rebuilding templates or processes | That is another day's work, with time |
| Answering everything that comes up | Note it and move on: answering turns it into a morning |
Watch out
The mistake that makes this get abandoned within two weeks is replying while reviewing. The review is to **decide what needs doing**, not to do it. Note and close; if something cannot wait two hours, it was already urgent and was in the inbox.
When to do it
Monday-before-email is not a quirk: the moment the inbox opens, other people's urgencies set your week. Fifteen minutes earlier is the only window where you decide.
Worth knowing
If you are two or three, do it together: half the blockages get resolved on the spot, because what one person has stuck usually depends on something another can unblock in a minute.
›What if there is no time that week?
Do only the first and the fourth: they prevent the most grief.
›Should anything be written down?
What you decide, yes. What you looked at, no.
›Does it work for a large team?
Yes, but each with their own patch; a twenty-person review is not a review, it is a meeting.
A real case
The situation
A manager spends the week firefighting and cannot see where the fires come from.
What you do
- Blocks fifteen minutes on Monday for what expires in three weeks and the oldest stuck file
What you get
Within a month emergencies drop, because they are being seen while they still are not emergencies.
The situation
Monday goes on reconstructing what is outstanding and what expires.
What you do
- Opens the saved view of what is waiting for action
- Checks what expires in the next fortnight
- Allocates whatever needs allocating before starting
What you get
The week starts with a plan in fifteen minutes rather than a morning of review.
The situation
Planning happens without knowing what depends on third parties.
What you do
- Separates what waits inside from what waits outside
What you get
What depends on somebody else is launched first.
The situation
On Monday you plan what expired the previous Friday.
What you do
- Also checks what has already expired
What you get
What is overdue does not fall behind another week.
The situation
Each person plans their part and nobody sees the whole.
What you do
- Shares the team view
What you get
The split is decided with the full picture.
The situation
The plan is made and not revisited until the following Monday.
What you do
- Checks mid-week what has drifted
What you get
The correction arrives in time.
This article answers
- organising the documentation week
- what to review every monday
- avoiding last-minute emergencies
- weekly follow-up routine