Weekly Review

Conduct a weekly review of project progress and plan for the upcoming week.

When to Use

• Every Monday (RA will prompt via /next)

• End of work week

• When feeling stuck or overwhelmed

• Before planning the next week

Execution Steps

1. Gather Context

Read these files:

• .research/project_telos.md

• Current aims and phase

• .research/phase_checklist.md

• Phase progress

• .research/logs/activity.md

• This week's activity

• .research/logs/weekly/

• Previous reviews

• tasks.md

• Pending tasks

• Git log for the past week

2. Generate Weekly Review

Weekly Review: [Week of DATE]

What Happened This Week

Accomplishments ✅

<!-- Auto-generated from git commits and activity.md -->

• [Accomplishment 1]
• [Accomplishment 2]
• [Accomplishment 3]

Challenges Encountered

<!-- From context or ask user -->

• [Challenge 1]
• [Challenge 2]

Time Spent

<!-- Estimate based on activity -->

• [Task category]: ~X hours
• [Task category]: ~X hours

Project Health Check

Phase Progress

• Current Phase: [PHASE]
• Phase completion: [X]% (based on checklist items)
• On track?: [Yes/No/At risk]

Aims Status

Risks/Blockers

• [Current blockers from project_telos.md]

Key Metrics

Patterns & Observations

What Worked Well

• [Pattern to continue]

What Could Improve

• [Area for improvement]

Energy/Focus

<!-- Ask user or infer -->

• Peak productivity days: [Days]
• Challenging days: [Days]

Looking Ahead

Priorities for Next Week

1. [Top priority]
2. [Second priority]
3. [Third priority]

Potential Blockers

• [Anticipated challenge]

Questions to Resolve

• [Open question that needs answering]

Review completed: [TIMESTAMP] Next weekly review due: [DATE]

3. Interactive Components

Ask the user:

Let's complete your weekly review. A few questions:

1. What are you most proud of accomplishing this week?

2. What was your biggest challenge or frustration?

3. Is there anything blocking your progress right now?

4. On a scale of 1-5, how focused did you feel this week?

5. What's the ONE thing that would make next week a success?

6. Save Review

Save to .research/logs/weekly/YYYY-MM-DD.md

5. Update Project State

• Update activity.md with review summary

• Flag any blockers in project_telos.md

• Update phase checklist if progress made

6. Suggest Next Steps

Weekly review saved to .research/logs/weekly/[DATE].md

Based on your review, suggested next steps:

A) 🗓️ Plan next week's work Run /plan_week to create a focused plan

B) 🚧 Address blockers [Specific blocker] needs attention

C) 📝 Continue with [top priority] Ready to dive in?

What would you like to do?

Patterns to Watch For

Warning Signs

Flag if detected:

• No commits in >7 days

• Same blocker appearing multiple weeks

• Phase not progressing

• Declining focus scores

• Growing task backlog

• Motivation decline: Reduced engagement, avoidance behaviors

• Scope creep: Project expanding without planned adjustment

Recovery Strategies (When Off-Track)

If warning signs are present:

• Stop and assess - Don't just push harder; pause to understand

• Identify root cause - Is it technical, motivational, unclear direction, or external?

• Adjust scope/timeline - Be realistic, not optimistic

• Communicate - Tell collaborators, PI, or stakeholders early

• Document the decision - Write down what changed and why

• Set clear checkpoints - Define how you'll know if recovery is working

Positive Patterns

Celebrate:

• Consistent commits

• Phase progression

• Blockers resolved

• Completed aims

Related Skills

• plan-week

• Create detailed weekly plan

• monthly-review

• Zoom out for monthly perspective

• next

• Get next suggestion

Notes

• Keep reviews brief (15-20 minutes)

• Honesty > perfection

• Patterns emerge over time - review past weeks

• Celebrate progress, no matter how small