Turn a Weekly Email into a Leadership Habit

I recently stumbled across an article that was talking about using weekly summary emails as a way to capture the week and remind yourself of what was accomplished and plans for the next week. I thought it was an interesting concept and did additional research to understand the idea a little more. The idea of a weekly recap is certainly not new. In fact, you may even complete some type of weekly recap for your leader today. I know I used to have my team complete a weekly recap. It really was designed to serve multiple purposes. It informed me of their week and what was going on in their role/business. Were there any obstacles I needed to be aware of to help support in better ways or seek additional help to clear them for the team? It was also a way to allow each individual to pause for a few minutes and reflect on what they had accomplished for the week and think about what they wanted to achieve in the week ahead. It was simple, straight-forward, and (hopefully helpful).

Note: I know the reality is, not everyone likes the idea of a weekly recap. It feels like an unnecessary follow up step or as an unnecessary exercise for someone else. I get it. I am not sure that I always appreciated the Weekly Recap when I had to do them, but in retrospect, I now wish I had valued them more. And from the perspective of a leader, I always read the recaps and took away as much as I could to help support my team. It was never meant to be a waste of their time or just as a check up exercise.

With that in mind, I found the idea of writing yourself a weekly recap email intriguing. If you were doing the exercise just for yourself instead of someone else, would your view on its value change? Running my own business, I still complete a weekly review to reflect on what I’ve accomplished and to identify the key priorities for the week ahead. I get tremendous value from this practice. I am not sure if I need to email myself. Still, I might give it a try. Drafting it on Friday and scheduling a delayed send could be a useful reminder. Seeing it in my inbox on Monday or Tuesday would bring back what I thought was most important just a few days earlier.

How to go about this email

I think there are a couple of key items this email recap should contain. They can help you reflect, look ahead, and prioritize all in one sitting. I don’t see this being a lengthy exercise, or email for that matter. I’d even suggest creating a template that you can just fill in and work it each week at about the same time. Put it on your calendar, Friday 4pm, create weekly recap and planning email. Let’s look at the key elements to capture.

Successes from this week

Anything type of planning or reflection process needs to contain a place for you to capture what you accomplished and wrapped up in the past week. This can feel hard. It is still one of the hardest parts of my weekly recap. Some weeks I really struggle to recall what I got done, even though once I really think about it or review my notes from the week, I come across so many small achievements. It is easy to take for granted the small, seemingly invisible things that you accomplish each week. Make sure you give yourself credit for those. Nothing is too small to note on your successes for the week.

You may have started a new habit for the week, and completing that four of five days may be the perfect thing to write down as a success for the week. The point is, successes don’t have to be these huge achievements. Look for anything that moved you, a project, or your team forward.

Progress made

Take time to look at what did move forward for the week. If you’re like me, it can be difficult to count something as a success if it is not fully complete yet. But then you miss acknowledging the fact that your efforts pushed a project much closer to completion than before. Note those things. I think these are sometimes the most important elements of the week. Every leader works hard throughout the week. Sometimes our time is dedicated to phone calls, meetings, follow up conversations. They seem like a lot, especially if we are used to doing stuff we can see when it's done. Don’t let that keep you from seeing the progress you’re making with those calls, meetings, and conversations. They are critical elements of your role. Reinforce the importance of them to yourself.

Key items for next week

Looking ahead is so important for any leader. I always stress the importance of planning and its value. This is the perfect time to look ahead a week or even a few weeks to see what is coming up and what activities should be a priority for next week. It can be easy to overlook those items and not recognize where you are on something until you pause and review everything that is happening. I do think there is where the ‘sending yourself an email’ can come into play effectively. What we are thinking on a Friday can easily be forgotten by mid-morning on a Monday. The new week starts, something came up over the weekend and suddenly the planning and thoughts you had on Friday are gone. Referring back to your notes, or having a timely email hit your inbox to remind you of the priority items for the week may be a great way to snap back into what really needs to get done.

Anything I would do different

A final component of the recap is self-reflection. This is not judgement and not being critical of yourself. But we all know that time and looking back gives us a different perspective from what we have in the moment. Review some of the key items from the week and ask yourself if you would do anything different knowing what you know now. By taking a few minutes to reflect on the decisions, activities, and outcomes, you can prepare yourself for even better outcomes in the future. It is about learning and improving, not about judging or being harsh on yourself.

Creating some type of weekly review and reflection process is not new. It sounds simple, it always seems like a good idea, but somehow it is also something that is easy to brush aside. You get busy, you just want to close out the week, a recap seems like it could wait. I’ve been there and still face that challenge. But I have really learned to push myself to have my weekly review in some fashion each week. It always helps me think about what I need to do. When I give them my full attention, I have a better week ahead, every time. So, this different spin on completing the review and emailing to yourself might just give it enough new energy to keep it rolling for you and helping you have better weeks ahead, too.

Have you ever tried emailing yourself your weekly review as a reminder?

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