Prioritisation
Part of Personal work planning
Reviewing unfinished tasks at the end of a week
Check the real state of unfinished work, decide what to advance, wait on, revise or close, and leave a clear starting point for next week.
Before you carry an unfinished task into next week, check its real state: is the result still needed, and what should happen next? Copying every open item to a new list can preserve stale commitments and hide dependencies.
Four-step end-of-week review
- Establish what happenedCompare each task with the result or checkpoint intended for this week.
- Decide what each open item needsName the next action, dependency, revision or closure.
- Look for a planning signalCheck whether late inputs, omitted review time, service work or broad scope caused the backlog.
- Leave a clear starting pointNote what is ready, what is waiting, who owes the next move and which commitment needs a decision.
Establish what happened
Compare each task with the result or checkpoint intended for this week. Did it not start, reach a useful stage, or stop while waiting for someone else? Check the current deliverable and work record, not just a status label. Where it helps, record a neutral reason: ‘awaiting approved figures’ is more useful than ‘behind’.
A deliverable that spans several weeks may have reached this week’s checkpoint even though the overall item remains open. Equally, something marked nearly complete may still need a review before anyone can use it. Check what changed for the recipient before you call either item late or finished.
Decide what each open item needs
| Current position | Next decision |
|---|---|
| Still needed and ready to progress | Name the next action and check where it fits in the coming week. |
| Waiting for an input or approval | Name the dependency, its owner and the next check. |
| Agreed scope or date no longer fits | Ask the authorised owner to revise the commitment and tell affected people. |
| No longer needed | Confirm who can stop it, then close it and inform anyone relying on it. |
An item may need more than one step, but ‘continue’ rarely gives enough direction for Monday’s work. If it is blocked, extra time in your calendar will not supply the missing input or decision.
Decide what each open item needs
- Still needed and ready to progressName the next action and check where it fits in the coming week.
- Waiting for an input or approvalName the dependency, its owner and the next check.
- Agreed scope or date no longer fitsAsk the authorised owner to revise the commitment and tell affected people.
- No longer neededConfirm who can stop it, then close it and inform anyone relying on it.
Look for a planning signal
Several unfinished tasks may share a cause: late inputs, omitted review time, service work that displaced planned actions, or tasks too broad for the week. Treat a pattern as a question to investigate, not proof that someone estimated badly or worked slowly. Check examples and ask the people involved what changed.
In a hypothetical case, three reports are waiting on the same approved data extract. Confirm who owns the extract and when it may be available. Moving three dates in a private list does not resolve the dependency. If a promised handover is affected, raise it before offering a new date.
Also note valuable unplanned work that displaced planned actions. Use it to judge what may fit next week, without turning the review into an activity score.
Leave a clear starting point
Choose which open results still deserve attention, and place their immediate actions alongside meetings, service duties, and new commitments. Give deferred work a review point. Update colleagues when a shared promise changes.
Leave a brief note for Monday: what is ready, what is waiting, who owes the next move, and which commitment needs a decision. The review is complete when open items have current statuses and deliberate next steps, even though the work itself remains unfinished.
