weekly-review
Conduct a weekly review of project progress and plan for the upcoming week. Use when the user types /weekly_review, when it's Monday and no review exists for this week, or at the end of the work week. Aggregates daily activity entries and identifies patterns.
When & Why to Use This Skill
The Weekly Review skill is a comprehensive productivity tool designed to automate project tracking and strategic planning. By synthesizing daily activity logs, git commits, and task statuses, it generates structured weekly reports that highlight accomplishments, analyze project health, and identify potential risks. This skill helps users maintain momentum, overcome blockers, and transition into the new week with a clear, data-driven action plan.
Use Cases
- Automated Progress Reporting: Synthesize weekly accomplishments from git logs and activity files into a professional summary.
- Project Health Assessment: Monitor phase completion percentages and key performance metrics to ensure long-term goals stay on track.
- Strategic Weekly Planning: Identify top priorities and potential obstacles for the upcoming week based on previous performance and current blockers.
- Pattern Recognition & Recovery: Detect recurring issues like scope creep or declining focus to implement proactive recovery strategies.
- Structured Self-Reflection: Facilitate interactive reviews to capture qualitative insights on challenges, frustrations, and peak productivity periods.
| name | weekly-review |
|---|---|
| description | Conduct a weekly review of project progress and plan for the upcoming week. Use when the user types /weekly_review, when it's Monday and no review exists for this week, or at the end of the work week. Aggregates daily activity entries and identifies patterns. |
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 reviewstasks.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
| Aim | Status | Progress This Week |
|-----|--------|-------------------|
| Aim 1 | In progress | [Brief update] |
| Aim 2 | Not started | No change |
### Risks/Blockers
- [Current blockers from project_telos.md]
### Key Metrics
| Metric | Target | Actual | Status |
|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Experiments/analyses completed | | | ✅/❌ |
| Scripts documented | | | ✅/❌ |
| Figures generated | | | ✅/❌ |
| Writing progress (words/sections) | | | ✅/❌ |
| Commits made | | | ✅/❌ |
## 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?
4. 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 planmonthly-review- Zoom out for monthly perspectivenext- 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