102. The Friday Review: A Simple Weekly Habit for Calm Productivity
Episode 102
Most of us end our week by simply stopping, closing the laptop, and walking away. But then we wonder all weekend why we can’t stop thinking about work or school.
That’s where the Friday Review comes in.
This simple 5–10 minute habit helps you close the loops from your week, get a little clarity about what your weekend work schedule might be (or not be!), and set up next week so you’re not starting Monday from zero.
In this episode of Learn and Work Smarter, I walk you through the four-step Friday Review, how it fits into your larger weekly system, and why this tiny routine immediately creates more calm, clarity, and momentum for students and professionals.
What You Learn:
Why work thoughts follow us into the weekend (and how to quiet it)
The 4-step Friday Review that closes out your entire week
How this routine supports your Sunday planning + daily habits
What belongs on your weekend to-do list (and what doesn’t)
🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:
⭐The College Note-Taking Power System (Brand New Program!)
⭐Assignment Management Power System (Brand New Program!)
Episode 21 – Weekly Planning Tips
Episode 65 – The Sunday Reset
Episode 93 - The 10-Minute Daily Habit
Episode 101 - Digital Declutter Tips
Never stop learning.
❤️ Connect:
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I choose not to spend my time fixing them 😉
The Friday Review: A Simple Weekly Habit for Calm Productivity
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[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to episode 102 of the Lauren and Work Smarter podcast. I am so glad you're here. I am Katie. Today we're talking about something that's gonna make your Mondays a lot easier in your weekends. So much less stressful. And that's the Friday review, or some people call it the Friday shutdown or the weekly wrap up.
Now, I imagine some of you might be thinking, Katie, I barely have time to even get through my actual work on Friday, and you want me to add another thing to my list? And honestly, I get that line of thinking, but this isn't adding more work to your plate. Alright, this is five to 10 minute routine max. This is gonna save you hours of stress and mental energy over the weekend and into the next week.
It is an investment that pays off immediately. And actually this episode is the final piece of a complete weekly system that I have been building with you throughout the show. If you've been listening for a while, you might have heard episode 21 on weekly planning, episode 65 on the Sunday Reset and [00:01:00] episode 93 on the daily 10 minute habit. This Friday review completes that system.
And if you're new here and you haven't heard those episodes yet, that's totally fine. The Friday review stands on its own, and you can always go back to explore the other pieces later. All those episodes will be linked in the show notes. But for those of you who are already doing some version of weekly planning or daily routines, I'm excited to show you how this Friday review ties it all together.
And if Friday doesn't work for you, like maybe you work on the weekends or maybe your schedule is non-traditional, that's totally fine. The concept here is doing this at the end of your work week or at the end of your school week, whatever day that happens to be for you. It may not be Friday. The goal is simple.
To close out the week so you can truly enjoy your time off without constantly trying to remember every single thing that you didn't finish and to set yourself up so that Monday morning, or if it's not Monday for you, whatever day you return to your things, doesn't feel like you're starting from square one.[00:02:00]
Does that sound good? As always, everything I mentioned today can be found in the show notes at Learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/102. If you're watching this on YouTube, all the links are in the description box, and if you haven't subscribed on YouTube yet, I would love for you to do that. You can also find me on Instagram @SchoolHabits.
Alright, let's get started.
So let's first talk about why this Friday review routine even matters in the first place, and how it fits into the bigger picture of managing your time and reducing your stress. So [00:03:00] many of us, myself included, often end our work week or our school week just by, you know, stopping.
Right, like the clock hits a certain time where we finish our last class, or we just close down our laptop and we're done and we walk away without really closing anything out other than our laptop. And what happens? Well, our brain spend the entire weekend trying to keep track of all the open loops from the week, the half finish project, the email we meant to send, or we're thinking about sending the assignment that's due Monday that we're not quite sure if we have started it or not.
And I've said this before, but our brains are not designed to hold onto all of that information. And when we ask them to, we end up feeling really anxious and stressed out over the weekend. And we don't even always know why. We just know that we're like thinking about things and that we're feeling kind of edgy even when we're supposed to be relaxing or just simply off the clock.
The Friday review solves this problem. It gives you a structured way to document everything that's still open from the week, to [00:04:00] get clarity on what needs to happen over the weekend, we'll talk about that, and to create a smooth transition into Monday. Now, if you've heard episode 93 where I talk about the 10 minute daily habit, the morning setup, and the evening closeout that you do every single workday, it's like five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening.
You might be thinking like, wait, isn't this the same thing? Not quite. So episode 93 is your daily routine that you can do Monday through Friday, right? Or however many days you work or go to school. That daily habit keeps you on track day to day. You're planning each morning and you're closing out each evening.
but the Friday review is your weekly closing ritual, It's bigger picture. Instead of just closing out Friday as a single day, you're closing out the entire week. You're doing a more comprehensive sweep of everything that's still open and you're creating a bridge from this week into the next week.
Think of it like this. The daily habit from episode 93 is your maintenance routine, and then the Friday review is your weekly [00:05:00] reset.. And here's where it gets really powerful too. When you combine the Friday review with your Sunday planning from episode 21 and your Sunday reset from episode 65, you create a complete weekly system that keeps you organized, that reduces stress, it helps you actually make progress on what matters.
Because on this show, that's the only thing we care about. Doing the things that matter. Now, let me show you what the complete system looks like. Not to overwhelm you, not to say that you have to have all these pieces like locked and loaded and you know, operating perfectly, but just so you can kind of see the big picture and have something maybe to strive for.
So Sunday you do your weekly planning from episode 21. This is where you're looking at the week ahead. You're making time visible on your calendar. You're kind of playing Tetris with your time and your tasks and your commitments, and you also do your Sunday reset from episode 65 to prepare your space and your mindset for the week.
Monday through Friday mornings, you're doing your five minute morning routine set up from episode 93. You're reviewing your tasks, you're picking your top [00:06:00] three for the day. You're checking your calendar. You're kind of figuring out maybe where your admin block might go that day. Monday through Thursday evenings, you're doing your five minute evening routine closeout.
That is from episode 93 as well. You're reviewing what you touched that day. You're scanning your email to extract any new tasks, so nothing gets, you know, forgotten. And then you're setting up your top three for the following day. But Friday evening. Instead of just doing the regular daily closeout, you do the Friday review.
This is slightly different, okay? It's a slightly different routine that helps you close out the entire week and not just Friday the day, and then over the weekend, you actually get to rest, right? Because you've captured everything on Friday, so your brain isn't trying to hold onto it all. And then Sunday comes around again. Your weekly planning session is so much easier because you already documented everything that's still open from last week. You did this on your Friday review. So see how it all works together? Each piece supports the others, and [00:07:00] together they create a larger system that makes your weeks feel more manageable and more rhythmic and more predictable, more calm.
Now, I know not everyone is doing all of these pieces yet, and that's okay. You don't have to implement everything all at once, but I wanted you to see how the Friday review fits into this bigger system, because it's not just some random routine to just add onto your to-do list and stress you out.
It's a deliberate piece of the framework . It's one wheel or cog. I'm forgetting my names of things, whatever, in your larger personal operating system.
All right, so now that you truly understand why the Friday review matters and how it connects to everything else, let's talk about what actually goes into it.
I'm gonna walk you through a framework and then I'm gonna give you some specific examples for students and then some for professionals where it would make sense to differentiate the two. 'cause I know I have, you know, students who are listening to the show, and professionals as well. That's the whole idea.
So this whole thing should take you five to 10 minutes. Like that's it. If it's taking you longer [00:08:00] than that, you're probably overthinking it. And then maybe some of the things that you're trying to do on your Friday review would be better saved for like, you know, a, a larger weekly planning routine. Or maybe like the Sunday reset or the Sunday routine.
Right? And remember too, this is different from your daily evening closeout from episode 93. That daily closeout is focused on closing out one single day, monday through Thursday. The Friday review is focused on closing out the entire week and creating a transition into the weekend and into next week, or at least to the, like the Monday, Tuesday of next week.
We'll talk about that.
Here are the core components. Step one, brain dump your open loops. The first thing I want you to do is to grab a piece of paper, maybe open a notes app, but honestly, I'm a huge fan of doing this on pen and paper, And do a quick brain dump of everything that's still open from this week.
These are your open loops. Things you started but didn't finish things you said you would do, but then you didn't get to Things that are sitting in the back of your mind, taking up mental space, things on your task list that didn't get checked off. If you're already doing the daily evening closeouts [00:09:00] from episode 93, then you've been doing kind of mini versions of this every night, reviewing what you touch that day and moving incomplete tasks to other days.
That's awesome. That's fantastic, and that makes this Friday brain dump even easier. But the Friday version is more bigger picture. As I said before, instead of looking at just what happened today, you're looking at the entire week. What's still hanging out there from Monday? What did you mean to get to on Wednesday but didn't?
What conversations are unfinished? What projects are in progress? What emails do you still have to send? We're just getting it all out of our head and onto paper. For students, this might look like, you know, finish reading chapter seven for history, start outline for English essay, maybe email professor about the exam.
Study for bio quiz . Organize notes from the week's lecture.
For professionals. This might look like Follow up with Sarah about the budget. Finish slides for Monday's presentation. Review the contract from the new client schedule. Next teams meeting, right? I'm just like literally making up stuff that could, sounds generally professional. I don't know. [00:10:00] Whatever your job is, right?
You're not solving any of these things right now. You're just capturing them in a brain dump so your brain doesn't have to hold onto them all weekend. And this brain dump is exactly what's gonna make your Sunday planning session from episode 21 so much easier because instead of sitting down Sunday evening trying to remember what the heck happened last week and what you need to do this week, which is all like a totally murky area, you already have it documented from Friday. You're starting your Sunday planning routine with total clarity and not the confusion if you had skipped the Friday review.
Now one of the bonuses that comes with enrollment into the signature level of SchoolHabits University is a brain dump mini course. You get like an entire course, it's a as a free bonus. It's kind of cool, and it's where I teach you how to get the most out of a brain dump and then turn the results into an action plan.
Right, because doing the brain dump is one thing, but what do you do with that information, right? I have a few different videos in there, including one that guides you step by step. It's like a guided brain dump through a seven minute brain dump, and the [00:11:00] action plan magic, that's the part two. You can learn more about that at schoolhabitsuniversity.com.
Step two, check your calendar and your task system. Now, open up your calendar and your task management system, or your assignment notebook if you are a student, and look at what's coming up on Monday and Tuesday. This is where you get clarity on what actually needs to happen over the weekend versus what can wait until next week.
Now, if you're a student, you might see that you have a paper due on Monday, or a quiz first thing Tuesday morning that you need to start preparing for now, or maybe a group meeting Monday afternoon that you need to prepare for over the weekend.
If you're a professional, you might see that you have a client presentation Monday morning, maybe a report due to your boss by the end of Monday, maybe a big meeting on Tuesday that you need to prep for it.
Looking at your calendar and your task management system helps you answer the question, do I need to do any of this work over the weekend or can I truly take some time off? And this step right here, this preview of Monday and Tuesday is [00:12:00] what's gonna make your Monday morning setup from episode 93 so much smoother.
When you sit down Monday morning to do your five minute routine, you won't be caught off guard by what's on your calendar. 'cause you already previewed it on Friday. Like a prior you, a prior version of you was looking out for the current you and set you up good. All right. And listen, if you do need to work over the weekend, that's okay. There's no judgment there. We all have different jobs and different responsibilities and you know, thresholds for work, whatever. But at least you know. You are not spending your whole Saturday wondering, like if you're forgetting something. You have clarity.
It's like you know what you're doing. Step three is to identify the weekend work, if there is any. So based on what you saw in step two, make a clear list of anything that needs to happen over the weekend. And I want to emphasize: this should be a very short list. We're talking about things that are genuinely due Monday or Tuesday, and you can't reasonably finish during the work week or the school week.
For students, this might be finishing the paper that's due Monday, or studying for [00:13:00] that quiz on Tuesday morning. Maybe reviewing notes for a group project meeting. For professionals that might be finalizing presentation slides or reviewing the contract or doing some prep work for a, a meeting on Monday. You might have to do some of that stuff over the weekend. But if it doesn't absolutely need to happen this weekend, don't put it on the list. This is not your full to-do list for next week. That's what your task management system is for, right?
This is only for the stuff that can't wait. Everything else stays in your task management system or your assignment notebook to be dealt with next week during your Sunday planning session and during your daily routines.
Okay, step four, quick workspace reset. All right. This is the last step of your Friday review, and it's to do a quick reset of your workspace, both your physical and your digital.
Now, this ties directly back to episode 101, which was all about digital clutter. If you haven't listened to that one yet, I highly recommend it. It's all about identifying where your digital clutter lives. I named five particular [00:14:00] zones in that episode, and then how to tackle each one. But for your Friday review, we're just doing like a super quick reset here.
We're not deep cleaning. Think of it like wiping down your kitchen count counters at the end of the day and not doing a full deep kitchen clean. So what's this look like? Great question. So glad you asked for your physical workspace. It's just putting away paper set are out, like putting your pens back in their pen holder, like wrapping up the chargers, filing things that need to be filed, throwing away trash or notes that you don't need, clearing your desk so that when you sit down on Monday, you have a clean slate and you feel good.
If you're a student and you've been working on a big project, like maybe a research paper where you have books and notes and printouts and you know, everywhere, take two minutes to organize those materials. Stack your books, clip your notes together, put everything in one place so you know exactly where it is when you need it again.
If you're a professional and you have project files or documents spread across your desk, same thing. Get 'em organized, put 'em in a folder or a drawer, and make sure [00:15:00] you know where everything is. For your digital workspace. Just close out your browser tabs that you're not using. I know we talked about this in episode 101, but seriously, if you haven't looked at a tab since Tuesday and it's like currently Friday, you don't need it open, close it or bookmark it.
If you have a bunch of documents or files open that you're done working on for the week, close those too. And if you downloaded anything to your downloads folder this week, you can, you know, might be a good time now to move those files to where they actually belong or just delete them. Again, this does not need to take long.
We're talking two minutes, maybe three if your workspace is a little rough. But starting Monday with a clean, physical and digital workspace makes such a difference. And how you feel when you sit down to work or study. And when you combine this workspace reset with your Monday morning set up from episode 93, you're just honestly setting yourself up for the smoothest possible start to your week.
And why would you not gift that to yourself? Actual question, why would you not treat yourself that way? All right, [00:16:00] so now you know what goes into the Friday review, but knowing what to do and actually doing it are two different things, right? So let's talk about how to make this a habit, and more importantly, how to make this entire weekly system work for you.
First put the Friday review on your calendar. I want you to literally schedule it every Friday at four, or you know, every Friday at three 30 or whenever makes sense for the end of your week. Block off 10 minutes and label it Friday review, or I know Tuesday review if your weekend's on Tuesday, whatever.
If you don't schedule it, it's not gonna happen. I promise you something else is always gonna come up, or you're gonna tell yourself that you're gonna do it later and then you won't. Ask me how I know. Second, protect this time. I know that on Fridays, especially late in the afternoon, there was always this temptation to just check out early or squeeze in one last thing, but this five to 10 minutes is gonna save you so much stress over the weekend.
It's absolutely worth protecting. And then third, use the same tool every time. [00:17:00] Whether that is a notes app, maybe your assignment notebook, maybe your task management system, whatever it is, I strongly encourage you to be consistent because when you use the same tool for the same task all of the time, every week it, it
increases the automaticity of it, it becomes more automatic and you're not wasting time trying to think like, well, where am I gonna do it? And where was my brain dump from before? And like, how am I gonna do this week's review? Right? You just do it. And this is where everything comes together. This is the magic part.
When you do the Friday review consistently, it makes your Sunday planning from episode 21 so much smoother. You're not starting from zero on Sunday trying to figure out what happened last week 'cause of course you already forgot it, right? Because you captured it on Friday. And when Sunday planning is smoother, your daily routines from episode 93 become easier too because you've planned your week with intention on Sunday and you've been closing things out properly every evening, so nothing is getting forgotten. It's all connected, right? Every routine supports [00:18:00] the others.
The Friday review, captures what's still open from the week. Sunday planning uses that information to map out the next week. The Monday morning gets you set up and started with clarity, right? Your daily evening, closeouts keep you on track throughout the week. And then the Friday review just closes that loop again. This is a complete system, and the beautiful thing about having a system is that you're not constantly reinventing the wheel.
You're not waking up every day, you know, wondering what you should be doing or wondering how to stay organized this time. You have a rhythm, you have a framework. You have a plan. Right now if you wanna go deeper into building these kinds of routines. Weekly routines, daily routines, study routines, I cover all of this inside school Habits University. in the time management module, I walk through different core routines for students and honestly these routines, they work for anyone who's trying to manage their time and reduce overwhelm. And name me someone who's not trying to do that.
And look, I know it's called School Habits University, but don't let that throw you off if you are already in your career. The time management systems I teach [00:19:00] in there work for everyone, right? Students, professionals, entrepreneurs. And I have said this before, but I have plenty of working professionals who take the course because these skills transfer directly to a working environment.
I didn't intend for it to be that way, but then that's how it's turned out, right? Time management is time management, whether you're managing class deadlines or work project. You can check that out at schoolhabitsuniversity.com, and I'll put the link in the show notes. All right, let's do a quick recap of what we've covered today, because who doesn't like a good recap?
We started by talking about why the Friday review matters and how it fits into a complete weekly system. The Friday review isn't just, you know, a random routine. It's the final piece that ties together your Sunday planning routine from episode 21, your Sunday reset from episode 65 and your daily routines from episode 93.
And then we walked through the four step framework, which was step one, brain dump your open loops, get everything that's still open from the entire week outta your head and onto paper and [00:20:00] into your system. This is different from your daily evening closeout. 'cause you're looking at the whole week and not just one day at a time.
Step two, check your calendar and task system. Look what's coming up on Monday and Tuesday. That's as far as you need to look ahead so that you have clarity, you know, on what needs to happen over the weekend, if anything. This preview also makes your Monday morning routine a little easier, and just your Mondays in general a little easier.
And then step three, identify weekend work, if any. You make a very short list of only the things that absolutely need to happen before Monday. In most cases, that's gonna be students who have to study and stuff. Step four, quick workspace reset. We're talking clear your digital desk and your digital workspace to a degree, so that you're starting Monday with a clean slate. And then finally we talked about how this all fits together into a complete weekly system. I'm gonna say this one more time 'cause I, I really want you to understand how these all sort of like are in lockstep. Right? Sunday weekly planning and Sunday reset. Monday through Friday mornings, [00:21:00] a daily setup routine, about five minutes.
Monday through Thursday evenings, a daily closeout routine of that day. And then Friday evening is the weekly review. And then, and then the weekend, you can actually rest because everything is captured. You feel good, you feel calm. You're not wondering, am I missing something? And then the cycle starts again.
This whole routine takes about five to 10 minutes on Fridays. That's it. But those five to 10 minutes combined with your other routines, they create a rhythm that makes your entire week feel manageable and just good. So my friends. That brings us to the close of the episode. I hope you found this helpful.
And if you know someone who always feels stressed on the weekends, 'cause they're worried about forgetting something for Monday, or if you know someone who's been looking for a way to tie in their productivity routines altogether, share this episode with them. You can do that easily from whatever platform you're listening on or watching just by finding that little share button, which is always in the shape of an arrow.
Thank you so much for your time. Keep showing up. Keep doing the hard work, keep asking the hard questions. And never [00:22:00] stop learning.
