04 / Review and adjust

Run a weekly
business review.

A weekly business review compares what you intended with what happened, then turns that evidence into a decision. Start with your commitments, examine one important gap, and choose a next action that fits the coming week.

You will leave with: a short record of the week, one decision, and a realistic next step. Set aside about 25 minutes for a first pass.

On this page 9 sections

Before you start

Open last week's plan, your calendar, the work you delivered, and any relevant customer notes. Use a blank document or the worksheet below. If you have no written plan, reconstruct what you intended and label it as a recollection.

This lesson is for solo founders and independent professionals managing an active business. Bring one current outcome, such as completing a client project or testing an offer. A weekly review checks direction; your daily check-in tracks execution.

If you are still deciding what to work toward, first turn your goal into an observable outcome.

1. Reconstruct the week

Compare your original commitments with completed work. Mark each commitment done, partial, or not started, and attach evidence.

For each commitment, write the result in plain language. “Worked on onboarding” hides the finish line. “Published the setup instructions; welcome email still in draft” shows what exists and what remains.

Add only numbers that help assess the goal. Compare matching periods and definitions: conversations held this week against conversations held last week, for example. Record the absolute counts when the sample is small. Mark missing data as unknown instead of turning it into zero.

Keep necessary maintenance visible too. Customer support and delivery can consume the week even when your growth project stands still. The record should explain where your time went.

2. Find the constraint

Choose one gap that matters to your current goal. Separate the observation from possible explanations and identify what you still need to learn.

Ask where progress slowed: before you started, while you were doing the work, or after you delivered it. An unfinished proposal needs a different response from a proposal a customer has read but not accepted.

Write three separate lines: “I observed…”, “One possible explanation is…”, and “I still need to find out…”. A quiet week does not prove an offer is wrong. A busy week does not prove it is working.

If several issues compete, first handle an urgent customer commitment or operational problem. Then choose the constraint most directly connected to your current goal. Put the remaining questions on a separate list.

3. Make one decision

Choose a specific change to try next week. Write what evidence would help you decide whether to continue, revise, or stop it.

A useful decision names the work that changes. “Be more consistent” leaves tomorrow unchanged. “Reserve the first work block for the unfinished proposal and postpone the homepage polish” makes a tradeoff you can follow.

Keep the experiment small enough to learn from. Record why you chose it and what would make you reconsider. If the result depends on a customer's response, separate your commitment to act from the outcome you hope to see.

4. Fit the next action into your calendar

Subtract existing commitments and a buffer from your available time. Schedule a first action that fits, define done, and choose the next review date.

Count the hours you can actually use. Existing delivery, appointments, administration, and recovery time already occupy part of the week. Leave a buffer for the interruptions your recent reviews show.

If the task does not fit, reduce its scope, move a lower-priority commitment, or choose a different action. Give it a visible finish line. End the review by reserving the first work block and deciding when you will check the result.

For daily execution, use the commitment, evidence, obstacle, and next-action check-in.

A worked example: an unfinished offer

This is a hypothetical example. Maya runs a small design business and wants to test a fixed-scope website service. She planned three prospect conversations, a one-page offer, and some homepage updates.

What her review shows

Observation: she held two conversations and updated the homepage. The offer is unfinished. Both prospects asked what the service would include.

Possible explanation: the scope may be too vague for a useful buying discussion. Two conversations are a reason to investigate, not proof of wider demand.

Decision: finish the offer and use it in the next conversations. Pause further homepage polish until she has that feedback.

Available time: 18 working hours, minus 12 for client delivery, two for administration, and two as a buffer, leaves two hours.

Plan: 45 minutes to draft the scope, 45 minutes to prepare one relevant work sample, and 30 minutes reserved for follow-up conversations if the prospects are available. Otherwise, she schedules the calls and keeps the questions ready.

Done means: a one-page offer with deliverables, exclusions, and an example. At the next review, she will record what each prospect understood and which questions remained.

She has not proved that the service will sell. She has chosen a useful way to reduce uncertainty within the time available. Save the decision beside the original observation so next week's review can check it.

Your weekly review worksheet

Copy these six fields into a document. Start a new entry each week so you can see what changed. Keep sensitive customer details in your own private notes.

Week and goal: Week ending: ____. Current business outcome: ____. Evidence that would count as progress: ____.
Commitments and results: For each commitment: planned / done, partial, or not started / evidence or document link. Use unknown when a number is unavailable.
One important gap: What I observed: ____. Possible explanation: ____. What I still do not know: ____.
Decision for next week: I will continue, change, or stop: ____. The reason: ____. Evidence I will check at the next review: ____.
Available time: Working hours: ____. Existing commitments: ____. Buffer: ____. Time left for this decision: ____.
First action and review: Action: ____. Calendar slot: ____. Done means: ____. If blocked, I will: ____. Next review: ____.

Download the worksheet

Plain text. Open it in any text editor or paste it into your notes.

When the review stalls

You spend the whole session collecting data. Note the missing information and assign one retrieval task. For next week, keep evidence beside the daily commitment.
The same task keeps returning. Name the blocker and choose whether to reduce the task, ask for help, or drop it. Repeatedly copying it forward is not a decision.
You missed a week. Review the current situation and restart. Reconstruct older weeks only if they affect a decision you need to make now.
You cannot tell whether the change helped. Keep the observation separate from the explanation. Continue collecting relevant evidence rather than changing several things at once.

The review is complete when you can name the important observation, explain your decision, and point to the next action on your calendar. You do not need a score for how productive you were.