Ask four diagnostic questions during weekly review — captured well, almost lost, over-captured, avoiding
During weekly reviews, ask four metacognitive questions—what did I capture well, what did I almost lose, where did I over-capture noise, and what am I avoiding—to monitor system health rather than just processing lists.
Why This Is a Rule
Most weekly reviews are execution-focused: process inbox, clear tasks, update lists. This keeps the system running but never evaluates whether the system itself is healthy. You can have a perfectly processed inbox that systematically misses your most important insights because the capture system has blind spots you've never diagnosed.
The four metacognitive questions shift the review from execution mode to system-evaluation mode:
- What did I capture well? — Identifies what's working. Reinforces effective capture habits.
- What did I almost lose? — Identifies near-misses. Reveals where capture friction is too high or timing is wrong.
- Where did I over-capture noise? — Identifies false positives. Reveals where your filter is too loose, creating processing overhead without value.
- What am I avoiding? — Identifies systematic blind spots. Reveals where capture resistance (see The flinch away from writing a thought down IS the signal to capture it) is hiding your highest-value targets.
Together, these four questions produce a diagnostic snapshot of your capture system's health — precision (how much of what you captured was valuable?), recall (how much of what was valuable did you capture?), and bias (what are you systematically missing?).
When This Fires
- During every weekly review, after processing the inbox and before planning next week
- When your capture system feels like it's working but you're not sure it's catching what matters
- After changing capture tools, habits, or workflows — to evaluate whether the change helped
- Quarterly, as a deeper system health assessment
Common Failure Mode
Answering the questions superficially: "I captured things well. I didn't almost lose anything. No over-capture. Not avoiding anything." This is your comfort zone talking. The "almost lost" and "avoiding" questions require genuine self-honesty. If you can't identify at least one near-miss and one avoidance pattern per week, you're not looking hard enough.
The Protocol
During weekly review, after processing your inbox: (1) Write one answer for each question. Be specific — names, topics, timestamps. (2) For "almost lost": what saved it? How could you prevent the near-miss next time? (3) For "over-captured": what signal criteria would have filtered this out? (4) For "avoiding": what would it mean if you captured this? (Usually the answer reveals a commitment you're dodging.) (5) Adjust your capture system based on the answers. The review is diagnostic; the adjustments are treatment.