Open weekly planning by reviewing plan vs. actuals…

When This Fires

• At the start of every weekly planning session, before creating next week's plan
• When weekly plans consistently don't match reality but you're not sure why
• When planning feels futile because "nothing goes as planned"
• Complements Exactly one improvement per execution cycle — not zero… (one improvement per cycle) and Give each workflow change 3-5 executions before deciding… (3-5 cycle stability test) at the weekly cadence

Common Failure Mode

Forward-only planning: jumping straight into next week's plan without reviewing last week's outcomes. This feels efficient ("I don't want to dwell on the past") but ensures you repeat every planning error indefinitely. The 5-minute review is the cheapest learning investment in your weekly practice.

The Protocol

(1) Open your weekly planning session by pulling up last week's plan alongside this week's actuals. (2) Compare each planned item against what actually happened: completed, partially completed, not started, or replaced by something else. (3) Identify the single biggest gap — the one item where plan and reality diverged most significantly. (4) Ask: "What structural factor caused this gap?" Not "why didn't I do it?" (blame) but "what structural condition prevented this from happening?" (schedule conflict, underestimation, missing prerequisite, energy mismatch). (5) Design one structural adjustment for next week's plan that addresses this factor. Then proceed with planning. The review should take 5-10 minutes, not the entire session.