Run your weekly review with Claude or ChatGPT
Turn a week of loose notes into a few decisions and next week's to-do list in about 30 minutes. One-time setup, four steps with a prompt each, one prompt that does it all, two follow-ups, and an honest list of where it goes wrong.
Start here
How to use this canvas
- Go top to bottom: why, setup, then the four steps. Each step is one prompt; copy the grey block into Claude or ChatGPT.
- In a hurry? Use "The whole review in one prompt" instead of the four steps.
- "Example notes" is a made-up week, so you can try everything right away.
Why a weekly review
- The weekly review comes from David Allen's Getting Things Done. It has three parts: get clear (empty everything out), get current (look over what's open), get creative (think about what's next).
- Allen's own advice on how often: "Any time, any frequency, is better than not at all."
- The four steps on this canvas follow those three parts. The AI does the sorting; you make the calls.
- Source: The GTD Weekly Review, GTD official blog, 2009-05, updated 2014-02 (official) https://gettingthingsdone.com/2009/05/the-gtd-weekly-review/
Example notes
These notes are made up, for trying the prompts.
- Two trial users asked if it works offline.
- 3 of 5 testers skipped the sample canvas during onboarding.
- Idea: a weekly email of what you saved.
- On the pricing page people keep asking what's in Plus.
- Heard on a podcast: "Ship the boring version first."
- Export to PDF cuts off long titles.
- Drop the Windows waitlist? 12 sign-ups in a month.
- A tester said: "I don't know where to start on an empty canvas."
- A competitor added AI tags this week.
- I wanted to post twice a week; managed once.
Make a project for your reviews
- In Claude or ChatGPT, create a project called "Weekly review". Both apps have projects on their free plans.
- Paste the block below into the project's instructions, so you don't repeat it every week.
- Keep a week's notes in one place as you go: one canvas, one file, anything. At the end of the week you paste them in.
- With put·here, everything you saved this week sits on one canvas; once Claude is connected, it can read that canvas directly, no copy and paste. How to connect: see the guide "Let Claude and ChatGPT read your folder".
This project is my weekly review. I'll paste a week of my notes. Work only from what I paste; don't invent facts. Quote my notes when you refer to them. Keep answers short and in plain words. When something needs my judgment, ask instead of deciding.
Four steps
Step 1 · Get clear: find the themes
Here are my notes from this week, one per line:
<notes>
Paste your notes here.
</notes>
Group them into 3 to 5 themes. For each theme give a short name, the notes that belong to it (quote them exactly), and one sentence on what the theme says. Put notes that fit nowhere under "Loose ends".
Why it's written this way: the notes sit inside tags, so the AI can't mix them up with your instructions; quoting exactly keeps it honest; the output shape is spelled out.
Tried on Claude, 2026-10: four themes (new users stuck at the start, pricing questions, what to build next, focus). The PDF bug and the podcast line went to loose ends.
Step 2 · Get current: what's pulling against what
Places where two notes pull in different directions. Quote both.
Step 3 · Decide
Decisions I can make now (at most 3), each with the note it comes from.
Step 4 · Get creative: one bigger question
Looking at the whole week, what's one question I should be asking that none of my notes ask? Give the question, the two or three notes that made you think of…
All in one, and follow-ups
The whole review in one prompt
For when you have ten minutes. Same steps, one answer.
Poke holes in one decision
Take this decision: Write the decision here.
Write the week up for someone else
Write a short update from this review for Who it's for, e.g. my co-founder or a client. Five lines at most: what happened, what I decided, what's next, and…
Honest bit and next step
Where this goes wrong
It only knows what you paste. A thin week gives a thin review; it can still sound sure of itself.
Do one real review at the end of the week
Save this week's notes in one place, then at the end of the week run the four steps on them. Keep the prompts you end up editing. (From: Step 1 · Get clear:…
Sources
- The GTD Weekly Review, GTD official blog, 2009-05, updated 2014-02 (official): the three parts and the quote on frequency. https://gettingthingsdone.com/2009/05/the-gtd-weekly-review/
- Anthropic, Prompting best practices (official, Claude docs; page has no date; checked 2026-10): be clear and direct, add context, separate parts with tags, ask for quotes with long material. https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-engineering/claude-prompting-best-practices
- OpenAI, Prompt engineering best practices for ChatGPT (official, OpenAI Help Center; exact date not shown; checked 2026-10): mark off text with delimiters, break tasks into steps, be specific, refine over rounds. https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10032626-prompt-engineering-best-practices-for-chatgpt
- Google Workspace, Writing effective AI prompts (official; page has no date; checked 2026-10): persona, task, context and format. https://workspace.google.com/resources/ai/writing-effective-prompts/
- Projects: Claude Help Center "What are projects?" and OpenAI Help Center "Projects in ChatGPT" (official, checked 2026-10); both list projects on free plans.
- The prompts are our own writing. The example notes are made up. Each prompt was run once on Claude in 2026-10. Not yet run on ChatGPT.