Module 7 · Planning & self-regulation · Research-supported

The weekly review

Ten minutes a week to see what worked, what didn’t, and what to change.

6 min read · Level: Beginner · Free — no account needed to read

The problem it solves

How do you keep habits improving instead of drifting?

The concept

A weekly review is a short, regular look back: what worked, what didn’t, what changed, what obstacle appeared, what to modify, and what to remove. Ten minutes is enough.

It closes the feedback loop. Without a review, problems repeat quietly for weeks; with one, you notice and adjust while the week is still fresh.

Keep it kind and practical. The review isn’t a verdict on you. It’s a chance to redesign — one small change at a time. MFJ’s Habit Journey and Insights tabs give you the week’s facts to look at.

Why it matters

Reviewing goals and behaviour regularly, and adjusting plans, is a recognised behaviour-change technique and part of the feedback loop that self-regulation research describes.

Research-supported: Good studies support it, but there are fewer of them, the effects are modest, or they come from a narrow set of situations.

See it happen

Every few months, Bea notices her habits have quietly faded and starts over.

The ordinary first approach

She should restart with more determination.

With the idea

She does a ten-minute review every Sunday and makes one change for the coming week.

What changed

Small drifts get caught and fixed weekly, instead of becoming a full collapse.

Easy to get wrong

• Reviewing only when everything has already gone wrong.
• Changing everything after one bad week.
• Turning the review into self-criticism.

Try it now: A ten-minute review

1. Answer: what worked, what didn’t, what obstacle appeared?
2. Choose one thing to modify and one thing to remove or pause.
3. Write the change into next week’s plan.

Apply it to one of your habits

Look at one of your habits this week: what worked, what didn’t, and what one thing will you change?

Reflect

• What did this week teach you about your habits?

Go deeper — evidence & sources

• Carver & Scheier (1982). Control theory: A useful conceptual framework for personality–social, clinical, and health psychology. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.92.1.111
• Harkin, Webb, Chang, Prestwich, Conner, Kellar, Benn & Sheeran (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/bul0000025
• Michie, Richardson, Johnston, Abraham, Francis, Hardeman and colleagues (2013). The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy (v1) of 93 Hierarchically Clustered Techniques. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. doi:10.1007/s12160-013-9486-6