Add significant unplanned work to the review and record what it displaced. Check whether it required immediate attention or reflects a recurring pattern. Use that information to revise capacity, discuss repeated requests and choose which unfinished actions still deserve a place in the next period.
You review a week and find several planned tasks unfinished. The list makes it look as though little happened. In fact, an urgent repair and an unexpected request used the hours reserved for those tasks.
Add the significant unplanned work to the review. Note what time it used and whether it needed immediate attention. Keep the account factual enough that you can distinguish a genuine new responsibility from an interruption you chose to accept.
Use the information in the next plan
If similar work arrives often, leave a realistic amount of room for it. If one kind of request repeatedly displaces your priorities, discuss its timing or choose a different response. An exceptional week may simply need a revised date for the original task.
Look at what remains and decide which item still matters. Avoid moving every missed action automatically into next week. The review should produce a current plan using the responsibilities you actually handled, including those that were invisible in the list at the start of the week.
A week interrupted by a repair
An illustrative exampleSuppose a household repair takes the evening you reserved for a personal draft. Your task list shows the draft unfinished, but omits arranging access and being present for the repair. Add those actions to the review with an approximate time cost. If the repair was exceptional, give the draft another realistic slot. If similar household appointments arrive regularly, reserve some coordination time in future plans. Check whether another planned action still matters before carrying it forward. The review can then describe both the unfinished draft and work that genuinely occupied its time, rather than using a sparse task list as the entire account of what happened that week.
Include what arrived later
Tick the steps as you work through them.
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When everything is labelled unexpected
Repeated requests may be normal work that the plan has failed to include. Compare several ordinary weeks before treating them as exceptions. Estimate the space they usually require and discuss ownership where appropriate. Some interruptions also result from choices you can change, such as joining an optional call. Record that distinction without turning the review into a judgement of character. If the week was genuinely exceptional, avoid redesigning the whole routine around it; revise the immediate dates and look for further evidence before making a permanent change.
Account for the week
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