The life OS template pack

# Weekly review

Week of: ____________

## Look back (4 minutes)
- What actually got done this week?
- What slipped, and why? (Underestimated, no energy, priority changed, hidden dependency, or never mattered?)
- What did the week feel like: too full, about right, or too empty?

## Decide what carries (3 minutes)
For each unfinished item, pick one:
- [ ] Carry it forward as it is
- [ ] Resize it into something smaller
- [ ] Hand it off to someone who should own it
- [ ] Defer it to a named later week
- [ ] Delete it, it stopped mattering

## Set up next week (3 minutes)
Three to five priorities, across the parts of life that need attention:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

One adjustment for next week (one thing to do differently):
-

# The weekly reset

## 10-minute emergency reset (mid-chaos re-entry)
- [ ] Head cleared into one note, everything, no sorting
- [ ] One decision: what carries, what drops
- [ ] Tomorrow's first thing, placed where I will trip over it

## 30-minute weekly reset (the standard)
Clear (10 min, timer on)
- [ ] Inbox, notes app, camera roll, desk scraps: into one place
Close (10 min)
- [ ] Finished marked finished
- [ ] Unfinished carried forward, each with a one-line note
- [ ] Dead items let go, without guilt
Make ready (10 min, capped)
- [ ] Next week's first task findable
- [ ] Surfaces clear enough not to argue with me
- [ ] The one unblocking errand: done or scheduled
Hand over
- [ ] Open the planning pass (the weekly method) and choose the week

## 60-minute deep reset (roughly monthly)
Everything above, plus the drift sweep:
- [ ] Which area got nothing for four weeks?
- [ ] Which routine quietly died, and does it deserve revival?
- [ ] Which pile outgrew its home?

# The cadence ladder

## Daily glance (5 min, with the first coffee)
- Order today. Change nothing above today.
- First hour goes to: ____________

## Weekly session (30 to 40 min, the anchor; never skipped)
- Read last week's learn line first
- Three to five priorities across life, placed and sized:
  1.
  2.
  3.
- Learn line (end of week, one honest sentence):
- Escalation note (belongs to a rung above; decide it there, not now):

## Monthly drift check (20 to 30 min, optional)
- Money at month scale: anything drifting?
- Which area got nothing for four weeks?
- Which routine quietly died, and does it deserve revival?

## Quarterly review (60 to 90 min)
- Read the quarter's learn lines and escalation notes
- Goals for the next 12 to 13 weeks (2 to 4, no more):
  1.
  2.
- Retired this quarter (finished or dead, both count):
- The quarter's emphasis, in one line:

## Annual review (half a day, once)
- Read the four quarterlies
- What was this year actually for, judged by the evidence?
- What stops entirely next year?
- Direction, in one line: ____________

# Goals: quarter of ____________

Two to four. Fewer is stronger. A goal without a weekly move is a
wish; give every goal one, or strike it without guilt.

## Goal 1
- The goal:
- Why it matters (one line, in your words):
- What done looks like (visible from the outside):
- The weekly move that feeds it (small enough to survive a bad week):

## Goal 2
- The goal:
- Why it matters:
- What done looks like:
- The weekly move that feeds it:

## Goal 3 (optional)
- The goal:
- Why it matters:
- What done looks like:
- The weekly move that feeds it:

## Capacity check (one minute, do not skip)
Weekly moves above, added together: about ______ hours a week.
A quarter is 13 weeks and several will go badly. If the number
does not fit a mediocre week, resize the moves now, not in week 9.

## Mid-quarter note (fill at week 6 or 7)
- Still true:
- Changed:
- Dropped, and why that is fine:

# Annual review: ____________

Ninety minutes, one sitting, tea permitted. Evidence first: skim
your weekly notes or calendar for ten minutes before writing.

## The year, area by area (one honest line each)
- Work and career:
- Health:
- Money:
- Relationships:
- Joy:
- Growth:

## Three questions (a short paragraph each)
1. What did this year actually teach me? (Not what should it have
   taught me. What did it?)
2. What deserves more room next year, on the evidence of how it
   felt when it happened?
3. What quietly ended this year that I have not admitted is over?

## Next year's emphasis (not resolutions)
Two or three commitments, each with its weekly or monthly shape:

1.                              -> shows up in the week as:
2.                              -> shows up in the week as:
3.                              -> shows up in the week as:

A commitment without a weekly shape will be gone by February.
The shape is the commitment.

# The notice loop: week of ____________

## Captured this week (one line each, no sorting)
-
-
-

## Notice (Sunday, 10 minutes)
Read the inbox above, scan the next 4 weeks of the calendar, then answer:
- Coming up that needs lead time:
- Quietly building up:
- A captured line that now matters:

## Shape (10 minutes)
Fixed commitments this week:
-
Three to five priorities, placed in the real gaps, sized honestly:
1.
2.
3.

## Review (5 minutes)
Read the draft once. Strike anything you do not believe. What survives is the plan.

## Learn (end of the week, one honest line)
What slipped, what was oversized, what mattered more than planned:
-

Next week: read the Learn line first, then start again.

# Life-areas inventory

Date: ____________

For each area, answer in one honest line each. Add areas of your own;
delete any that are not part of your life right now.

## Work and career
- Quietly working:
- Quietly building up:
- One change with the biggest payoff this quarter:

## Health
- Quietly working:
- Quietly building up:
- One change with the biggest payoff this quarter:

## Money
- Quietly working:
- Quietly building up:
- One change with the biggest payoff this quarter:

## Relationships
- Quietly working:
- Quietly building up:
- One change with the biggest payoff this quarter:

## Joy
- Quietly working:
- Quietly building up:
- One change with the biggest payoff this quarter:

## Growth
- Quietly working:
- Quietly building up:
- One change with the biggest payoff this quarter:

## Close (two minutes)
Circle the TWO areas that most need attention this quarter.
Everything else keeps its anchors and nothing more. That is not
neglect; it is how attention becomes real instead of spread thin.

# Area charter: ____________

Written: ____________   Review: each season, ten minutes.

## What this area is for (one sentence)
Not a goal. The standing reason it deserves a place in your week.

-

## What good looks like this season
Two or three lines. Concrete enough that a stranger reading your
calendar could say whether it is happening.

-

## Standing anchors (the repeating slots this area keeps)
- Anchor:                       When:
- Anchor:                       When:

## Current focus (at most one)
The one thing this area is working toward right now, if any.

-

## Deliberately not doing right now
The commitments this area is NOT making this season. Written down
so declining them costs nothing each time.

-

# A minimum viable Life OS

## The structure (three folders, one page)

    life/
      inbox.md          <- everything lands here, one line each, no sorting
      areas/            <- one note per life area, only when one earns it
        health.md
        money.md
        people.md
      weeks/            <- one page per week, from the template below
        2026-W31.md

## The weekly page (copy into weeks/ each Sunday)

    # Week of ____________

    ## Noticed this Sunday (from inbox + next 4 weeks of calendar)
    -

    ## This week's plan (3 to 5 priorities, placed and sized honestly)
    1.
    2.
    3.

    ## Learned (one line, end of week)
    -

## The rhythm (this is the OS part)

    - Capture into inbox.md the moment things land, all week
    - Sunday, 30 minutes: read inbox, scan 4 weeks ahead, write the weekly page
    - End of week: one Learned line
    - Next Sunday: read last week's Learned line first

Full method: asambl.app/guides/the-notice-loop/

# The life OS folder structure

Grown from the minimum viable starter (inbox, areas, weeks). Add a
folder only when a real pile demands it; empty structure is debt.

    life/
      inbox.md            <- everything lands here, one line each
      areas/              <- one charter per area that has earned one
        work.md
        health.md
        money.md
        people.md
        joy.md
        growth.md
      weeks/              <- one page per week, named by ISO week
        2026-W31.md
      quarters/           <- one goals sheet per quarter
        2026-Q3.md
      reference/          <- slow-changing lists and documents
        reading-list.md
        gift-ideas.md
        insurance.md
      archive/            <- finished things, moved not deleted
        2025/

## The rules that keep it standing

    - Names: ISO dates (2026-W31, 2026-Q3), lowercase, hyphens,
      no spaces. Sortable by name is findable by eye.
    - New note? It goes in inbox.md first unless you already know
      its home. Filing is the weekly session's job.
    - Nothing is deleted; it is archived. Deleting takes a
      decision, archiving takes a keystroke, and the archive is
      where this year's review reads last year's evidence.
    - The structure serves the weekly page. If a folder has not
      been touched in a month and the weeks still run, it was
      decoration; fold it back in.