A 30-minute weekly review for freelancers (template)

A weekly review is a short, fixed meeting with your own business. It works when every question has a number behind it, so you're reading data instead of trying to remember. This template is part of the time and projects hub, and each line says where the number comes from.

The template

WEEKLY REVIEW: week of [date]

0. Last week's three priorities: done? [yes / no, why]

1. MONEY IN (10 min)
[ ] Unbilled billable hours: [__] h across [__] projects. Invoiced today? [yes/no]
[ ] Overdue invoices: [__] totaling $[__]. Oldest: [client], [__] days late. Action: [__]
[ ] Paid this week: $[__]. Moved [__]% to the tax account? [yes/no]
[ ] Next estimated tax payment: [date]. On track? [yes/no]

2. PIPELINE (5 min)
[ ] Proposals waiting for an answer: [__]. Follow up: [names]
[ ] Unsigned documents: [__]. Nudge: [names]
[ ] New inquiries not answered yet: [__]

3. CALENDAR AND DEADLINES (5 min)
[ ] Meetings next week: [__]. Anything to prepare: [__]
[ ] Client deliverables due next week: [list with dates]
[ ] Inputs I'm waiting for from clients: [what, from whom, asked on]

4. THE BOARD (5 min)
[ ] Done column cleared
[ ] Overdue tasks: [__]. Re-dated or dropped

5. NEXT WEEK'S THREE PRIORITIES (5 min)
1. [__]
2. [__]
3. [__]

Utilization this week: [billable h] / [planned h] = [__]%

How to fill in each block

Money comes first because it's the part that gets more expensive with every week it waits. Unbilled hours are work clients already owe you for; invoicing them weekly or every two weeks keeps the amount at risk small. Overdue invoices get one action each: a reminder, a call, or the steps in what to do when a client won't pay. If you set aside a share of every payment for taxes, the review is where you check you actually did; how much to set aside for taxes has the percentages.

For US freelancers, the IRS expects estimated tax payments four times a year if you'll owe at least $1,000 when you file. For tax year 2026 the dates are April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027 (IRS Form 1040-ES). Write the next date in the template so it can't arrive by surprise. The IRS also asks businesses to keep records that support income and expenses (Publication 583); a weekly look at receipts is easier than a yearly hunt.

The pipeline block is about answers you're owed. A proposal with no reply after three days gets a follow-up; an unsigned contract gets a nudge. The calendar block looks one week ahead, which is far enough to prepare and close enough to be accurate. The board block is two minutes of housekeeping on your Kanban board for client projects: clear Done, re-date or drop anything overdue.

Three priorities, not ten. Pick the three tasks that would make next week a good week if nothing else got done, and write them as tasks ("Send the Acme homepage design"), not areas ("Acme"). Next week, line 0 checks them first.

Why weekly, and what to leave out

Weekly is the longest gap that still catches problems while they are cheap. An invoice that goes out a week late costs you a week of cash; one that goes out a month late often costs a client relationship, because the client has already moved on. A proposal followed up after three days gets an answer; one followed up after three weeks gets "we went with someone else." Monthly reviews are useful for trends, but they are too slow for the actions in the money and pipeline blocks.

Leave out anything that doesn't lead to an action this week. Long-term goals, marketing plans and rate changes belong in a monthly or quarterly review, where you have enough data to decide. Inbox zero isn't part of it either: the review reads your numbers, not your email. If a block has nothing in it, check the box and move on; a quiet week should take 15 minutes.

The last line of the template, utilization, is the one number that tells you whether the week was full of paid work or full of everything else. Billable hours divided by the hours you planned to work is enough; what a good utilization rate is explains the formula and what the number does to your rate.

Where each number comes from in SoloWOS

Keep the template itself as a page in Notes & Boards and duplicate it each week, so past reviews stay searchable. If the pipeline block keeps showing the same unanswered proposals, the follow-up is a good candidate for an automation; see automations every freelancer should set up.