{
  "id": 18195480,
  "title": "Performance review season: a short about the self-review you can't remember writing material for, and the weekly note I use now",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/performance-review-season-a-short-about-the-self-review-you-cant",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-04T22:29:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/productivityforge/performance-review-season-a-short-about-the-self-review-you-cant-remember-writing-material-for-190e"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In Episode 5 of Rozz's shorts series, the focus is on the annual self-review process and a method to simplify it. As the review deadline approaches on Friday, the biggest challenge is recalling one's activities from months prior. The solution lies not in improving memory but in creating a concise weekly note. This note is an actual entry from Rozz's Dev Second Brain, an Obsidian vault template designed for developers. It is labeled \"Week 2026-W39\" and divided into four key sections: Wins, Open Loops, What I'd Do Differently, and Next Week's Focus.\n\nIn the Wins section, Rozz notes a \"Turned the duplicate-email incident into a real fix: ADR-0001 accepted and first PR up within a day.\" One outstanding Open Loop requires IT's attention. In the What I'd Do Differently section, Rozz admits they should have asked about the idempotency of a specific handler when reviewing a PDF receipt PR. The Focus section is a single line, ensuring that even if other aspects slip, the essential task remains. The note is completed automatically by Templater, which also generates a Dataview list detailing the week's incidents, decisions, PR reviews, and tasks completed. This list is embedded at the bottom of the note, making it easier to compile a comprehensive self-review.\n\nThe Weekly Rollup dashboard aggregates all the weeks, displaying each week's focus and metrics such as open loops, decisions, incidents, and PR reviews per week, along with the number of daily notes and tasks completed. When the review season arrives, much of the self-review is already organized by week. To implement this system, you need Obsidian (a free tool), along with the free Templater and Dataview plugins. All of this is done using plain Markdown files stored on your own device. Episode 6, titled \"Home,\" concludes the series. Dev Second Brain is available for $19 on Gumroad, allowing one user per copy for both personal and commercial purposes: https://subengel.gumroad.com/l/uoybkd. More information and resources can be found at https://engelailabs.com.",
  "summary": "Episode 5 of our Rozz shorts is about the self-review. Rozz's is due Friday, and the hard part is remembering what you actually did months ago. The fix isn't a better memory. It's a short note at the end of each week. Watch it on X or Instagram . The note on Rozz's screen is a real one from Dev Second Brain, the Obsidian vault template for developers. It's the example weekly review that comes…",
  "key_points": [
    "Annual self-review deadline approaches Friday",
    "Weekly note simplifies recalling past activities",
    "Obsidian, Templater, Dataview plugins required"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}