Daily and Weekly Briefing

You give the owner a reliable, short picture of their day and their week, so they start each morning knowing what matters and end each week knowing where things stand. The standard is the one a top chief of staff holds: bottom line first, nothing important missing, nothing padded, every number traceable to its source and time, and decisions clearly separated from information.

When to use

• "Send me a brief every morning at 7."
• "What's on today?"
• "Give me a weekly round-up every Friday."
• "Catch me up, I've been off for three days."
• "What do I need to decide this week?"

What you need

• Access to the sources the brief draws on, each as a connected app or through the agent's own browser signed in by the owner: calendar, email, chat, the task or project tracker, and the dashboards or spreadsheets that hold key metrics. If a source is not available, leave that section out and say so; never fill it from memory.
• The owner's preferences, stored with memory: delivery time and channel, which metrics to include and where each comes from, what counts as urgent, length limits, and what to leave out.
• The owner's current priorities and goals for the quarter, so you can judge relevance.
• Open commitments and decisions (see meeting-actions-and-commitments).

Method

1. Agree the format once. Show the owner the templates in references/briefing-templates.md and adjust: sections, order, length (default: daily under 250 words, weekly under 600), metrics and their definitions. Save the result in memory.
2. Schedule it. Use cronjob: daily brief at the agreed time (for example 07:00 in the owner's time zone, working days only), weekly brief on Friday afternoon or Monday morning. Skip or shorten on the owner's days off unless they ask otherwise.
3. Collect fresh data at generation time. Pull from each source just before writing.
   • Record the time you read each metric.
   • If a source fails, say ": not available at " instead of reusing old numbers.
4. Write bottom line first. Open with the one or two things the owner most needs to know or do today (or this week).
   • Then the sections.
   • Use the pyramid principle (Barbara Minto): conclusion first, then the supporting points, grouped and in order of importance.
5. Separate decisions from information. A "Decisions for you" section lists each decision with a deadline, the options, and your recommendation if you have one. Everything else is information.
6. Daily brief contents. Today's meetings (time, who, purpose, a one-line prep note or link to the brief, anything to bring); top three priorities for the day (from the owner's plan or the task tracker); decisions waiting and their deadlines; deadlines in the next 48 hours; overnight messages that need the owner (from the inbox sweep); key numbers with change from the previous day if the owner tracks daily metrics; risks or escalations.
7. Weekly brief contents. What got done against what was planned; key metrics with the change from last week and against target, using consistent definitions; commitments due, met and missed; decisions needed next week; next week's calendar shape (meetings, focus time, travel); risks and things to watch; wins worth recognising.
8. Make numbers trustworthy. Same definition every time (write it in memory).
   • Show the absolute value and the change ("Revenue booked: 41.2k, up 3.1k on last week").
   • Round sensibly.
   • Link the source.
   • If a number looks wrong (a big unexplained jump), check the source before reporting, and flag it if you cannot explain it.
9. Edit hard. Remove anything the owner cannot act on and does not need to know.
   • One line per item where possible.
   • No adjectives doing the work of numbers.
10. Learn from reactions. If the owner asks follow-up questions that the brief should have answered, add that to the format. If they never read a section, propose dropping it.

Judgement calls

• Bad news in the numbers: it goes in the bottom line, not at the bottom, with the cause if known and what is being done.
• A source down for several days: say so every day and ask its owner when it will be back. Never carry the last value forward silently.
• The owner is travelling: local times first with home time in brackets, and travel logistics at the top of the daily brief.
• Confidential items (board matters, HR cases, deals in progress): only in a private channel. In shared channels, a pointer, not the detail.
• A day with nothing important: send a two-line brief. Do not pad.
• Asked for a brief about a team member: keep to work facts and route anything personal or HR-related to HR.

Output

• Daily: a message under about 250 words in the agreed channel (or a show_card), following the daily template.
• Weekly: a message or document under about 600 words, following the weekly template, with links to detail.
• A catch-up brief on request, covering a defined period, in the weekly format.

Example daily brief (fictional figures):

Wed 14 Oct · Bottom line: the 11:00 Acme renewal call covers 18% of next year's revenue; brief attached.
Decisions: approve the Q4 hiring plan by 17:00 (recommend yes; it fits the approved budget).
Today: 09:30 leadership sync · 11:00 Acme renewal (brief) · 14:00 to 16:00 focus: board letter
Deadlines: board letter draft due Thu 15 Oct.
Overnight: Lee (investor) asked for September numbers; draft reply ready for you.
Numbers (06:00): cash 1.42m · MRR 84.1k (+0.6k on yesterday)

Checks before you finish

• Bottom line is first and is one or two sentences.
• Every number has a source and a read time, and uses the agreed definition.
• Decisions are listed separately with deadlines.
• Unavailable sources are stated, not papered over.
• Length is within the agreed limit.
• Nothing sensitive (personal data, HR matters) is included in a channel others can read.

Pitfalls

• The newsletter. Long, chatty briefs stop being read in a week. Cut.
• Stale numbers. Yesterday's figure presented as today's damages trust in every future brief. Always read fresh, and timestamp.
• Burying the decision. A decision due today in paragraph six will be missed. Put decisions first.
• Changing definitions. If "active customers" means something different each week, trends are meaningless.
• Including everything because it is available. Relevance to the owner's priorities is the filter.
• Late briefs. A morning brief that arrives after the first meeting is worthless. If a source is slow, send on time without it and add it later.
• Hiding judgement. If you think something is a risk, say so plainly with your reason. The owner can disagree; they cannot react to what you left out.

See also: meeting-prep-pack for the briefs linked from the daily, and board-and-investor-update for external reporting.