Best practices for the morning brief your chief of staff writes
One page at 6:30, before you look at anything else: your day, the decisions waiting on you, what you owe people, and the one thing that matters. Here is what the good ones contain.
Today's calendar
The shape of the day: the meetings, who is on them, the open windows between them, and the one that matters and why. Every meeting comes with its own brief, prepared before the call. When the chief of staff lacks the context to write one, it says so and asks.
Good morning, Sam.
Tuesday, August 25 · five meetings
The one that matters is the board prep at 2:00: Dana wants the Q3 number locked before it.
Today
Every meeting, briefed
Tap "See brief" and you walk in knowing who is across the table. The brief earns its keep on the people you do not know: who they are, why they asked, what they will want, what you owe them. Your own team you know better than any AI, so those briefs stay short.
‹ Today
Lunch with Kris Ahn
12:00 · 60 min · Sana's · intro from Tom
Full brief · what she will want, your two emails, what she wrote last month
When it has a question, it asks first
A brief written on missing context is worse than none. When the chief of staff cannot finish one, it tells you what it has, asks what it needs, and writes the brief from your answer. You hold to talk; typing is there too.
‹ Today
Alex, partner deck, 4:30
30 min · call · Alex Moreau, Vantage
What I have
You met Alex twice in June about a co-selling partnership. On Friday you told him you'd send the partner deck; it is not sent. He asked for this call to "go through it together".
Before I write the brief
Which deck do you mean: the June one, or the new one with pricing that Maria finished yesterday? And is there anything about Vantage I should know that is not in your mail?
or type it
Anything urgent overnight
While you slept, mail, LinkedIn, Slack and texts kept coming. The chief of staff reads all of it and surfaces only what needs a fast answer from you, with a reply drafted in your voice for each. Everything else waits for the inbox triage later in the morning, and it tells you how much that is.
Needs a fast reply
LinkedIn·Open
Nadia Rowe, Fathom "Saw your post on the chief of staff. Can we talk this week?"
Slack·Open
Priya needs the London offer letter approved before 10 or the candidate walks.
Text·Open
Louis the Q3 number is ready, wants five minutes before the board prep.
14 other messages can wait for the triage at 9:00.
News that matters to you
Not the news: your news. What moved overnight in your market, at your customers and your competitors, three lines at most, each with why it matters to you today. On a quiet night, one line saying so.
Overnight, in your world
Fathom announced a chief-of-staff feature in their exec tier. Kris, at lunch, will have an opinion.
Vantage (Alex's company) closed a Series B. The partner deck just became more important.
Your market: two new "AI chief of staff" launches on Product Hunt; neither does briefs.
Decisions pending
What needs a call from you today, found in your mail and your threads: a yes or no someone is waiting on, an option to pick, a sign-off. Who, what, by when. You answer from the brief and the chief of staff carries it back.
Decisions pending
Priya needs a yes or no on the London hire by end of day.
Marketing wants you to pick a launch date, Sept 16 or 23.
What you owe
What you promised people and have not done yet, pulled from the last week of mail and calls, named by person and thing. Each one comes with the shortest way to close it: a draft, a send, or a "done already".
What you owe
You told Alex on Friday you'd send the partner deck. Not sent.
You owe Dana the one-line pipeline story before the board prep at 2:00.
Who owes you a reply
The people who have not answered: how long it has been, how many times you have asked, and a ping drafted in your voice for each. The ones you decide to leave alone stay off tomorrow's brief.
Waiting on a reply
Mail·8 days, asked twice·Open
Tom, legal the MSA redlines. He said "this week" on the 21st and again on the 26th.
LinkedIn·12 days, asked once·Open
Nadia Rowe the intro to her CFO she offered after the panel.
Slack·2 days·Open
Maria the all-hands memo date; you need it for the exec staff at 9:00.
Flags
At most two, and only when something is really off: two things booked at the same time, a deadline today nobody has mentioned, an exec on a meeting with no agenda. On a normal day this section does not exist, which is the point.
Flags
11:00 customer call and 1:1 with Sam are booked at the same time.
Today's growth reminder
One line, from the skill you told it you are working on this month. Not a quote of the day: a concrete move for today, tied to something already on the calendar.
This month: delegate the first draft
The partner deck for Alex is the kind of thing you still write yourself. Ask Maria for a first draft before 4:00 and edit it instead.
Sleep and recovery
Last night and the week's trend, in one line, with no advice unless you ask for it. It needs a health source your Claude can read, so it is the piece most people add last.
Sleep
6h10, deep 1h05. Third short night in a row; the week averages 6h30.
The one thing
The brief ends on a question, not a list: what is the one thing today? Two suggestions drawn from what it just read, or your own words. Your answer is the goal the day is measured against in the evening.
What is the one thing today?
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