We, as people don’t have an information problem. Usually, it is our focus.
The day starts, and before you know it, you are already inside the flow: messages, meetings, requests, updates, follow-ups. You become very good at processing everything, while the important things quietly drift away:
- goals; - promises; - key relationships; - strategic priorities; - projects that actually need attention.
That is why I like the idea of a brief. Nice and neat one pager that tells you what deserves attention today or this week:
- what is blocked; - what matters most; - what you promised; - what you may be missing; - who you need to talk to; - which decisions are waiting;
Part two. Then comes the debrief. This is where you add back the things the system cannot fully see from Slack, email, or meetings: what shipped, what changed, what moved a metric, what brought revenue, what got stuck, what you learned. Even a few short notes at the end of the day are useful. Brief gives you direction. Debrief gives the system memory. Together, they create a much better operating rhythm.
And the last part, which is similar to debief is a weekly report. Now, here is the trick, you don’t need to see what you did, but instead - what excatly changed because of your actions. This is, in fact, a powerplay - you will see the impact, not list of the tasks, and it will launch this loop and help with focusing on things that matter.
Cheers! 💚
