Run it each morning, before beginning planned work.
Work OS · Work Compass · Workflow
I want to know what I can realistically accomplish today
When the day starts, use this workflow to reconcile the weekly plan with today’s calendar, carry-over work, the tasks available for planning, and your actual capacity.
The job this workflow helps me complete
See the day clearly before you commit to it.
When the day starts, use this workflow to reconcile the weekly plan with today’s calendar, carry-over work, the tasks available for planning, and your actual capacity. You’re done when at least one confirmed task has a realistic place in an approved day plan.
Prompt examples
Use any of these phrases to start this workflow.
run workflow Daily Check-instart my dayplan my day
The weekly plan must be available, the target day must be identifiable, and the previous daily log must be loadable when a prior-day close is required. Your calendar connection, Working Hours, planning preferences, and writable Priority Calendar must be ready. Calendar commitments remain authoritative; planned work must fit around them. If the previous day is not closed, Daily Check-in resolves that first. If the calendar is unavailable or conflicts cannot be resolved, planning stops until the condition is corrected.
What the workflow does
From weekly intent to a realistic day.
Daily Check-in first checks whether the previous workday was closed, then validates the weekly context and calendar readiness before it reads today’s commitments. After the Daily Briefing is acknowledged, Inbox Triage runs, the shared To-Do List is read, and confirmed Focus Work is fitted around the calendar. The workflow surfaces overload and sequencing problems before asking you to approve the complete Day Plan.
How this workflow is built
One visible check-in with control at each decision point.
The weekly log provides the approved outcomes. The calendar provides commitments and working capacity. Inbox Triage supplies any newly captured work, while the shared To-Do List supplies open tasks for consideration. The daily plan format records the approved result for the day.
Templates
The Daily Check-in render template controls the conversation surfaces you review and the structure of the saved Plan. It is the shape of the output, not an extra file created during the check-in.
| Template | What it controls | How you can modify it |
|---|---|---|
render-compass-daily-checkin.md | The Daily Briefing, conflict view, To-Do List assignment, Day Plan, and saved Plan structure. | Change the presentation when you need the day plan to be easier to review or act on. |
What you see during the check-in
The check-in follows a consistent conversation so you always know where you are:
- Daily Briefing: the date, a short summary of the planned work, and the complete chronological view of your working day. You reply OK or NEXT before the workflow continues.
- Calendar Conflicts: if Work Compass finds an overlap or a calendar change it cannot reconcile, it shows the affected times and waits for your decision. Nothing is changed from this view.
- To-Do List Assignment: after Inbox Triage, you see a small group of suggested tasks for today beside the remaining open items. You choose which items, if any, belong in one batch.
- Day Plan: you see the full day in time order, including Focus Work, the To-Do List batch, meetings, free time, and any deliberately unassigned capacity. You then answer: Does this plan look right?
- Saved Plan: after approval and verification, the daily log records the Focus Work, the To-Do List batch, the confirmed calendar view, relevant key moments, and the fact that you approved the plan.
The point of the template is simple: you see the day before you commit to it, make decisions only where your judgment is needed, and leave with one approved record of what the day is for.
What it does step by step
Move from yesterday’s close to today’s approved plan.
- 01
Start from the work already agreed.
Work Compass checks whether yesterday was properly closed, identifies today, and loads the approved weekly plan. If yesterday is still open, it resolves that first. You start from the work you actually agreed to do, rather than rebuilding the week from memory.
- 02
See the day as it is.
It checks your calendar connection, Working Hours, planning preferences, and the calendar Work Compass is allowed to update. It reads the full working day and compares it with the weekly plan. If commitments conflict or the calendar is unavailable, it stops and shows you what needs attention. After you acknowledge the Daily Briefing with OK or NEXT, Inbox Triage completes its own work before Daily Check-in reads the shared To-Do List.
- 03
Choose what fits.
The workflow keeps your confirmed Focus Work priorities in order, adds relevant carry-over work, and brings open tasks into the plan without silently duplicating email decisions. Your confirmed priorities appear first, numbered 1 to 3; the next items, numbered 4 to 7, remain available for you to move to a different priority before you validate them. Focus Work receives a 30-, 60-, or 90-minute block, while To-Do List items stay together as one batch. You get a short list that fits the available capacity.
- 04
Turn the choices into a day.
Work Compass places each selected task into a valid time interval and keeps free time visible. It requires at least one confirmed task. If a weekly outcome has no task behind it, it pauses so you can define the next concrete action. You finish with a plan you can execute, not a set of intentions.
- 05
Approve and lock it in.
You review the complete Day Plan before anything is written to the calendar. Once you approve it, the workflow makes the approved calendar updates once, verifies that they match the plan, and saves the daily log. You keep control of the commitment, avoid surprise calendar changes, and leave a record of what the day was meant to accomplish.
The check-in moves from context, to reality, to choice, to commitment. Each stage removes one kind of uncertainty before you start work.
The output: what happens and where it goes
What gets planned, saved, and scheduled.
| Output | What happens | Where it goes | Filename or identity | Lifecycle | Source of truth | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily log | Records the approved Plan and later Daily Close evidence. It is the authoritative record for the day and is created only after your confirmation. | Outputs/logs/compass-daily/ | YYYY-MM-DD-compass-daily.md | Create | Authoritative daily record | Your confirmation before saving |
| Daily Check-in execution log | Records the checks performed, approvals, calendar writes, and verification result. | Outputs/logs/compass-daily/ | YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-compass-daily-checkin-execution.md | Create | Evidence of the run | System verification |
| Focus Work calendar blocks | Records approved focus blocks on the configured Priority Calendar, then verifies that they match the approved plan. | The configured Priority Calendar | Calendar event identity and interval | Create or update after approval | Calendar state | Your approval before writing; system verification afterward |
The shared To-Do List remains the source of open tasks. Daily Check-in selects a batch for the day; it does not create or rewrite the list itself.
Verification and recovery
Verify the plan before the day begins.
Success means the approved Plan fits actual capacity, every selected task appears in a valid interval, the To-Do List batch is visible as one block, and any calendar changes match the approved plan. Calendar writes wait for approval, go only to the Priority Calendar, and are re-read and verified afterward. If the previous day is open, the weekly plan is missing, the calendar is unavailable, conflicts remain, no task can be confirmed, or the day is overloaded, the workflow reports the condition and asks for correction before saving. An existing Plan is never overwritten after a save or verification failure.