Run it at the end of the workday, after you have finished or stopped work. It is the closing half of the daily rhythm that begins with Daily Check-in.
Work OS · Work Compass · Workflow
I want to finish the day with an honest record and no lost work
When the workday ends, use Daily Close to compare the work you planned with what actually happened, preserve the original plan, and make sure useful follow-up survives into the next planning cycle.
The job this workflow helps me complete
Close the day without losing what matters.
When the workday ends, use Daily Close to compare the work you planned with what actually happened, preserve the original plan, and make sure useful follow-up survives into the next planning cycle. You’re done when the day’s record is closed, exceptions are explained, and approved source records are current.
Prompt examples
Use any of these phrases to start this workflow.
run workflow Daily Closeend my dayrun my daily close
The target day’s daily log must be identifiable. Daily Close uses the saved Plan as its primary evidence. If that Plan is missing or incomplete, it can use the matching day in the active weekly log as a clearly marked fallback.
The shared Priority Calendar must have a verified readiness checkpoint, but Daily Close does not contact the live calendar. Existing Plans and unassigned To-Do List items remain protected.
What the workflow does
From planned work to an honest record.
Daily Close starts from the saved Daily Check-in Plan. It reviews the Focus Work and To-Do List items assigned to that day, asks what was different, captures relevant outcomes or reflection, and prepares a complete checkout proposal. After you approve it, the workflow appends the checkout to the daily log, updates the weekly Focus Work record, and applies approved changes to the shared To-Do List.
The original ## Plan remains unchanged. Daily Close makes no calendar read or write, and it does not inspect or archive email.
How this workflow is built
A controlled close that preserves the original plan.
The daily log supplies the work you intended to do. The active weekly log provides fallback context and receives approved Focus Work status updates. The shared To-Do List supplies the assigned small-work items and receives only approved changes. A separate task-capture step handles normalization and duplicate checking when you approve new actionable work.
The Daily Close render template shapes the review, key-moment proposal, complete checkout proposal, and saved checkout. It is the presentation of the workflow, not an extra file created by it.
What you see during the close
- Focus Work and To-Do List review: the assigned work for the target day, pre-filled as done, with a prompt to identify exceptions.
- Key Moments and New Work: relevant saved events, the outcome or decision to preserve, and any proposed follow-up with its destination.
- Complete checkout proposal: the full set of statuses, notes, key moments, reflection, and source-record changes before approval.
- Saved checkout: the appended
End-of-Day Check-Outthat closes the day while leaving the original## Planintact.
Key steps and decisions
Move from review to a verified daily record.
- 01
Open the day you actually planned.
Work Compass identifies the target date and loads the saved Daily Check-in Plan, including Focus Work, the assigned To-Do List batch, and relevant key moments. If the Plan is incomplete, it says that it is using the weekly baseline instead. You begin with a known record rather than reconstructing the day from memory.
- 02
Mark what was different.
The review is pre-filled as done so you only need to identify exceptions. You can mark assigned work as partial, blocked, not started, dropped, moved, or deferred and add the detail that explains what happened. Unassigned To-Do List items are left alone. You decide the status; Work Compass records it without rewriting the original Plan.
- 03
Decide what a key moment should leave behind.
A key moment is a relevant customer, team, partner, or business event worth preserving because it produced an outcome, decision, note, or follow-up. Routine events, breaks, Focus Work blocks, and the To-Do List batch do not count. Outcomes, decisions, and notes stay in the daily close. A follow-up becomes proposed new work only when you want an action to survive beyond the record. By default, the proposal goes to the shared To-Do List; if it deserves dedicated Focus Work, you identify its priority and validate a 30-, 60-, or 90-minute size. Nothing is written at this stage.
- 04
Add the part that belongs in tomorrow’s context.
You can add a reflection or anything still top of mind. Work Compass keeps your words with the checkout rather than turning every thought into a task. It then shows the complete proposal: reviewed statuses, key-moment outcomes, proposed new work, reflection, and the source records it plans to update.
- 05
Approve the record, then let it update the system.
You review the complete checkout and approve it before any daily log, weekly log, or To-Do List write. After approval, approved new tasks are captured, the checkout is appended to the daily log, matching weekly Focus Work statuses are updated, and completed assigned To-Do List items leave the active list while unfinished work remains open. Work Compass re-reads the changed records and stops if verification fails.
The close moves from evidence, to exception, to meaning, to approval. You decide what changed and what should survive; Work Compass prepares and verifies the record after you approve it.
The output: what happens and where it goes
What gets captured and where it goes.
| Output | What happens | Where it goes | Filename or identity | Lifecycle | Source of truth | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closed daily log | Appends the reviewed checkout, statuses, key moments, new-work results, and reflection without changing the original Plan. | Outputs/logs/compass-daily/ | YYYY-MM-DD-compass-daily.md | Update | Authoritative daily record | Your approval before saving; system verification afterward |
| Daily Close execution log | Records the loaded context, readiness result, approval, writes, and verification. | Outputs/logs/compass-daily/ | YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-compass-daily-close-execution.md | Create | Evidence of the run | System verification |
After the daily log is verified, the workflow updates the matching weekly Focus Work records and applies approved changes to the shared To-Do List. These are existing source records, not additional Daily Close artifacts. There are no calendar changes.
Verification and recovery
Verify closure before the next check-in.
Success means every assigned item has a reviewed status, important moments have a clear outcome, decision, note, or follow-up, reflection is preserved when provided, the checkout is appended once, and the original Plan is unchanged. Approved source-record updates are re-read before the workflow reports completion.
If the target date cannot be resolved, readiness has not been verified, the checkout is not approved, or a save or verification step fails, the workflow stops and leaves source records unchanged. Correct the condition and rerun. Unfinished assigned work remains open; unassigned work is untouched. Daily Close does not create an automatic carry-over object.