Daily Briefing Workflow

One message at a fixed time that replaces checking six things twelve times a day.

The shape

Scheduled trigger (e.g. 07:30)
  -> gather from each source
  -> filter to what changed since yesterday
  -> AI summarises and ranks
  -> one message, one channel

The value is in what it leaves out. A briefing that includes everything is the thing you were trying to escape.

Choosing sources

Three to five. Not more.

Source	Good for	Watch for
RSS feeds	Industry news, blogs, publications	Volume — cap items per feed
Email (filtered)	Specific senders or labels only	Never the whole inbox
Calendar	Today's commitments	—
A spreadsheet or database	Your own metrics	—
Search alerts	Your name, your company, your competitors	False positives
Project tool	What moved yesterday	Noise from automated updates

The filter matters more than the source. "New email" is not a source; "new email from these eight people" is.

The summarisation prompt

You are preparing a morning briefing for [ROLE] who cares about [WHAT].

Here is everything collected since the last briefing:
{{items}}

Produce:

WHAT CHANGED
The 3-5 things that genuinely matter. One line each, most important first.
If something is important only because of who it involves, say why.

NEEDS ME TODAY
Anything requiring a decision or reply from me, with the deadline.

WORTH KNOWING
Up to 3 items, one line each. Context, not action.

Rules:
- If nothing meets a category's bar, write "Nothing" and move on.
  Do not pad.
- No preamble, no sign-off.
- Do not summarise what has not changed.
- Never invent detail not present above. If a headline is all you have,
  say so rather than inferring the content.
- Under 250 words total.

The "write Nothing" instruction is what makes this sustainable. A briefing that manufactures five items every day regardless of whether five things happened teaches you to ignore it.

The audio variant

If you consume this while commuting or getting ready:

Rewrite the briefing above for text-to-speech.

- Full sentences, no bullet points or headings
- Spell out numbers and acronyms
- Short sentences, one idea each
- No URLs — say "linked in the email version"
- Under 90 seconds when read at a normal pace

Then pass it to a voice tool and deliver the audio file.

Scheduling

Setting	Consideration
Time	Before you start work, after most sources have updated overnight
Days	Weekdays only, unless you genuinely want weekend ones
Channel	One. Email or chat, not both.
Failure	If a source is unreachable, send the briefing anyway with a note

That last row matters. A briefing that does not arrive because one RSS feed timed out is worse than a partial briefing.

Cost control

This runs every day, forever. Small inefficiencies compound.

• Cap items per source before they reach the AI step — 10 per feed, not 200
• De-duplicate first; the same story from four outlets is one item
• Use a cheap model for filtering, a capable one for the final summary
• Truncate long articles to their first few hundred words
• Calculate the monthly cost at current volume, then at triple

The two-week test

After two weeks, answer honestly:

• Do I read it every day, or has it become another unread message?
• Has it told me anything I would have missed?
• Have I stopped checking the underlying sources?
• Is it too long?
• Are the right things in "needs me today"?

If you are not reading it, the problem is almost always length or relevance. Cut sources before adding any.

Tuning

Problem	Fix
Too long	Fewer sources; lower the item cap; tighten the word limit
Nothing useful in it	Wrong sources, or filters too loose
Misses important things	Filter too tight; add the specific senders or keywords
Same items repeatedly	De-duplication missing, or "since last briefing" not working
Manufactured urgency	Reinforce the "write Nothing" instruction
Invented detail	Add "never infer content from a headline"

What this replaces

Be explicit about it, or you will end up with the briefing and the checking.

I used to check	How often	Now

If the "now" column is not "once, in the briefing", the workflow has not actually saved you anything.