Essay
The week is a document, not a meeting
Most planning meetings are someone reading a list aloud to people who could have read it themselves. The list is the useful part.
Write it down before Monday and the meeting has nothing left to do. What remains are the few conversations that actually need a room.
It takes about ten minutes, and nobody has to be told twice.
A decision without its reason comes back three weeks later as a question nobody can answer.
Writing one sentence of why, at the moment of the change, costs almost nothing and saves the meeting that would otherwise reconstruct it.
Three lines on a Monday
What is planned, what moved, and why. That is the whole format, and it fits on one screen.
Teams that keep it that short are the ones still writing it a year later.
Nobody recites a page everyone has already read.
From the notes of a team of twelve
How a week gets written
Start with what is already decided. It is usually more than people expect, and writing it first makes the open questions obvious.
Keep it to three parts
What is planned for the week
What moved since last week
Why it moved
If it does not fit on one screen, it will not be read.
A week written by a team of four.
Watch a week get written
Four minutes, start to finish, no cuts.
Three things to remember
01
Write before you meet
The meeting only needs to cover what the page could not.
02
Keep the reason
One sentence of why saves a conversation later.
03
Read, then talk
Everyone arrives already knowing the plan.