Blog
How to plan your workday with AI in five minutes
A five-minute morning routine: the calendar, the inbox, the open threads, what to drop. Then how to ask Cedric "what should I do today?" and get the day back.
Benjamin Ben HattarMost of us plan the day by reacting to it. Open the laptop, read whatever is on top, answer the loudest message, and look up at 10:30 to find the one important thing still untouched.
Planning the day does not need an app with a method and a colour scheme. It needs four questions answered before the inbox answers them for you. What is fixed? What is waiting on me? What is blocking someone else? What can I drop?
Below is a routine that takes five minutes by hand. After it, the same routine done by Cedric, for mornings when even five minutes is too much.
- Start with the calendar, because it tells you how many working hours you actually have.
- Read the inbox for what waits on you, not for everything that arrived.
- Put what blocks other people first. Their day depends on it, and it usually takes minutes.
- Name what you are dropping. An explicit no clears more space than a long list.
- Ask Cedric "what should I do today?" and he reads all four places and replies with an order and a reason for each item.
The five-minute routine
One minute per step. A timer helps.
- 01
The calendar: what is fixed
Count the hours already booked and find the one block of two hours or more that is still free. That block is where the real work of the day goes. If there is none, today is a meetings day. Say so and plan small.
People skip the counting. Three meetings look light until you add the travel and the prep.
- 02
The inbox: what waits on you
Scan for mail that needs a decision or a reply only you can give. Everything else can wait until after the deep block. Resist opening newsletters on the way.
- 03
Open threads: who is blocked on you
Check the channels and the board for anything someone asked you for yesterday. Access you promised, a review, a yes on a draft. These take minutes and unblock whole days for other people.
- 04
The order, with a reason
Blockers first, then the quick replies, then the deep block. Write one line of why next to each item. If you cannot say why something is on the list, it probably should not be.
- 05
What to drop
Pick one or two items and move them to tomorrow or to nobody, on purpose. Tell anyone waiting on them. A dropped task with a note is fine. A dropped task with no note becomes a surprise on Friday.
Why the order matters more than the list
Most to-do lists are sorted by whatever arrived last. That is how the urgent-looking email wins and the build that four people are waiting on sits there until lunch.
Putting a reason next to each item fixes this. "Blocking four people" beats "feels urgent" every time. "Only thing that does not shrink by waiting" is why the deep work goes into the protected block and not into the gaps between calls.
The drop list does the rest. A plan that includes everything is a wish list. A plan that names what it leaves out is one you can actually finish.
Asking Cedric
The day, before you open the laptop.
Kevin Zhou9:14 AM
@Cedric what should I do today?
CedricAPP9:15 AM
Three meetings, 1h15 booked, and a free block from 15:00 to 17:00. In this order: 1. The staging build failed twice overnight and four people testing onboarding are on that branch. 2. Send Maya the ad account access she asked for yesterday, two minutes. 3. The slow report page in the 15:00 block, the only thing here that won't shrink by waiting. Waiting on you alone: which address the client emails go from, and the board you promised in #product. Drop: the two newsletters and the release notice, which belongs to Sam. What I couldn't see: your direct messages and your phone. I read two channels, not all of them.
Four places read
Calendar, mail, the channels you name and the connected board, in one pass.
A reason per item
Why the build comes first and why the deep work comes last, written next to each.
Blind spots named
What he could not see is the last line, so you know what to check yourself.
How it works
Cedric reads the calendar for what is fixed, the mail since yesterday, the channels you name, and whatever board or build you have connected. Then he writes the day as one message: what is fixed, what to do in what order and why, what waits on you, and what to drop. The plan my day page shows a full run of it.
Two parts of that reply matter most. Items waiting on you alone get their own heading, because nobody else can unblock them. And the last lines say what he could not see. If you agreed something on the phone, it will not be in the plan, and he says so instead of pretending the list is complete.
Say it once and it happens every morning. "Post my day here at 8:30 every weekday." He states the job back before creating it, and you can change the time or pause it in one sentence. See recurring work for how schedules behave.
Coming back from a week away is the same question at a bigger scale. Catch me up reads the week instead of the night and leads with what is waiting on you.
The same routine, by hand and with Cedric
| Step | By hand | With Cedric |
|---|---|---|
| What is fixed | Open the calendar and add up the hours | Hours booked and the free block, in the first line |
| What waits on you | Scan the inbox, resist the newsletters | Listed under its own heading |
| Who is blocked on you | Check each channel and the board | Read from the channels you name and the board |
| The order | Decide, then write a reason next to each | Proposed, each item with its reason |
| What to drop | Pick one or two and tell people | Named, so you can confirm or overrule |
| Every morning | Remember to do it | Posted before you start, on a schedule |
What still needs a person
The choice. Cedric proposes an order with reasons. You know things he does not, like the conversation in the corridor or the fact that today is a bad day for deep work. Overrule him freely.
Anything he cannot see. Direct messages, phone calls and tools you have not connected stay outside the plan, and he names them every time.
Moving meetings. He can propose moving one to protect the deep block, and nothing on the calendar changes until you say yes.
FAQ
Give it the four places your day lives: calendar, inbox, team channels and task board. Then ask one question, "what should I do today?", and check the order it proposes against what you know. With Cedric that is one message in Slack, Discord or Telegram.
Whatever is blocking someone else, if it takes minutes. Then the replies only you can give. Then your longest free block goes to the work that does not shrink by waiting.
Yes. Tell Cedric once when and where to post, and the plan arrives before you start. Change the time or pause it with one sentence.
Only on your yes. He reads the calendar to plan the day. Creating, moving or cancelling an event is proposed first.
100,000 free credits, no card. Connect your calendar and ask tomorrow morning.