WORKFLOWS / PLANNING AND BRIEFINGS
Build a daily executive brief.
Turn tomorrow's calendar and selected work context into a checked one-page brief for the executive. Learn the operating method first, then choose whether AI should help draft, retrieve selected information, or prepare a scheduled draft for review. Every version ends the same way: a person checks it.
WHAT THIS WORKFLOW PRODUCES
A one-minute attention brief.
Routine events stay in the calendar. The brief carries only what needs preparation, judgment, action, or attention, in that order, with a visible last-checked time. The full report format and a fillable template come later; this is the shape.
TOMORROW · TUESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER
LAST CHECKED 5:28 PM
THE OPERATING METHOD
Understand the workflow without AI.
This is the method itself, runnable with a calendar and a blank page. AI is introduced only after the method makes sense on its own.
Gather
Open tomorrow's calendar and the approved work sources.
YOUFilter
Keep decisions, preparation, commitments, changes, and risks.
YOUDraft
Place what survives into the agreed briefing format.
YOUCheck
Verify the facts and decide what deserves the executive's attention.
YOUDeliver
Send the checked brief to the agreed place by the cutoff.
YOUFive moves, all yours. Every AI level below changes who helps with a move, never the moves themselves.
WHERE THE FACTS LIVE
Use the systems where the work already lives.
The tools below are examples, never a required stack. Use what your organization already relies on, provided the connection is supported, the access is approved, and a person is responsible for reviewing the result. Named tools link to their pages in the library.
CALENDARS AND COMMUNICATION
WORK SYSTEMS
DOCUMENTS AND MEETING CONTEXT
THREE WAYS TO RUN IT
Choose how much machine.
Every level produces the same checked brief and stops at the same human review. The levels only change how the material is collected and who prepares the first draft. The tools named are examples. Use what your organization already runs, provided the connection is supported and approved.
LEVEL 1
Draft in AI chat.
Copy tomorrow's schedule and selected work context into an approved AI chat. A prompt is the instruction and source material you give the chat. The AI organizes only that material into the briefing format.
Use this version when pasted-in facts are enough, no connection is approved, and you want the benefit today with zero setup.
WHAT THIS VERSION REDUCES
Formatting, summarizing, and repetitive first-draft work.
WHAT A PERSON STILL DOES
Chooses the information, verifies every material fact, decides priority, reviews confidentiality, and sends the brief.
MAIN LIMITATION
The AI cannot include information that was not supplied, and cannot confirm that a source is current.
Build this version, step by step 6 steps, one action each. Prompts carry a Copy button.
Open tomorrow's calendar and the page your team keeps for the brief.
WHAT TO OPEN
Open Google Calendar on tomorrow's view, and open the Brief Inputs page in Notion that your team updates during the day. Nothing else. More sources make the checking slower without making the brief better.
Copy the facts into one clean block of text.
WHAT THE BLOCK LOOKS LIKE
9:00 AM Customer renewal review
With R. Alvarez (Finance), K. Osei (Acme)
Purpose: approve the revised renewal terms
Note, 26 Aug: revised terms arriving Monday
3:00 PM Investor update call
With M. Reyes (Northgate)
Purpose: walk through the August numbers
Open: pipeline summary promised 21 Aug, not sent
Paste the block into the AI chat together with the saved prompt.
Prepare tomorrow's brief from the material below. Use only what I give you. Add nothing.
For each item, write one line each under: Prepare / Decide / Follow through / Watch.
Write "Needs confirmation" wherever my material does not support an answer, and name what is missing. Keep the whole brief under 150 words.
Material:
[paste the block]
Look for the words "Needs confirmation" in the draft.
WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE
DECIDE
Approve the revised renewal terms.
Needs confirmation: the finance response was not in the supplied material.
That line is the AI telling you it did not have enough. Either find the fact or leave the line as it is.
Check the draft against the sources you pasted.
THE CHECK
- Names and times match the calendar.
- Figures and dates match the source you pasted.
- Every "Needs confirmation" is a real gap, and none of them is something you forgot to paste.
- Nothing is stated more firmly than the source supports.
Put the checked brief in the agreed place at the agreed time.
THE DELIVERY
The brief goes on the Notion Daily Brief page at 5:30 PM, with the header "Tomorrow, Tuesday 3 September" and the line "Last checked 5:28 PM". Anything that changes after that time waits for the next brief.
If the chat is not approved for the information involved, stop and run the manual method instead. Confidential details the AI does not need stay out of the bundle.
LEVEL 2
Read selected sources.
A connection lets an approved AI assistant read selected information in another app. You start the run, it retrieves the named calendar day and mail folder, and it prepares the brief. The connection never decides what matters.
Use this version when the same copying happens every day, the organization has approved the connection, and a person still starts each run by hand.
WHAT THIS VERSION REDUCES
Repeated copying from the calendar, the mail folder, and other approved work sources.
WHAT A PERSON STILL DOES
Starts the run, controls access, confirms completeness, verifies facts, sets priority, and approves delivery.
MAIN LIMITATION
A connected source can still be incomplete, stale, restricted, or broader than the brief requires.
IN A MICROSOFT SHOP
Copilot in Outlook does the same job from the Outlook calendar and mailbox, with the checked brief saved to the agreed page. What it can read depends on the Microsoft license, administrator settings, and the mailbox permissions already in place; a shared or delegated mailbox behaves differently from a personal one.
ACCESS IS NOT AUTOMATIC
The connection sees what the connected account can see, nothing more and nothing less. Connect the work account rather than a personal one, and only after the organization has approved the assistant for calendar and mail.
Build this version, step by step 6 steps, one action each. Prompts carry a Copy button.
Connect Claude to Google Workspace in the work account.
WHO CONFIRMS WHAT
Ask IT or the Workspace admin to confirm that the assistant is approved for calendar and mail. Then, in Claude, connect Google Workspace and allow Calendar, Gmail, and Drive. On a team or enterprise account the admin may need to switch the connector on first.
Write down exactly what the assistant may read.
THE SCOPE
The primary calendar for tomorrow only, the Executive Inbox label for the last 48 hours, and the leadership team's names. Nothing outside that list.
Save one briefing instruction you can reuse every day.
Prepare tomorrow's brief from my primary calendar and the Executive Inbox label only.
One line each under: Prepare / Decide / Follow through / Watch.
Write "Needs confirmation" for anything the sources do not support. Under 150 words.
Run it when the brief is needed.
THE RUN
Open Claude, paste the saved instruction, and let it read the calendar day and the mail label. If it says it hit a search limit or could not read a message, the brief is partial, and you say so in the brief.
Open the source behind every statement that matters.
THE CHECK
- Every figure, deadline, and commitment in the draft has its source message or event opened once.
- A statement with no source is removed.
Save only the checked version in the agreed place.
THE DELIVERY
The checked brief goes on the Notion Daily Brief page with the last-checked time. The unchecked draft is never forwarded to anyone.
CAPABILITIES CHECKED AGAINST OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION
Claude's Google Workspace connection documents reading Google Calendar, searching and reading Gmail, and reading Drive files; attachment contents are not read. Source, checked September 6, 2026.
Copilot chat in Outlook answers questions about the inbox and calendar; base features work without an add-on license, expanded features require one. Source, checked August 29, 2026.
LEVEL 3
Prepare a scheduled draft.
A scheduled workflow is a saved set of steps that starts at a time you choose. It reads defined sources, prepares the brief, and pauses so a person can approve or reject it. Nothing reaches the executive from a machine.
Use this version when the workflow has run manually long enough to trust its rules, and someone owns the exceptions.
WHAT THIS VERSION REDUCES
Manual triggering, repeated retrieval, and inconsistent checks across approved sources.
WHAT A PERSON STILL DOES
Defines the rules, controls access, handles exceptions, reviews sources, checks priority and facts, and approves delivery.
MAIN LIMITATION
A successful run proves the steps completed, never that the brief is correct or complete.
WHAT THIS NEEDS
Human in the Loop and multi-step Zaps need a paid Zapier plan. The team has to keep the Brief Inputs project current, or the run has nothing to read. Make and n8n can run the same steps with their own schedule, AI, and approval modules.
WHAT A GREEN RUN DOES NOT MEAN
A successful run means the steps completed, never that the brief is correct. Approval is its own step, everything stays a draft until a person passes it, and a missing source stops the run instead of leaving a hole. The manual method above is always the fallback.
Build this version, step by step 10 steps, one action each. Prompts carry a Copy button.
Create one Asana project called Executive Brief Inputs.
THE PROJECT
Every entry in the project is one item the brief might need: a decision, a deadline, a promise, a risk. This is the only place the workflow reads work from.
Give every item the same five fields.
THE FIELDS
Each item records who owns it, when it is due, its status, its priority, and a link to where the fact came from. If an item has no source link, it does not go into the brief.
Add Schedule by Zapier as the trigger.
THE TRIGGER
Set it to every weekday at 5:00 PM in the account's timezone. Expect the run to start within a few minutes of that time rather than on the exact minute.
Add a step that reads tomorrow's Google Calendar events.
THE CALENDAR READ
It reads tomorrow's events from the primary calendar only. Declined events and private events stay out.
Add a step that reads the Asana items due soon.
THE WORK READ
It reads items due tomorrow, items already overdue, and items flagged for the brief.
Add AI by Zapier with a fixed instruction.
Prepare the brief from the mapped inputs only.
One line each under: Prepare / Decide / Follow through / Watch.
Every line carries its source link.
Write "Needs confirmation" for gaps and conflicts.
Add Human in the Loop right after the AI step.
THE PAUSE
The run stops here every time and waits for a person to read the draft. Nothing continues on its own.
Set what happens on approve.
ON APPROVE
The approved draft is published to the Notion Daily Brief page with the last-checked time.
Set what happens on reject.
ON REJECT
The run ends and nothing is published. The reviewer writes the brief by hand that day using the method above.
Break it on purpose before you trust it.
WHAT TO BREAK
- Remove a source link from an item.
- Put a calendar event and an Asana item in conflict.
- Add the same item twice.
- Disconnect one of the connections.
- Reject a draft.
Each one should either stop the run cleanly or show up plainly in the draft.
CAPABILITIES CHECKED AGAINST OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION
Schedule by Zapier starts a Zap at a chosen interval; runs land within a few minutes of the set time, in the account timezone. Source, checked August 29, 2026.
Human in the Loop pauses a Zap for a person to review or approve before the workflow continues, and must be deliberately configured. Source, checked August 29, 2026.
WORKS EVEN BETTER WITH
An inbox review helps surface decisions for the brief. Agreed working preferences and reliable measures help you choose what else belongs in it.
Triage the inbox and prepare replies → | Working Together playbook → | KPIs and Scorecards →