rvanbaalen Action Brief
When any conversation produces something actionable — check-in, sparring, focused work, goal-setting, data analysis — produce an action brief.
Creating a Brief
Write to actions/YYYY-MM-DD-<short-name>.md in the data directory. Scale depth to the task.
Full Brief (multi-day initiatives)
# <Action Name>
## Goal
What this achieves and why it matters. Tie to weekly/monthly/quarterly goals.
## Context
Relevant data, findings, links to data files that informed this decision.
## Target Project
Where this gets executed (if applicable — e.g., the main codebase, a marketing channel, etc.)
## Scope
What's in. What's explicitly out.
## Success Criteria
How do we know it worked?
## Benchmarks
Current numbers to measure against. Link to data source in `data/` if available.
Light Brief (small tasks, focused fixes)
Goal and Scope in a few sentences is enough. The brief should be exactly as detailed as the person executing it needs — no more.
After Creating a Brief
- Update
up-next.md— add to the appropriate section (This Week or Queued) in priority order - Tell the user: "Your brief is at
actions/YYYY-MM-DD-name.md." - If relevant, suggest where the user should take this to execute (target project, channel, etc.)
Brief Lifecycle
- Active briefs in
actions/= work in progress - Weekly review: user confirms which are done → log completion in daily log ("Action completed: [name] — [what shipped]") → delete the brief file
- Empty
actions/directory = everything shipped