TODAY
Ten things today.
Built when you open it.
The list is ten long because a working day is. Each card says who owes the thing, how late it is, and what closes it.
A morning that starts in an inbox.
Nobody is short of work. They are short of a reason to do this one first.
The spreadsheet
one tab per plan, last updated by whoever remembered.
The inbox
the newest message wins, whatever it is about.
The quarterly scramble
the work the calendar should have surfaced in March.
Ten cards, the reason on each.
- Ranked by consequence and lateness — Late first, then Today, ten in all.
- The same ten tomorrow — until each one closes; a closed card leaves the list and counts as done.
- It opens as a page — what an examiner asks, what is on file, what closes it, the draft as it sits in Outlook, and what has been seen so far.
The assistant writes. Your Outlook sends.
Each night and again at midday it reads the firm's mail and calls, writes what is due into your Outlook drafts, and records what it saw. Activity says what it did.
| State | How it reads |
|---|---|
| A draft is waiting | Draft in your Outlook · to the TPA · since Nov 1 |
| It went | Sent Oct 28 · waiting on the sponsor · 6 days |
| They answered | Dana Kessler replied Nov 2 · "signed and attached" |
| Somebody else has it | Handed to Miriam · Nov 1 · you forwarded it from Outlook |
| The proof arrived | The signed 408(b)(2) arrived Nov 2 · filed on the plan |
| Nothing to send | Nothing to send · a call or a meeting closes it |
The product sends nothing. The draft sits in your Outlook until you send it.
Did you do this?
Some things close in a room or on a call, where no document arrives and no thread answers. Those come back as one question at the top of the board, one at a time, with the plan and what closes it under it.
Nothing the assistant can see closes these, so it asks. Unanswered a week, the question parks under Later; unanswered a month, it closes as not done, with Undo.
What carries, and what takes a closed one's place.
The same ten return
each morning, until each one closes.
A closed card leaves the list
and counts as done on the people strip.
The next in line steps in
tomorrow a closed card's place goes to the next item the engine holds, most late and most consequence first.
Late is only your ten's late ones
the book's backlog, and the date it is current, live on Compliance.
A scheduled item that comes up today joins the ten
and the lowest-priority card steps back to the pool.
Ten at fifteen plans. Ten at four hundred.
On a test book of 412 plans the list is still ten. What changes is nothing on Home. The backlog, and the date the book is current at ten a day each, live on Compliance.
On Compliance:
Outlook, the calendar, the phone.
Mail from anyone on a plan files to that plan. A call transcript matches to the contact by number. A forward to the firm's assistant reads as a hand-off.
Questions about the day.
Who picks the ten?
The same engine that scores the obligations, run when you open the day against what the book owes.
Can I see the rest?
Home is the ten. The whole backlog, with the date the book is current, is on Compliance.
What if a card should not be there?
No takes the question off the strip for today and puts the card back under Needs you; an obligation the plan does not owe is waived with a reason on its row.
Does the assistant ever send?
No. It writes into your Outlook drafts and reads the thread.