Autor: [[Qetzal]] Every Monday, the people in my team send me their own emails. The emails should have a clear structure: ## What 1-2-3 things do you want me to know? This is the summary. A list of things (any kind) I should definitely be aware of. The most important ones. ## What problems are there? Where do you need help? What can help you move faster? This section is about the things that are blocking or slowing down. Things where you need help. This part can be empty if everything is currently good (but we suggest to think – is everything really good or have you just gotten used to the current status quo). ## Decisions that need to be taken with me. Are there any decisions that need my approval, involvement or advice? This section can be empty if there are no such decisions. ## What things in your important focuse? A list of your current focuses or projects with a description of how things are going. How did you progress this week, what is the plan going forward. A project here is something with an end goal and limited in time. It doesn’t have to be a “feature” – it can be research, writing a complex spec or some organizational thing. No need to report the exact status of every change. ### A few reasons why it’s useful: 1. One-on-one meetings with the manager are a very powerful useful tool. In these meetings we solve problems, take decisions, share experience, ask for advice, talk about the future, brainstorm and just chat about life. Meetings should be about that and not about what is exactly happening in the projects. But also knowing about the projects is nice to be in the loop, what is going on and help if needed. And preferably without additional calls. 2. Successful interaction between the manager and the employee first and foremost depends on the mutual understanding of things. If there’s a common context everyone agrees on – it makes things much simpler. Weekly synchronization allows to keep this context and address early divergence before it’s too late. 3. Last but most important – this email is first and foremost useful for the person who writes it. This email forces at the beginning of the week to sit down and think – what’s important for me? Is there any progress on the important things this week? If not – why not? That’s why, by the way, it is not recommended to use verb forms of the imperfective aspect in this letter: "will do, did this thing" – they mask the problems too easily. Perfective verbs are needed: "will do, did".