The system has three daily rituals: reflect, triage, and plan. Each one is a command. Each one has a clear job. Together they take 30-40 minutes across the day and give you a structured context for everything in between.
This page walks through what a first day actually looks like — realistic terminal dialogue, what the agent does at each step, and what you should expect.
The Shape of a Day
Morning (20-30 min)
/reflect → ground yourself, set intentions, energy check
/triage → scan inbound, surface what needs attention
/plan → build the sprint, timebox, push back on overcommitment
The Work (whatever you're working on)
/capture → add anything new that surfaces during the day
Evening (10-15 min)
/reflect → wins, lessons, habit check, tomorrow prepThat’s it. The rituals bookend the day. Everything else is execution.
Morning: /reflect
Run this first thing. Before email, before Slack, before the day has a chance to get reactive.
> /reflectAgent: Good morning. Let's start with gratitude — what are 3 things
you're grateful for this morning?
You: The project is actually moving. I got a full night of sleep.
And it's quiet before the kids wake up.
Agent: Good start. What's your goal for today — the one thing that
would make this day a win regardless of what else happens?
You: Ship the first version of the onboarding flow.
Agent: Got it. Now your Top 3 Targets — what are the THREE most
important things you need to complete today?
You: 1. Finish the onboarding UI component
2. Write the welcome email sequence
3. Block time with my co-founder to review pricing
Agent: How's your energy this morning? High, Medium, or Low?
You: Solid. High.
Agent: Perfect. High energy — I'll route you to deep work and hard
decisions first, keep admin for the afternoon.
Writing your Top 3 and energy to the dashboard...
[Updated 00-cockpit/dashboard.md]
Journal entry written. Ready for triage?The agent has now:
- Written your morning reflection to your journal
- Updated
00-cockpit/dashboard.mdwith your Top 3 and energy level - Set the context for the rest of the day
Morning: /triage
Run this immediately after reflect. Triage scans everything inbound and surfaces what actually needs your attention.
> /triageAgent: Running morning triage. Checking calendar, inbox, projects...
CALENDAR (today)
09:30 — Engineering standup (30 min)
14:00 — 1:1 with direct report, Maya (45 min)
⚠ No buffer between 09:30 and your first deep work block
EMAIL (3 items flagged)
→ Contract renewal from legal — needs signature by Friday
→ Reply from investor prospect — follow-up on your intro email
→ Team question about the API spec — looks like a blocker
INBOX (00-cockpit/inbox.md)
7 unprocessed items
PROJECTS
⚠ "Investor outreach" has no next action — what's the next step?
✓ "Onboarding UI" looks current
WAITING FOR
→ Design review from Marcus (sent 12 days ago) — follow up?
PRIORITY SYNTHESIS
Urgent + Important:
- API spec question (blocker for your team — reply before standup)
- Contract signature (by Friday, but start today)
Important, Not Urgent:
- Investor response (high signal — respond today)
- Process inbox to zero
Can defer:
- Everything else
Recommendation: Reply to API spec now, then start your deep work
block. Handle contract and investor response after standup.
Want me to help you reply to the API spec question before standup?Notice what triage is doing: it’s not showing you everything — it’s synthesizing. The Eisenhower matrix framing (Urgent+Important, Important-not-Urgent, etc.) is built into the triage command, not something you have to apply manually.
If you say yes to the API spec reply, the agent drafts a response for you to review. It never sends anything without your explicit approval.
Morning: /plan
After triage, you know what’s in the environment. Now you build the sprint.
> /planAgent: Let's build today's sprint. You have:
- Standup at 09:30 (30 min)
- 1:1 at 14:00 (45 min)
- That's 1h15m of fixed commitments
With transitions and lunch, you have roughly 4.5 hours of available
deep work time.
Your Top 3 from this morning:
1. Finish onboarding UI component
2. Write welcome email sequence
3. Co-founder pricing review
Estimate these for me — how long does each actually take?
You: Onboarding UI is probably 3 hours, the emails are 90 minutes,
pricing review is an hour.
Agent: That's 5.5 hours of committed work against 4.5 hours available.
You're 1 hour over.
Options:
A. Drop the pricing review to tomorrow — it's a meeting,
easier to reschedule than deep work
B. Scope down the email sequence to one email today
C. Your call
You: Move pricing review to tomorrow. I'll schedule it now.
Agent: Done. Committed sprint:
1. Onboarding UI component [3h, deep work, morning]
2. Welcome email sequence [90min, creative, afternoon]
Timeboxing onto your calendar...
[Created: "Deep Work — Onboarding UI" 08:00-11:00]
[Created: "Welcome emails" 11:30-13:00]
[Blocked: 13:00-14:00 as buffer + prep for 1:1]
You're set. Start on the onboarding UI — that's your highest-value
deep work and your energy is high right now.The agent enforced the constraint. You tried to commit to more than you had time for, and it caught it before you committed to it. This is the /plan command’s core job.
During the Day: /capture
New things will surface during the day. Use /capture to add them to your inbox without breaking your flow.
> /captureAgent: What do you want to capture?
You: Check if the onboarding analytics are firing correctly after
I ship today
Agent: Captured to inbox.
[Added to 00-cockpit/inbox.md:
"Verify onboarding analytics post-ship — check event firing"]
Back to work.Two seconds, then you’re back in the flow. The item is in your inbox, not in your head. Never let a stray thought break your concentration — /capture exists precisely so you don’t have to.
Evening: /reflect
Run this at the end of your workday — before dinner, not right before bed. You want time to act on tomorrow prep if anything surfaces.
> /reflectAgent: Good evening. Let's close out the day.
What were your wins today? Don't be modest — brag zone.
You: Shipped the onboarding component. Actually works on mobile
too, which I wasn't planning. Sent two of the three emails.
And my 1:1 with Maya went well — she's stepping up.
Agent: Strong day. What did you learn, or what would you do differently?
You: I underestimated how long the mobile layout would take.
Should have blocked an extra 30 minutes of buffer on
any UI work going forward.
Agent: Good lesson. I'll note that for future planning estimates.
Rate the day 1-10?
You: 8. Good output, stayed focused.
Agent: Habit check. You said you're tracking:
- Morning workout
- Evening reading
- Co-founder weekly sync
Morning workout — yes or no?
You: Yes.
Agent: Evening reading?
You: No. Going to do it after this.
Agent: Co-founder sync (weekly)?
You: Skipping — we're doing it tomorrow.
Agent: Marked for tomorrow. Updating tracker...
[Updated 05-habits/tracker.md]
Anything you need to make sure happens tomorrow?
You: The pricing review with my co-founder. And I should follow up
on the Marcus design review — that's been 12 days.
Agent: Captured both to inbox.
Journal entry written. Dashboard updated.
Good work today. See you tomorrow.The agent has:
- Written the evening reflection to your journal
- Updated
05-habits/tracker.mdwith today’s habit completions - Added tomorrow items to your inbox for processing in the morning triage
What Compounds Over Time
After your first day, the system has a data point. After a week, it has a pattern. After a month, it knows things about how you work that take human executive coaches years to observe.
It will notice that your estimates are consistently 30% optimistic. It will surface that a project has had the same “next action” for three weeks. It will remind you that you committed to a habit on day one and haven’t marked it complete in ten days.
None of that happens on day one. But day one is how it starts.
Key Files
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
00-cockpit/dashboard.md | Updated every morning and evening — your current state |
00-cockpit/inbox.md | Everything that surfaces during the day — processed during triage |
05-habits/tracker.md | Updated during evening reflect — your habit record |
.claude/commands/reflect.md | The full reflect command definition |
.claude/commands/triage.md | The full triage command definition |
.claude/commands/plan.md | The full plan command definition |
Next Steps
- The Daily Loop — Deeper dive into how each ritual works
- GTD in Practice — How the inbox-and-capture system works
- Modules — Extend the system into health, learning, and relationships