--- title: "Executive office work planner" type: "skill" url: "https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-office-work-planner" updated: "2026-11-03" first_published: "2026-10-25" job: "Run meetings, notes and plans" tested: true licence: "MIT" source: "https://github.com/magnus919/agent-skills/tree/92c327e525da69c9ad3812fd223a1770e977c2e3/chief-of-staff-methodology" instructions: "https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-office-work-planner/SKILL.md" --- # Executive office work planner > Prepare a leader's decision brief, triage list or handover note. You get facts, options and a recommendation marked as advice. Tell it who decides, what is at stake and which records you have. It separates facts from guesses, lays out the options and flags who owns the next call. You get a decision brief, triage list, calendar review or handover note for the leader. Free skill for the job "Run meetings, notes and plans" · Level: intermediate · Thinking: high · Safety checked · Updated 2026-11-03 ## Links - Page: https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-office-work-planner - Instructions (SKILL.md): https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-office-work-planner/SKILL.md - All files (zip): https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-office-work-planner.zip - JSON version: https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-office-work-planner.json - In your AI: connect https://useaiblocks.com/mcp and ask "Use AI Blocks to get executive-office-work-planner" ## What it does A chief of staff or executive assistant often prepares the work, while the leader makes the call. This skill keeps those roles clear. It helps you build a decision brief for an executive, sort what reaches the leader's desk, and keep a record when the work changes hands. Its main rule is to keep facts, reported concerns, assumptions and unknowns apart. A brief that hides what you do not know misleads the leader. The skill also never turns a recommendation into a decision, and never turns a loose idea into a task with a made-up date. It will not build files on people or score their performance. Safety, legal, HR and fraud concerns go to the right owner, not through you. ## What you give it - The leader who decides, and what they are deciding or reviewing - What you may decide yourself, and what must go to them or others - The records you have, such as notes, emails or numbers - Commitments already agreed, with an owner and date (optional) - The deadline for the decision (optional) ## What you get - A decision brief with facts, assumptions, options and a marked recommendation - Or a triage list with a route and owner for each item - Or a calendar review with keep, shorten or drop calls - Or a handover record of decisions and open commitments - A list of what is missing before the leader can decide ## Example: what goes in and what comes out ### What goes in - The leader and the decision they face - The limits of what you may decide for them - Your records, such as notes, emails and numbers - Any commitments already agreed (optional) ### What comes out - **Decision brief**: The call needed, verified facts, assumptions, unknowns, options with trade-offs, and a recommendation marked as advice. - **Triage list**: Each incoming item, its owner and whether to decide, delegate or escalate it. - **Calendar review**: Meetings to keep, shorten, delegate or drop, each with a reason. - **Handover record**: Decisions made, open commitments with owners and dates, and who to ask. - **Missing information**: What you still need before the leader can decide. ## The layout of every result ```text DECISION BRIEF Decision needed: | Decision-maker: Verified facts: Assumptions and unknowns: Options: Recommendation (advice only): Review path and next action: Prepared by: | Reviewed by: ``` ## Use it when - Your leader must pick between options and wants one page they can decide from. - Too much lands on the leader's desk and you need a clear route for each item. - A leader moves on and the decisions and open commitments must be written down. - You are asked to cut the leader's calendar and want a reasoned list, not a guess. ## Skip it when - You want action items from a meeting: use the Action item tracker keeper. - You need a short prep sheet for one meeting: use the Executive meeting brief writer. - You want a one-page summary of a long report: use the Executive summary writer. - You want a steady weekly update to your boss: use the Weekly status update writer. ## How to use it 1. Open Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. No code is needed, and the skill never changes your calendar or task tools. 2. Paste the skill text. If you can add the skill folder, do so, so your AI can read its reference files. 3. Say which task you need: a brief, triage, calendar review or handover. Paste what you have. 4. Check the facts first. Anything you cannot source should be marked as an assumption or unknown. 5. Give the draft to the leader to review. Share it only after a person approves it. 6. Next, use the Executive action register keeper for commitments that have an owner and a date. ## What to do next - [Daily executive brief writer](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-daily-digest): Daily executive brief writer ## Sources and credits - From Magnus Hedemark: https://github.com/magnus919/agent-skills/tree/92c327e525da69c9ad3812fd223a1770e977c2e3/chief-of-staff-methodology, shared under the MIT licence (original name: chief-of-staff-methodology). - [chief-of-staff-methodology skill](https://github.com/magnus919/agent-skills/tree/92c327e525da69c9ad3812fd223a1770e977c2e3/chief-of-staff-methodology), Magnus Hedemark: Copied under the MIT licence. We gave it a plain name and added a short run guide at the top of the skill. We added notes marked "Added by AI Blocks" so it works in this library. We added Before you start and After this sections that link to other AI Blocks steps. We refreshed those generated sections from the catalogue inputs and next-step links. ## Instructions (SKILL.md) ## Chief of Staff Methodology ### Before you start Use the material below to do this job. If facts or tool access are missing, explain what you can finish and what must wait. **What you need** (use your own material or the linked skill): - **Your question** (yours): the decision or problem, and what a good outcome looks like. **Makes it better (optional):** - **Source text** (yours): a long source in full: an article, a video or talk transcript, or notes from a book, with its title, author and link. How to start: 1. **Look first.** Use what they've already attached, pasted or put in their about-me note. In a coding assistant with file access, look in the project too for these by name. 2. **Check what's missing.** Look for your question, source text. They can attach files, paste the details, or share a file path your assistant can read. Ask only for missing facts that change the result. If they ask you to start with what they have, complete the parts you can and mark the gaps. 3. **Do the job.** Follow the skill below with the facts and tools you have. Mark each gap with `MISSING:` where it belongs and never invent a fact to fill it. **Tools that do this best:** - **Claude with the skill folder added:** It can read the reference files in the skill when it prepares a brief or a handover. - **Any good chat AI:** Paste the skill and your notes. The method works from text alone. ### How to run this skill in a chat Added by AI Blocks. The method below is the original. This part says what to gather, what you get and what to do when something is missing. **Use it when:** you prepare work for a leader who makes the final call. That means a decision brief, a triage of what reaches them, a calendar review or a handover record. **Skip it when:** you only need action items from a meeting (use the Executive action register keeper), or a one-off meeting prep (use the Executive meeting brief writer). **Gather first, and ask once for anything missing.** Mark gaps as MISSING. Never invent a cost, date, authority or view. 1. Who is the accountable leader, and what are they deciding or reviewing? 2. What can you decide for them, and what must go to them or to someone else? 3. The records you have: notes, emails, numbers. Say which are confirmed facts. 4. Any commitments already agreed, with an owner and a date. 5. The deadline for the decision. **Pick the task, then produce one of these.** If you cannot open the reference files, use the method below as written. - **Decision brief:** Decision needed. Accountable decision-maker. Verified facts. Assumptions and unknowns. Options with trade-offs. Recommendation (marked as advice). Review path and next action. Preparer and reviewer. - **Triage list:** Each item, who owns it, the route (decide, delegate, escalate) and why. Safety, legal, HR and fraud matters go straight to the right protected owner. - **Calendar review:** Meetings to keep, shorten, delegate or drop, with the reason for each. The leader decides. - **Handover record:** What was decided, open commitments with owner and date, and who to ask. **Rules:** A recommendation is not a decision. Create a task only when an owner has accepted it and there is a real due date. Do not build files on people or score their performance. This skill drafts. A person reviews before anything goes out as the leader's view. The Chief of Staff supports an accountable leader's capacity to operate across domains. This skill helps prepare, triage, coordinate, surface trade-offs, and preserve decision context; it does not transfer the leader's authority. ### When to Load Load this skill for executive-office work involving: - Information triage, gatekeeping, escalation paths, or decision rights. - Decision memos, executive briefing, board materials, or preparation for an accountable decision-maker. - Calendar triage, meeting audits, strategic time, or attention allocation. - Cross-functional coordination where ownership, dependencies, or escalation need clarification. - Transparent organizational sensing or team-health concerns. - Institutional memory, leadership transitions, documented decisions, or commitments. - Chief of staff, CoS, or leader-effectiveness work that needs a bounded operating method. ### When Not to Use Do not use this skill as a meeting-transcript action-item generator or a general backlog-capture mechanism. A recommendation, a discussion topic, or an inferred next step belongs in a briefing or decision record unless an accountable owner has confirmed a discrete commitment and a realistic due date. Use the authorized task-system skill only after those conditions are satisfied. ### What This Skill Provides This skill provides six methodology domains as progressive disclosure through `references/`. Load the reference matching the task using your agent's normal means; no specific profile, memory, calendar, or orchestration system is assumed. ### Reference Files | Reference | Load when | File | |---|---|---| | Gatekeeping and triage | Mapping information to authority, access, and escalation | `references/gatekeeping-and-triage.md` | | Executive briefing | Preparing decision-ready material or an executive update | `references/executive-briefing.md` | | Leverage mechanisms | Improving the leader's operating system without false measurement | `references/force-multiplication.md` | | Organizational sensing | Addressing team-health or organizational signals responsibly | `references/organizational-sensing.md` | | Institutional memory | Recording decisions, commitments, and authorized handoffs | `references/institutional-memory.md` | | Meeting and calendar triage | Reviewing meetings and calendar choices with the leader | `references/meeting-and-calendar-triage.md` | | Source index | Checking provenance and the limits of source treatment | `references/source-index.md` | ### Operating Method 1. Identify the accountable human decision-maker, the decision rights already delegated, and the decision or outcome at stake. 2. Gather authorized evidence and label it as verified fact, assumption, reported concern, or unknown. Do not invent costs, timelines, authority, or stakeholder views. 3. Route ordinary work to its authorized owner. Keep direct, protected routes open for safety, ethics, legal, HR, fraud, retaliation, and whistleblowing concerns. 4. Prepare options and trade-offs, then give a clearly labeled recommendation when the request calls for one. The accountable human reviews and decides. 5. Record only decision-relevant material under the access, retention, correction, and handoff rules in the applicable reference. ### Task Creation Discipline **Applicability:** Only when creating or updating tasks in an authorized task system. A task is a record of a concrete, documented commitment, not a place to store advice, aspirations, meeting summaries, inferred next steps, or recurring leadership habits. Create a task only when the source establishes all of the following: 1. A discrete outcome or next action that can be completed or explicitly reviewed. 2. An accountable owner who has made, confirmed, or accepted the commitment. 3. A realistic due date grounded in an explicit deadline, an agreed review date, or context that supports a specific date. Never invent a date merely to fill a required field. 4. Enough provenance in the task or linked record for the owner to understand the commitment and correct it. Before creating the task, check all four conditions. If the source offers a recommendation, a general principle, or an inferred action without an owner or defensible due date, preserve it as a briefing observation or ask the accountable human to confirm the commitment and date. Do not create the task. When a task is created, include the owner and due date in the creation request, then read it back and verify both fields persisted. If either is absent or wrong, repair it before reporting success. A past deadline is a triage signal: surface it as overdue for an explicit reschedule, completion, or closure decision rather than silently assigning a new date. ### Accountable Human Authority This skill supports an accountable human leader. It may prepare, advise, triage, synthesize, and surface trade-offs. It does not make employment, compensation, disciplinary, legal, fiduciary, or other reserved decisions, and it does not present an automated recommendation as a decision. Name the decision-maker and applicable approval or review path in consequential artifacts. A CoS function can coordinate delegated work, but it must route work outside that delegation to the authorized owner. Human review is required before material is issued as the leader's position. ### Privacy, Confidentiality, and Ethics Use only authorized, purpose-limited information. Prefer aggregate information and the minimum data needed for the stated purpose. Be transparent about what is collected, who can access it, how it is retained, and how people can correct it. Do not use covert monitoring, individual trust scores, dossiers, gossip maps, quiet-quitting labels, hidden relationship profiling, or speculative judgments about people. Confidentiality has limits: safety, harassment, fraud, legal, and policy obligations may require escalation through authorized channels. Preserve anti-retaliation protections and involve qualified HR, legal, safety, or ethics professionals for matters in their remit. ### Boundaries | Domain | Boundary | Use instead | |---|---|---| | Product definition and prioritization | This skill prepares or coordinates a decision; it does not define product strategy | `product-methodology` | | Corporate or business strategy | This skill structures a leader's operating work; it does not set strategy | `strategy-frameworks` | | Financial models and budgets | This skill may surface a resource question but does not build or validate a model | `financial-modeling` | | Verification claims | This skill prepares artifacts but does not turn missing evidence into a pass | `verification-methodology` | | Evidence presentation | This skill does not prescribe a research-artifact hierarchy | `artifact-pyramids` | | Operational tooling | It does not automate mail, calendars, personal data stores, or task systems | Use the organization's authorized tools and policies | ### Pitfalls - Treating triage as a private veto instead of a transparent route to the authorized owner. - Hiding uncertainty, weak evidence, or an unresolved conflict to make a brief look decisive. - Speaking as the leader without review, approval, and clear authorship. - Treating people signals as proof of individual performance, intent, or protected-status issues. - Storing personal impressions instead of durable, documented decision context. ### Related Skills - `artifact-pyramids` for layered, inspectable decision artifacts. - `financial-modeling` for assumptions-led financial analysis. - `product-methodology` for product decisions and prioritization. - `strategy-frameworks` for strategy choices and trade-offs. - `verification-methodology` for evidence-backed completion claims. - `slack` — channel triage and message search through the Slack Web API; confirmed posting only. The everyday read layer for "what was said, find it later." - `notion` — knowledge search, page and database reads through the Notion API; confirmed edits only. - `email` — transactional email sends and delivery verification (bounces, spam reports, event-webhook signature check) through SendGrid. Read-only discovery before any send. ### Portability This skill is intentionally host-neutral. Use your agent's normal mechanisms to load the references listed here. Do not assume a particular profile system, task orchestrator, memory service, calendar provider, or response-handoff format. ### After this When you've handed it back, suggest what they could do next in one short question. It's a suggestion: if they're done, that's fine. Offer these, and say they can type their own: - The [Daily executive brief writer](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/executive-daily-digest). It takes the plan. If they pick one and that skill is added here, carry straight on with what you just made. If not, give the link and say what to bring.