Write a weekly status update

Why this prompt works

• →Done/Blocked/Next is the format managers scan for; giving it as a fixed contract means no section gets forgotten when the week was messy.
• →Requiring an ask-plus-person on every blocker converts complaints into unblockable requests — the difference between a status report and a to-do list for your manager.
• →The half-done rule keeps Done honest, which is what makes the update trustworthy week after week.

Part by part

exactly three sections

A fixed shape, so the update is comparable week to week and scannable in seconds. Variable structure is what makes status updates go unread.

each blocker with the specific ask

A blocker without an ask is a complaint. Naming what would unblock it, and from whom, is what makes it actionable by the person reading.

max three

Forces prioritisation. A list of eight priorities communicates that nothing is prioritised, which is worse information than three.

under 150 words

A hard limit. Status updates are read in a batch, and length is the main reason they stop being read at all.

put it in Next, not Done

Prevents the most common inaccuracy. Half-done work in the Done column is how a status update slowly stops being trusted.

Common mistakes

• Write my weekly update.

  Produces prose with pleasantries and no structure, so a reader has to extract the blockers themselves. The three-section shape exists to make that unnecessary.

• Listing everything I worked on.

  Activity is not progress. A full list is longer, less useful, and hides the two items that actually moved — which is what the reader wanted.

• Reporting blockers without saying what would help.

  Reads as being on record rather than asking. Managers act on specific requests and rarely act on the general observation that something is difficult.

Questions