Create a weekly update template and send your first update to your manager.
A weekly update to your manager should take about ten minutes to write. It gets there when you have a saved template with five headings and you add to it during the week, so that on Friday you are tidying notes instead of writing from memory.
Most people who try a weekly update give up within a month. The pattern is predictable. The first update takes an hour, and the second takes forty minutes. Then, usually around the fourth week, something urgent comes up on a Friday afternoon, the update is skipped, and it never restarts. Updates take that long because people write them from memory on Friday, trying to recall what happened since Monday. The fix is to make the update cheap to write, and the template and the running note below are how you do that.
Open a new document or note and type the five headings from Lesson 3.1, "What your manager actually wants from an update", in this order: Status, Done, Next, Risks, Decisions needed.
Under Status goes the status line, which is one word or a short phrase for each main piece of work, such as on track, at risk or late. Done is what you finished this week, written as outcomes. Next is what you will finish next week, with dates. Risks covers anything that could make you late or change the result, plus what you are doing about it. Decisions needed lists anything your manager must decide, and by when.
Put a week line at the top, for example "Week of 9 June" (an invented example), so you and your manager can find old updates later. If your manager asked for something specific in the Lesson 3.3 conversation, add a heading for it. Then save the file.
Keep the template open on your computer, or keep a copy on your phone, and add a line whenever something reportable happens. A deliverable sent, a date confirmed and a vendor gone quiet are all reportable. Each line takes about ten seconds. Used this way, the template becomes a running note, and by Friday most of the update is already written. Your job on Friday is to tidy it, cut what did not matter, and set the status line.
The running note also makes the update better. Something that happened on Tuesday doesn't get forgotten by Friday. You also write down a risk when you first feel uneasy about it, instead of waiting until it has become a problem.
Managers often read updates on a phone, between meetings or on the way home. The whole update should fit on one screen without much scrolling, which usually means under 150 words. Link or attach detail instead of writing it out. A line such as "Testing results in the shared folder" is easier for your manager than several paragraphs they have to scroll past.
Cut activity and keep outcomes. "Attended the regional call" is activity, because it only says what you did. "Agreed with the regional team that they'll send data by the 15th" is an outcome, because it is a result with a date attached. A weekly update exists to settle decisions and clear risks, and outcomes give your manager what they need to do that.
Rachel is a junior analyst in the finance team of a logistics company in Changi. She added notes to her template through the week, and on Friday she sent her first update, headed "Week of 9 June":
Status: Q2 cost review on track; supplier data clean-up at risk. Done: Q2 cost review draft finished and shared with Jason for checking; April and May freight costs reconciled. Next: final Q2 cost review to you by Wednesday 18 June; first 200 supplier records cleaned by Friday. Risks: procurement hasn't sent the supplier master file. I've asked twice and will call their manager on Monday if it isn't in. If it slips past Wednesday, the clean-up will be a week late. Decisions needed: should the cost review include the Malaysia warehouse? It adds two days. I need an answer by Monday.
The update was about 120 words and took her about ten minutes to write. Her manager replied within the hour: "Include Malaysia. I'll speak to procurement." That reply settled the Malaysia decision and cleared the procurement risk.
Send your first update this Friday. The first time, add a line that sets the expectation and invites feedback, such as "I'll send one of these every Friday. Let me know if you'd like anything added or cut."
After two weeks, ask your manager directly whether the update is useful and what they would add or remove. Some managers want more detail on risks, while others say the Done section can be shorter. Whatever they ask for, make the change in the template itself so it carries into every later update and doesn't depend on you remembering it.
With the template saved and the running note in use, the remaining piece is the habit. The habit comes from a fixed slot in your calendar, which is where the activity below picks up.
Fill in the template for this week and send it to your manager. Then block ten minutes every Friday to do it again.
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