You will create a weekly update template and send the first update to your manager.
Most people who try a weekly update give up within a month. The first one takes an hour, because they're trying to remember what happened since Monday. The second takes forty minutes. By the fourth week something urgent comes up on Friday afternoon and the update doesn't go out, and nobody restarts it.
The fix is to make the update cheap to write. This exercise sets up a template and a habit that together bring it down to about ten minutes, and you will send your first one at the end.
Open a new document or note and set up five headings, in this order. They come from lesson 3.1, What your manager actually wants from an update.
Status: one word or short phrase for each main piece of work, such as on track, at risk or late. Done: what was finished this week, written as outcomes. Next: what you'll finish next week, with dates. Risks: anything that could make you late or change the result, and what you're doing about it. Decisions needed: anything your manager has to decide, and by when.
Add one line at the top for the week, such as "Week of 9 June", so updates are easy to find later. If your manager asked for something specific when you had the conversation in lesson 3.3, add a heading for it too.
The reason updates take an hour is that people write them from memory on Friday. Instead, keep the template open, or a copy on your phone, and add a line whenever something worth reporting happens. A deliverable sent, a date confirmed, a vendor gone quiet. It takes ten seconds each time.
By Friday, most of the update is already written. Your job is to tidy it, cut what turned out not to matter, and set the status line.
This also improves the update itself. Things that happened on Tuesday don't get forgotten, and risks get noted when you first feel uneasy, not when they've already turned into problems.
Your manager will often read this on a phone, between meetings or on the way home. Keep the whole update short enough to read on one screen without scrolling much. In practice that's usually under 150 words.
If there's detail your manager might want, link to it or attach it. "Testing results in the shared folder" is enough. A link they can open if they want is better than three paragraphs they have to scroll past.
Cut anything that describes activity instead of outcomes. "Attended the regional call" is activity. "Agreed with the regional team that they'll send data by the 15th" is an outcome worth keeping.
Rachel is a junior analyst in the finance team of a logistics company in Changi. Here is her first update, sent on a Friday.
"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. Freight costs for April and May reconciled.
Next: final Q2 cost review to you by Wednesday 18 June. Supplier data clean-up, first 200 records by Friday.
Risks: the procurement team hasn't sent the supplier master file. I've asked twice and will call their manager on Monday if it's not in by then. 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. Need your answer by Monday."
The update is about 120 words. Rachel built it from notes she'd added during the week, so writing it took about ten minutes. Her manager replied within the hour: "Include Malaysia. I'll speak to procurement." That one reply settled a decision and cleared a risk, which is what a weekly update is for.
Send your first update this Friday. Add a short line the first time, such as "I'll send one of these every Friday. Let me know if you'd like anything added or cut." That sets the expectation and invites feedback.
After two weeks, ask your manager directly: is this useful, and what would you add or remove? Some managers will want more detail on risks. Others will say the "done" section can be shorter. Adjust the template, not just the next update, so the change sticks.
A finished version of this exercise is a saved template with the five headings, a running note you add to during the week, and one sent update your manager could read on a phone. The remaining piece is the habit, and that comes from a fixed slot in your calendar, which is where the activity below picks up.
Fill in the template for this week, send it to your manager, and block ten minutes every Friday to repeat it.
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