Run your day · Lesson 6.5
Measuring Morning Brief Automation: Five Numbers to Track
It is easy to track the wrong thing with morning brief automation. You can count how many briefs were sent, how many sources are connected or how long the note is. None of that tells you whether your mornings are better. This post gives you five numbers that do, all of which you can record by hand in about a minute a day.
I am not giving you targets or benchmarks, because I do not have verified figures for any business, and yours will differ. The aim is to compare you against yourself, week to week.
The lesson behind this is Lesson 6.5: A short brief waiting every morning. It is listed as coming soon, and these measures will work with whatever you build.
Track whether you read it, whether you acted on it, what it missed, what it got wrong, and how long your morning check takes.
Activity versus outcome
Activity numbers describe the system: briefs sent, sources connected, words written. They go up as you add things, even when the brief gets worse.
Outcome numbers describe your day: did you start faster, did you miss less, did you trust the note. These are harder to measure but much more honest. The five below are all outcome numbers.
The five numbers
1. Read rate
Out of the working days in the week, on how many did you read the brief before opening anything else?
This is the first sign of health. A brief that you do not read does nothing, however good it is. If the number is low, the problem is usually length, timing or place, not content. Plain language guidance recommends short paragraphs, and a shorter note is the first thing to try.
2. Action rate
Of the items in the "needs you" section, how many did you actually act on?
If you act on most, the note is picking well. If you ignore half of them, the selection is off, and you should cut the kinds of item you ignore. Count by hand for a week: a tick for each item you acted on, a cross for each you skipped.
3. Misses
How many things did you find yourself, by hand, that the brief should have told you about?
This is the most valuable number because it shows where the brief has gaps. Each miss is a specific instruction to add, such as a message type that counts as important. A falling miss count over several weeks is real progress.
4. Errors
How many times did the brief state something that was wrong, such as a wrong time, a wrong name or a made up detail?
This number should be as close to zero as you can get it. Track it separately from misses, because the fixes differ. Misses need more instructions. Errors need tighter rules, a cleaner source or a smaller job. Any error that would have led to a real mistake deserves a note about how you caught it.
5. Morning check time
How long does your morning check take, from sitting down to knowing what to do first?
Time it for three days before you start, and then again each week. Use a simple stopwatch, or note the clock times. Do not obsess over minutes, and do not count a quick morning as a win if the misses went up. Treat this as the fifth and least important number.
A simple weekly log
| Number | How to record it | What a bad week looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Read rate | Days read first, out of days worked | Often skipped |
| Action rate | Items acted on, out of items listed | Most items ignored |
| Misses | Tally of things you found yourself | Rising or never recorded |
| Errors | Tally of wrong statements | Any that caused a mistake |
| Check time | Minutes, timed on three days | Unchanged and still checking by hand |
Keep the log in a notes file or a paper notebook. Five rows and a date are enough.
How to read the numbers on Friday
Spend ten minutes. Read the numbers in this order.
- Start with errorsIf any error nearly caused a problem, fix the instruction or the source before anything else.
- Look at read rateIf you are not reading it, nothing else matters. Shorten it, move the delivery time or change where it lands.
- Check action rateCut the item types you ignore.
- Look at missesAdd one instruction for the most common miss.
- End with check timeOnly now ask whether the morning is quicker.
Make one change, write it in the log and look for its effect next week.
A worked example, clearly made up
Say you run an online course and have a small support inbox. This is invented to show how to read the numbers.
In week one, you read the brief on three of five days, acted on four of ten items, found six things yourself and caught one wrong date. Your check time is about the same as before.
Reading it on Friday, you start with the wrong date: it came from an old calendar entry, so you clean the entry and add a rule. Read rate is low, so you move delivery earlier and cut the note by half. Action rate is poor because the "news" lines were ignored, so you remove them. You note the most common miss, which was refund requests, and add a line about them.
In week two the numbers move. Whatever they do, you have a clear way to see it. That is the point: the log tells you what to change.
What not to measure
Be wary of these.
- Word count or number of sources. They describe the system, not the result.
- Hours saved, as a single figure. You cannot measure this reliably, and an invented figure is worse than none.
- Satisfaction with the writing. A beautiful note that you do not act on has failed.
If you do record time, record it as your own measured minutes, not as a claim about what the brief achieves.
Common questions
Questions people ask
Do I need a spreadsheet?
No. A notes file with five lines per week is enough, and a spreadsheet is optional.
What is a good read rate?
I do not have a verified benchmark. Aim for reading it first on most working days and compare with last week.
How long should I track before judging?
Four weeks gives you a trend. One week gives you a first set of fixes.
What if I cannot tell whether it missed something?
Look for the things you check by hand after reading it. Each of those is a possible miss.
Putting it together
Start the log today, even before the brief exists, by timing your manual check. Once the brief is running, add the other four rows and review them on Friday. For the build, follow Lesson 6.5, A short brief waiting every morning. To pick your first changes, see the framework for morning brief automation.