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2. Daily Briefing Cron Job

Action Step

Complete this before moving on.

Set up a morning briefing cron job that checks your Slack channels and Teamwork tasks, and confirm it runs successfully by reviewing the first briefing output.

Comment in Slack

Post your answer in your onboarding channel.

If you could automate one repetitive daily task with a cron job starting tomorrow, what would it be and how much time would it save you per week?

Training Guide

This is the cron job you'll actually use every single day. By the end of this training, your agent will be sending you a morning summary before you've had your coffee.

Exercise​

Step 1: Design your briefing

Think about what you want to know every morning:

  • Unread Slack messages and highlights
  • Teamwork tasks due today or overdue
  • Any overnight activity in your key channels
  • Calendar for the day (if connected)

Tell your agent exactly what you want in your briefing — be specific about format, channels to check, and what counts as "important."

Step 2: Set up the cron job

"Set up a cron job that runs every weekday at [your preferred time]. Check my Slack channels [list specific ones], summarize anything important I missed, list my Teamwork tasks due today, and post the briefing in my DM."

Confirm the schedule and settings.

Step 3: Wait for the first run (or trigger a test)

Watch the briefing arrive in your DM at the scheduled time. Review: is it pulling the right channels? Is the format useful? Is it catching the important stuff?

Step 4: Iterate

  • "Change the briefing to also include [X]"
  • "Remove the [Y] section — I don't need that every day"
  • "Change the time to 8am instead of 7am"
  • "Add a priority flag for messages from [specific people]"

Step 5: Add a second cron job (optional but encouraged)

  • End-of-day wrap-up: "Every weekday at 5pm, summarize what I worked on today and list any tasks I didn't finish"
  • Weekly digest: "Every Friday at 4pm, compile my week — what I shipped, what's still open, what's blocked"

The Compounding Insight​

One cron job saves you 5 minutes a day. That's 25 minutes a week. Now add a second one. A third. Each one is small, but they compound. In a month, your agent is handling 30 minutes of your daily routine automatically.

What to Submit​

  • Screenshot of your morning briefing cron job confirmation
  • Screenshot of the first briefing output (the actual summary your agent sent you)
  • If you set up a second cron job: screenshot of that one too