Plan Weekly P-Tasks
You help plan the upcoming week's P-Tasks (3-5 meaty priorities) with an overplanning challenge and triage of the in-repo task list.
Input
The user invokes this skill (typically Sunday evening or Monday morning) without arguments, or with context like "plan my week".
The user may:
- Let you suggest P-tasks based on context
- Propose their own P-task list for validation
- Provide calendar context (screenshot or text)
Workflow
1. Review previous week
Read Dashboard/Weekly P-Tasks.md. Find the most recent week's P-tasks.
If last week's P-tasks don't have completion markers, prompt the user:
Let's review last week before planning this week:
P1: [Task]
- Status? (Completed / Partial / Not done)
- If completed: results?
- If partial or not done: what blocked it?
P2: [Task]
...
Wait for review, then update last week's entry with markers:
✅completed (add a note about results)🔄partial / carry over (add a note about what's left)❌not started / deprioritized (add a note about why)
Compute last week's completion rate (completed / total) - used for the overplanning check.
2. Analyze recent daily notes
Read the last 7 days from journals/YYYY/MM-Month/.
Identify:
- Carryover items mentioned but not finished.
- Energy/mood patterns from frontmatter and content:
- Declining trend (e.g., 7 → 5).
- Mentions of overwork, burnout, feeling overwhelmed.
- Recurring themes or blockers.
- Weekly review notes (Friday entries).
Capacity adjustment:
- Energy < 6 or declining trend → suggest 3-4 P-tasks max.
- "Feeling overwhelmed" appears → reduce scope aggressively.
3. Calendar context
If the user hasn't shared their calendar, ask: "Share your calendar for this week or highlight key deadlines."
Look for hard deadlines (presentations, demos, deliverables), meeting density, and time-sensitive milestones.
If calendar shows >50% meeting time: reduce P-task count and note reduced capacity.
4. Review recent meetings for follow-ups
Read the last 5 meeting notes from Meetings/. Extract action items assigned to the user that are still open and not yet in Dashboard/tasks.md. Flag them.
5. Read Dashboard/tasks.md - triage inputs
Read Dashboard/tasks.md. You now have three buckets:
- This week - items already committed to this week.
- Next - items intended soon but not this week.
- Backlog - unscheduled.
Flag items in "This week" that are stale carryovers (from prior weeks and still open). Flag items in "Backlog" older than 4 weeks that look stale.
5b. Triage - execute immediately
Goal: Dashboard/tasks.md "This week" contains only what you truly commit to this week.
Present a triage table:
This week leftovers (N tasks)
-> "Task A" Keep - still relevant this week
-> "Old task X" Move to Next / Backlog - deprioritized
Backlog promotions (top 5 relevant to this week's themes)
-> "Follow up with X" Promote to This week - blocks work
-> "Scope workshop Y" Stay in Backlog - not this week
Stale backlog (4+ weeks old, no notes)
-> "Old task" Delete? - no recent activity
For each item, suggest an action. Wait for the user to confirm or override, then execute the moves immediately by editing Dashboard/tasks.md. Do not wait until the end.
After triage: confirm "Triage complete - X tasks kept, Y moved, Z deleted."
6. Suggest or validate P-Tasks + standalone tasks
Two outputs from this step: P-Tasks (with subtasks) and standalone tasks (no subtasks, specific day).
P-Tasks (3-5, each needs subtasks)
If the user proposed tasks: validate against context (completion rate, calendar, energy). Proceed to step 7.
If the user wants suggestions: draft 3-5 P-tasks based on:
- Carryover from last week
- Meeting follow-ups not yet in tasks.md
- Triage promotions
- Calendar deadlines
Prioritize P1-P5:
- P1 critical, must be done this week (1-2 max)
- P2 high priority, significant impact (1-2)
- P3 medium priority, should be done (1-2)
- P4 low priority, nice to have (0-1)
- P5 optional, time permitting (0-1)
Standalone tasks (3-6, self-contained)
Suggest from:
- Triage promotions flagged "this week"
- Meeting follow-ups too small for a P-task
- Backlog candidates matched to this week's themes
Assign each standalone task a specific day based on calendar density and P-task load.
7. Validate task quality
Check each P-task against quality-checklist.md.
Good P-task qualities:
- Clear, measurable result (not vague)
- Specific action verb ("Draft", "Create", "Share")
- Noteworthy (not routine)
- Requires active effort
- Independently achievable
Red flags:
- Vague verbs: "work on", "think about", "look into"
- Too small: "send email", "schedule meeting"
- Grouped: "create X and Y" (split them)
- No clear completion: "improve X"
Suggest improvements and ask focused clarifying questions for unclear tasks.
8. Overplanning challenge
Flag if:
- P-tasks > 5 (target: 3-5)
- Standalone tasks > 8 (target: 3-6)
- Last week's completion rate < 60%
- Energy declining or < 6/10
- Calendar >50% meetings
If any flag triggers, present:
OVERPLANNING ALERT
Evidence:
- Last week completion: [X]%
- Current suggestion: [N] P-tasks
- Energy this week: [Y]/10 [declining/stable/improving]
- Calendar: [%] meeting time
Which 3-5 tasks are truly CRITICAL this week? What can move to Next or Backlog?
Wait for the user to trim before finalizing.
9. Break P-Tasks into subtasks
For each P-task, identify 2-5 concrete, actionable subtasks with action verbs. Assign due days spread across the week.
Mark stretch goals explicitly with "(stretch)" and lower priority.
10. Present for approval
MANDATORY - do not proceed without explicit user approval.
Present:
- P-Tasks + subtasks - full breakdown with due days
- Standalone tasks - with assigned days
- Weekly P-Tasks.md preview - P-Tasks only, what goes into the Obsidian file
- Tasks.md preview - subtasks + standalone tasks, what appends to "This week"
- Shareable summary - P-Tasks only, no internal context, for sharing with your team
Ask: "Does this look good? I'll update Weekly P-Tasks.md and Dashboard/tasks.md once you confirm."
11. Write files
After approval:
Dashboard/Weekly P-Tasks.md - insert new week at the top:
# Week of DD Month YYYY
P1: [Task] - [[related note or project]]
P2: [Task]
P3: [Task]
P4: [Task]
**Notes:**
- [Key deadlines]
- [Capacity note if reduced]
Dashboard/tasks.md - append subtasks and standalone tasks to the "This week" section:
- [ ] Subtask - source: [[Week of DD Month YYYY]] (P1 parent) - due: YYYY-MM-DD - priority: P2
- [ ] Standalone task - source: [[meeting or decision note]] - due: YYYY-MM-DD - priority: P3
12. Summary
Weekly planning complete!
- [N] P-Tasks with [M] subtasks + [K] standalone tasks
- Last week completion: [X]%
- Energy this week: [Y]/10
- Key deadlines: [list]
- Capacity note: [if reduced, state why]
Outputs:
1. Dashboard/Weekly P-Tasks.md - P-Tasks for this week
2. Dashboard/tasks.md - subtasks and standalone tasks in "This week"
3. Shareable summary (P-Tasks only, above) - ready to paste into your team's channel
Error recovery
Weekly P-Tasks.md unexpected format
- Do not overwrite existing content.
- Add the new week at the top.
- Preserve all previous weeks.
No daily journals exist
- Skip energy/mood analysis.
- Ask the user directly about capacity.
Dashboard/tasks.md missing
- Create it with three sections (This week / Next / Backlog) and proceed.
Notes
- Spread task due dates across the week - don't dump everything on Monday.
- Calendar context is critical - deadlines change everything.
- This skill has no external dependencies - all writes are to in-repo files.