plan-week

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Create a focused weekly plan based on tasks, priorities, and your work patterns. Use when the user types /plan_week, after a weekly review, at the start of a new week, or when feeling overwhelmed by options.

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[Project Management]

When & Why to Use This Skill

The plan-week Claude skill is a comprehensive productivity tool designed to transform chaotic task lists into a structured, high-impact weekly schedule. By analyzing your specific work patterns, energy levels, and project priorities, it generates a balanced plan that protects deep work time and ensures critical deadlines are met. It solves the problem of decision fatigue and overwhelm by providing a clear, step-by-step execution roadmap tailored to individual professional habits.

Use Cases

  • Monday Morning Kickoff: Automatically generate a structured weekly schedule from a backlog of pending tasks and GitHub issues at the start of a new work week.
  • Post-Meeting Re-prioritization: Use the skill after a major project meeting to integrate new action items into your existing schedule without losing track of current priorities.
  • Energy-Aligned Scheduling: Optimize your calendar by placing high-focus 'Deep Work' tasks during your peak productivity hours (e.g., morning for early birds) while scheduling admin tasks for low-energy periods.
  • Overwhelm Recovery: Provide a clear path forward when feeling paralyzed by a long list of options, helping to distinguish between 'Must Do' critical tasks and 'Could Do' items.
  • Work-Life Balance Management: Build in necessary buffer times and set explicit boundaries on what will NOT be worked on to prevent burnout and scope creep.
nameplan-week
descriptionCreate a focused weekly plan based on tasks, priorities, and your work patterns. Use when the user types /plan_week, after a weekly review, at the start of a new week, or when feeling overwhelmed by options.

Weekly Planning

Create a focused weekly plan based on tasks, priorities, and your work patterns.

When to Use

  • After /weekly_review
  • Start of a new week
  • When feeling overwhelmed by options
  • After a meeting that added new tasks

Prerequisites

  • ~/.researchAssistant/researcher_telos.md for work preferences
  • .research/project_telos.md for current priorities
  • tasks.md for pending tasks
  • Recent weekly review (recommended)

Execution Steps

1. Gather Context

Read these files:

  • ~/.researchAssistant/researcher_telos.md - Productive hours, preferences
  • .research/project_telos.md - Current phase, goals, blockers
  • .research/phase_checklist.md - What's needed for current phase
  • tasks.md - Pending tasks
  • .research/logs/weekly/ - Most recent weekly review
  • GitHub Issues (if integrated) - Open issues

2. Assess Available Capacity

Ask or infer:

Let's plan your week. First, some logistics:

1. Any days off or unusual schedule this week?
2. Any deadlines I should know about?
3. Any meetings already scheduled that will take significant time?
4. On a scale of 1-5, how much deep work time do you expect to have?

3. Prioritize Tasks

Categorize all pending work:

## Work Inventory

### Must Do This Week (Critical)
<!-- Blockers, deadlines, dependencies -->
- [ ] [Task] - Due: [date] | Blocks: [what]
- [ ] [Task] - Due: [date]

### Should Do (High Priority)
<!-- Important for progress but not urgent -->
- [ ] [Task] - Supports: [aim/goal]
- [ ] [Task] - Supports: [aim/goal]

### Could Do (Normal Priority)
<!-- Good to do if time allows -->
- [ ] [Task]
- [ ] [Task]

### Backlog (Not This Week)
<!-- Explicitly deprioritized -->
- [ ] [Task] - Why not: [reason]

4. Create Daily Plan

Based on user's productivity patterns:

# Weekly Plan: [Week of DATE]

## Focus for the Week
**Primary goal**: [One clear goal for the week]
**Theme**: [e.g., "Pipeline completion", "Writing push", "Analysis sprint"]

---

## Monday
*Energy: [Based on researcher_telos.md]*

### Morning (High focus)
- [ ] [Deep work task - most important]

### Afternoon
- [ ] [Medium focus task]
- [ ] [Smaller task]

### End of Day
- [ ] Quick commit and log progress

---

## Tuesday
*Energy: [Pattern]*

### Morning
- [ ] [Task]

### Afternoon
- [ ] [Task]

---

## Wednesday
*Energy: [Pattern]*

### Morning
- [ ] [Task]

### Afternoon
- [ ] [Task]

---

## Thursday
*Energy: [Pattern]*

### Morning
- [ ] [Task]

### Afternoon
- [ ] [Task]

---

## Friday
*Energy: [Typically lower - plan accordingly]*

### Morning
- [ ] [Wrap-up or lighter task]

### Afternoon
- [ ] Weekly review prep
- [ ] Documentation catch-up
- [ ] Plan ahead for next week

---

## Buffer Time
*Unscheduled time for unexpected needs*
- 2-4 hours reserved for surprises

## This Week's Boundaries
- [ ] Will NOT work on: [Explicitly out of scope]
- [ ] Limiting: [What to time-box]

5. Account for User Patterns

From researcher_telos.md:

If User Is... Then...
Morning person Schedule deep work before noon
Afternoon person Protect afternoon focus time
Procrastinates writing Schedule writing first, not last
Forgets to commit Add commit reminders
Scope creep tendency Set explicit boundaries
Documentation avoider Pair docs with coding tasks

6. Present Plan

Here's your weekly plan:

📌 **Weekly Focus**: [Primary goal]

**Critical (Must complete)**:
1. [Task] - Monday morning
2. [Task] - By Wednesday
3. [Task] - Before Friday

**High Priority**:
4. [Task]
5. [Task]

**If Time Allows**:
6. [Task]
7. [Task]

**Explicitly NOT this week**:
- [Deprioritized item]

Does this look right? Any adjustments needed?

A) Accept this plan
B) Move something up in priority
C) Remove something (too ambitious)
D) Add something I missed

7. Save Plan

Save to .research/logs/weekly/YYYY-MM-DD-plan.md

Planning Principles

  1. Start with the hardest/most important thing

    • Don't bury critical work on Friday

  2. Time-box, don't open-end

    • "Work on analysis" → "2 hours on analysis: complete X"

  3. Build in buffer

    • Things always take longer
    • Unexpected issues arise

  4. Match energy to task

    • Deep work when fresh
    • Admin when tired

  5. End-of-day ritual

    • Commit code
    • Log progress
    • Clear desk for tomorrow

  6. Protect focus time

    • Identify and block best hours
  • weekly-review - Review last week first
  • next - Get immediate next action
  • monthly-review - Bigger picture priority setting

Notes

  • Plans are guides, not contracts
  • Adjust as the week unfolds
  • Celebrate completing the critical items
  • It's okay to not finish everything