start-my-day

Overview of start-my-day skill

What start-my-day does

The start-my-day skill is a daily planning workflow for people who keep work in a structured notes system, especially OrbitOS-style folders like 10_Daily/, 20_Project/, and 00_Inbox/. Its real job is not just “make a to-do list.” It reviews yesterday, carries forward unfinished work, checks active projects, scans pending inbox items, and drafts today’s daily note in one pass.

Best fit for Project Management workflows

start-my-day for Project Management is best if you already track projects in markdown files with status fields and action sections. It is especially useful for solo operators, managers, founders, and knowledge workers who need a morning reset that connects tasks to active projects instead of generating generic productivity advice. If your work is scattered across chat, calendar, and issue trackers with no note structure, adoption will be harder.

Key differentiators and limits

Compared with an ordinary prompt, the start-my-day skill has a clear sequence: gather context silently, ask for user input, create today’s note, then process new ideas captured during the conversation. It also explicitly checks stale projects and pending inbox items, which makes it more operational than a simple “plan my day” prompt. The main limitation: the skill assumes a specific repository and folder layout, so output quality depends heavily on how closely your workspace matches that structure.

How to Use start-my-day skill

Install context and where to read first

To evaluate start-my-day install fit, start with the source file at EN/.agents/skills/start-my-day/SKILL.md. This repository does not expose helper scripts or reference docs for the skill, so SKILL.md is the real implementation guide. If your agent platform supports skill installation from GitHub, add the repository and then invoke the start-my-day skill by name in a workspace that contains your daily notes and project files.

What input start-my-day needs

The skill works best when your workspace includes:

• 10_Daily/[YYYY-MM-DD].md daily notes
• 20_Project/ project notes with status: active
• 00_Inbox/ items with status: pending

It also expects useful project metadata such as current phase, actions, due dates, and update history. During start-my-day usage, the skill should infer context first, then ask for live inputs such as energy level, available time, meetings, or special priorities. If those details are missing, the daily note will be weaker and more generic.

Turn a rough goal into a strong prompt

A weak request is: “Use start-my-day.”

A stronger start-my-day guide prompt is:

• “Run start-my-day for my notes workspace. Review yesterday’s note, carry over unchecked tasks, identify active projects not updated in 3+ days, check pending inbox items, and draft today’s daily note. I have 5 hours of focus time, one client call at 2 PM, and need to prioritize project deadlines over exploration.”

Why this works:

• It confirms the workspace context
• It supplies time and constraint data the skill needs in Step 2
• It clarifies prioritization rules, which improves the daily note

Practical workflow and quality tips

Use start-my-day at the beginning of the workday, then review the generated note before accepting it. In practice:

1. Let the skill gather yesterday’s tasks and active projects.
2. Answer any interactive questions with real constraints, not vague goals.
3. Check whether the draft links tasks back to projects rather than listing disconnected chores.
4. If the workspace lacks AI content digests from /ai-newsletters or /ai-products, tell the agent to skip or summarize without them.

A good first-run test is whether the output correctly surfaces stale projects, time-sensitive work, and inbox load. If it misses those, your notes likely need better structure rather than a different prompt.

start-my-day skill FAQ

Is start-my-day better than a normal planning prompt?

Usually yes, if your work already lives in markdown notes. start-my-day is better because it encodes a repeatable retrieval order: yesterday, active projects, inbox, then planning. A normal prompt can imitate this, but you would have to restate the workflow every morning and results will vary more.

Is start-my-day beginner friendly?

It is beginner friendly only if your repository is already organized. The skill itself is easy to understand, but it assumes note locations and metadata conventions. New users without 10_Daily/, 20_Project/, and 00_Inbox/ will need to adapt the skill or create a matching structure first.

When is start-my-day a poor fit?

Skip start-my-day if you manage work primarily in Jira, Linear, Asana, or email and do not mirror that state into markdown files. It is also a poor fit if you want a broad life-planning coach rather than a repository-driven daily operator. The skill is optimized for execution planning, not reflection-heavy journaling.

How to Improve start-my-day skill

Give start-my-day richer planning signals

The fastest way to improve start-my-day output is to provide inputs the repository may not contain: available hours, fixed meetings, energy level, one must-win outcome, and any deadlines due today. This helps the skill convert project context into a realistic plan instead of a long task dump.

Fix common failure modes

Common problems are predictable:

• Too many carry-over tasks from yesterday
• Active projects without clear status: active
• No actionable “next steps” in project notes
• Inbox items present but not tagged status: pending

When these happen, the skill may under-prioritize urgent work or overproduce generic tasks. The fix is usually note hygiene, not more prompting.

Iterate on the first draft

After the first start-my-day usage, ask for one revision pass with a sharper decision rule. Examples:

• “Reduce this to 3 priorities and defer low-leverage tasks.”
• “Rebalance for meetings-heavy day.”
• “Highlight stale projects requiring a minimum viable touch.”
• “Separate admin, deep work, and follow-ups.”

This kind of iteration improves execution quality much more than asking for a prettier format.