Write a report, broken into 7 small steps
Work reports drag because they feel both boring and important. It's easy to keep "gathering information" instead of writing.
Build the skeleton first with headings, fill in the facts you already have, and write the summary last, once you know what the report actually says.
Start here · under 2 minutes
Open last month's report or a similar one.
Under two minutes. It gives you a structure to copy.
The rest of the steps
- Step 2:
Paste in the headings.
Summary, context, results, next steps, or whatever your team expects.
- Step 3:
Under each heading, drop the facts you already have.
Numbers, links, quick notes. Bullet points are fine.
- Step 4:
Mark what's missing with [TODO].
Then request that data in one message to the right person.
- Step 5:
Turn the bullets into sentences, section by section.
Short sentences. Reports are read fast.
- Step 6:
Write the summary at the top.
Three lines: what happened, what it means, what's next.
- Step 7:
Re-read once and send.
Search for [TODO] before sending.
Why this one stalls
There's always more data to collect, so the report never feels ready to write. Writing with gaps is how you find what's actually missing.
If you get stuck
Write the summary as if explaining it in an elevator. Then expand. Knowing the ending makes the rest easier.
What “done” looks like
The report sent, with no [TODO] left.
These steps follow the same rules as the method in our task breakdown guide: the first step is physical and takes under two minutes, and every step after it is something you can see yourself doing. Got a head full of other things too? Start with a brain dump.