Daily Standup for Solopreneurs
You’re running multiple projects. Your energy fluctuates. You have too many ideas and too few hours. And nobody’s standing around the coffee machine asking you what you’re working on today.
That’s where this prompt comes in.
What You Get
A prompt that acts as your standup facilitator. It takes your current projects, energy level, and deadlines, and gives you a focused plan for the day. Three priorities. That’s it.
Not ten things. Not “here’s everything you could possibly do.” Three actual priorities, each with a time estimate. Plus permission to let something go. Plus a two-sentence summary you can paste into your journal or send to yourself as proof that you showed up today.
This is the difference between a productive day and a day where you end up in four browser tabs wondering where the last five hours went.
The Prompt
Copy and paste this into Claude. Fill in your actual situation. Be honest about the energy level — this is where the whole thing works.
I'm running a standup for myself today. Here's what I'm working on:
**Current projects (all of them, even the ones I'm avoiding):**
[List the 3-5 things you're actually working on right now. Include the book, the business, the side thing, whatever is real.]
**What's due this week:**
[Deadlines, client deliverables, self-imposed milestones — anything with a date.]
**My energy level today:**
[1-10. 1 = barely functioning, 5 = normal, 10 = unstoppable.]
**Blockers or things I'm avoiding:**
[What's stuck? What's making you anxious? What are you pretending isn't there?]
**My "one thing":**
[If I could only accomplish one thing today, what would it be?]
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Based on this, give me:
1. **Top 3 priorities for today** (numbered, specific, with time estimates). If my energy is low, adjust — maybe today is a 2-priority day. Don't give me 10 things.
2. **One thing to let go of today** (permission to not do everything). What's on my plate that doesn't belong here?
3. **Standup note** (2 sentences I can paste into a journal or Slack). Make it sound like I'm actually showing up.
Be direct. Call out if I'm working on the wrong things. If I'm avoiding something important, name it. No fluff.How to Use It
Step 1: Run it first thing. Before you check Slack, before you open your email, before you have coffee (okay, after coffee). Take five minutes to fill in those six inputs. The quality of your day lives or dies here.
Step 2: Look at the energy level. This is the whole game. A 3/10 energy day and a 9/10 energy day need completely different plans. Most productivity systems pretend your energy is always the same. It’s not. Most solopreneurs are terrible at adjusting for this. Don’t be.
Step 3: Do the three things. Or the two things, if that’s what Claude recommended. Check them off. At the end of the day, paste that standup note somewhere you can see it. You did what mattered.
Run it daily when you’re in high-chaos mode. When things stabilize, you can drop it to weekly or as-needed.
Example Output
Here’s what a realistic standup looks like for someone juggling a small business, a book, and client work. Energy level: 6/10.
Your Top 3 Priorities
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Finish the email sequence for the April campaign (1.5 hours) — This is due Friday. Your energy is decent today. Get it done while you can.
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Record the voice memo about Chapter 8 revisions (20 minutes) — You’ve been avoiding this because the chapter feels broken. It’s not. Record it anyway. Move it forward.
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Order supplies + update inventory spreadsheet (45 minutes) — Boring, but the bakery needs this. Do it midday when your brain is tired of thinking. This is a “making the donuts” task.
One Thing to Let Go Of
Don’t touch that cold email template you were thinking about. It’s not due. It’s distraction. Let it sit until Monday.
Your Standup Note
Got the campaign sequence nailed, moved the book work forward, and handled the operational stuff that keeps the business running. Tomorrow can wait.
See? One thing is creative work. One is strategic. One is operational. You’re not choosing between “important” and “urgent” — you’re honoring that you’re running multiple systems, and all of them need you. Just not all at once.
Tips
Pair it with a shutdown. At the end of the day, spend two minutes telling Claude what you actually did, what worked, and what you’re taking into tomorrow. This takes the anxiety out of switching off.
The “thing you’re avoiding” input is the most important one. If you’re avoiding invoicing, Claude should know. If you’re avoiding telling someone no, Claude should know. That’s where the blockers live.
Try running this weekly instead of daily when things are stable. Once you build the habit and your energy gets more predictable, you can drop the frequency. But when you’re in chaos mode, daily keeps you honest.
If Claude gives you 3 priorities and none of them excite you, that’s data. It means you might be working on the wrong things, or the wrong things for right now. Pay attention to that signal. It’s worth investigating.
Want Help Building Yours?
This playbook is the idea. But your actual standup should be custom to how you work — your projects, your language, the way you think.
Book a Build Session — $350 for a 90-minute working session where we build your daily system from the ground up. We’ll create your standup prompt, design your weekly review, and map your quarterly planning workflow. You’ll walk away with a system that actually fits your brain and your business.
Built with Claude. Every prompt in this playbook library has been tested in the latest Claude model.