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Donna prepares the morning brief overnight from your day, your active Outcomes, anything you set down the evening before, and the rhythm you have been in, so the day opens with a real starting point. It appears once a day. On your very first morning there is nothing to build a brief from yet, so no brief appears. Donna stays quiet rather than opening the day with something invented. Once you have an Outcome of your own, the brief starts arriving.

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What you see

The brief has three parts, top to bottom:
  • A quiet open. The day and date, an opening line Donna wrote overnight, and sometimes one observation in Donna’s voice. When there is nothing real to open on, the line is left out rather than filled.
  • Worth your attention today. Up to three Outcomes Donna thinks deserve your attention, each with a short note on where it stands.
  • One opening move. A single proposed first step in Donna’s own words, concrete enough to start on. When there is no real move to name, the brief is the quiet open and the threads.
The morning brief: the day and date, an opening line, three Outcomes worth attention, and one proposed first step. Once you have seen the brief, it hands the canvas back for the rest of the day.

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How you respond

You have three ways to answer:
  • i’m in. Tap to start the opening move.
  • pull a different thread. Pass on it, and Donna offers another angle.
  • Just start talking. Skip the brief entirely and type or speak whatever is actually on your mind.
Skipping the brief does not throw away the thinking behind it. What Donna worked out overnight still shapes the conversation you start instead.
Donna never hands you a full schedule to execute. The brief gives you one starting point, and everything after it is a conversation you drive.

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The one ritual touch

The morning brief is the one moment each day when Donna has something waiting before you ask. Between conversations, Donna can also reach out, under strict rules:
  • quiet hours
  • a minimum gap between reach-outs
  • backing off when you are low
All of it is controlled in settings, under personalization, “reaching out.” See Check-ins and nudges for the full picture. The opening line says nothing about the gap: open the brief after days away and it reads the same as any other day.

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On a hard morning

If you are already running on empty, the brief collapses to almost nothing: a single gentle line, something like “rough one. one thing or nothing, your call,” and one small offer. The two controls are “just this one” and “not now,” and “not now” is a complete answer that closes the brief. See Bad days. If the trouble is the routine around the brief, a fixed morning sequence that falls apart on a hard morning, the guide on an ADHD morning routine covers building one that resizes to the morning you woke up into.

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Frequently asked questions

Donna prepares the brief overnight from your day, your active Outcomes, and the rhythm you have been in, then names a concrete first step to start on. You open the app to one worked-out starting point instead of a blank page.
No. The brief shows the day and date, up to three Outcomes worth your attention, and a single opening move with a concrete first step. Donna never hands you a full schedule, so there is no day-long plan waiting to be followed.
Sometimes, under strict rules. The morning brief itself appears once a day, when you open the app. Between conversations Donna can reach out: quiet hours are respected, there is a minimum gap between reach-outs, and Donna backs off while you are low or already have something unanswered. Settings, under personalization, “reaching out,” controls all of it, including a toggle that turns reach-outs off entirely. See Check-ins and nudges.
Then the brief collapses. When Donna senses you are running on empty, it becomes a single gentle line, something like “rough one. one thing or nothing, your call,” with two controls: “just this one” and “not now.” Choosing “not now” closes the brief with nothing carried forward.
The brief starts from the current day. Its opening line says nothing about how long you were away, and there is no catch-up pile of missed items. Between visits Donna may have reached out under the rules on the Check-ins and nudges page, but the brief itself always begins fresh.

Next: working an Action

Once you pick something, here is what the work view looks like.

Go deeper: An ADHD morning routine

The full guide to a morning that bends to the day you’re having.