Daily Check-Out

The Daily Check-Out is the short written answer to one question: What did you work on today? Basecamp asks it of you every working day at the end of working time, whether you were in the office, remote, or on the road. Your answer makes visible what otherwise stays spread across calendars, mail, and tools. And it holds the details that would otherwise be missing from the Weekly Check-In or from the later entry in Time tracking.

Why the Check-Out exists

We jump between projects, tools, and places. Without a shared signal at the end of the day, everyone only knows their own status. The Daily Check-Out is the operational transparency between two Mondays. The actual discussions still belong in Basecamp. Hours belong in Everhour. The Check-Out only says: that was my day.

When and where

Monday to Friday, towards the end of your working time. For us that is often around 16:30. What matters is not the minute, but that the entry belongs to the working day on which the work happened. The question sits on the team board under Check-In & Updates: "What did you work on today?" Basecamp reminds you. Everyone's answers sit as a feed in the same place. Office or remote: the same place, the same question.

Reconstructing the day

Do not write the Check-Out from memory. In the evening the blocks in between are often exactly what is missing: the mail before the meeting, the slot after lunch, the work without a visible result.

Go through the day at the places where it left traces:

• Calendar: meetings and calls

• Sent mail

• Activity in Basecamp

• Meeting notes

• The tools you actually worked in

Then you order it. Not every click becomes a line. The aim is a day colleagues can understand in under a minute, and that still tells you next week what you did on Tuesday. Whether you pull the day together yourself or let someone help: the same rules apply. Bundle, do not post the raw stream. Clear gaps, do not guess. If you are unsure whether something happened, leave it out or clear it before you post. An honest shorter entry carries more than one that is not true.

The format

The format is deliberately short. Anyone writing the Weekly Check-In on Monday should be able to read the week from the dailies. Anyone logging hours in Everhour in the evening already has the order. We write in time blocks. Each line starts with the start of the block, not with the duration:

• from 09:30 Kick-off new exhibition project (briefing, directions)

• from 11:45 Website build (components, review)

• from 13:50 Mail to the client on the interim status

• from 16:15 Receipts and invoices

Working with your AI

Gathering the traces is diligence work. That is exactly what you can use your AI for, if it has access to your calendar, your inbox, and your notes. You still read and stand behind the draft. The following prompt works regardless of which assistant and which tools you use. Put in the date and add the sources your AI can actually reach:

Help me write my Daily Check-Out for [date].

Go through my day at the places where it left traces: calendar, sent mail, activity in Basecamp, meeting notes, and the tools I worked in. If you have no access to a source, tell me that instead of silently skipping it.

Build my day from that in time blocks:

• one line per block, chronological

• start with "from HH:MM", time in four digits

• activity short, details in brackets

• no bullets, no numbering, no preamble

Bundle emails and small org, admin and receipts, research without a result, and internal setup on the same topic. Keep separate: client meetings, pitches, important external mail, and work with a clear result. Leave private things out.

Invent nothing you cannot evidence. What stays unclear, list under the draft as short questions to me. Give me the draft to copy. Do not post anything yourself.

The prompt also works for the weekly recap. Ask for a span instead of a day, then on Monday you have the Weekly Check-In and the Everhour catch-up in one go.

What it does not replace

The Weekly Check-In remains the place for recap, outlook, and mood. It holds everyday work so Monday does not have to be built from nothing. The primary Time tracking remains Everhour.

Progress, blocks, and next steps belong on the card, in Campfire, or with the client. The Check-Out is internal and short. If you catch up a day, set it to the date of the work, not the day you are writing.

Why we keep it this way

Transparency is not an extra layer for us. It is the condition for remote and office to share the same rhythm, and for ownership not to stay invisible. Write the day so others can read along. Then you can still read it yourself on Monday.