Goals and the daily brief
Set what you work towards this week, month and quarter, and get one brief each morning with a focus and up to three moves tied to your goals.
Last verified 2026-10-13
In the web app
Goals
Under Setup, in the step Direct it, the card Goals opens your goals, grouped This week, This month, This quarter and By date.
A goal has a title of up to 120 characters, a horizon or a date up to a year ahead, an optional role and a status: Open, Done or Dropped.
A week goal belongs to the week it was set in (Monday to Sunday in Zurich), a month or quarter goal to that month or quarter; earlier goals stay until you delete them.
You can keep three open goals per horizon. A fourth asks "You already have 3 goals this week. Add a fourth?" and is saved only after Add a fourth.
A goal with a role is that role's objective; the role shows as a chip on the goal.
A measure and its progress
A goal can carry a measure: a Target number and a Unit, the thing you count, for example 10 calls or 5 kg. Both are optional; leave them empty for a goal without a measure.
A goal with a measure shows its progress as a line, for example 4 of 10 calls, and a thin bar. Update opens one number field, and Save stores the new number in place.
When the number reaches the target the goal says Target reached and offers Mark done. zonask never closes a goal by itself: a goal is done when you say so.
The Goals card on Headquarters and the carried goals in the weekly tuning show the same line and bar, without controls. Move to this week keeps the measure.
The unit is stored encrypted with your data key, like the title. Your audit log records that a measure changed, never the unit or the numbers.
Sending your goals to your second brain
Your goals live in zonask. Nothing copies them to your second brain when you save or change one, and nothing does it on a schedule.
When a second brain is connected, the goals page has Send my goals to my second brain. It first shows the note: your open and done goals of this week, month and quarter and your dated goals, each with its role, status and progress.
Only Save to my brain sends it, once, to your second brain's inbox. If your goals changed in between, zonask asks you to review the note again.
If your brain cannot be reached, zonask keeps the note for 24 hours and delivers it when your brain answers, as with Tell your brain.
The weekly tuning shows each role's open week and month goals beside its proposed priorities. A priority displays its goal chip, or No goal linked.
A week goal left open with an earlier period appears there too, under Last week's goals, with Done, Move to this week and Drop.
Every save, status change and delete is recorded in your audit log, without the goal's title.
Setup counts Direct it as done once you have at least one role and one open goal; until then the banner on Headquarters says "Direct it: set goals".
When the brief is made
Every morning from 07:00 Zurich time zonask makes one brief for you, once a day, if at least one Google account is connected.
Until it is made, the card says "Your daily brief arrives at 07:00."
If the brief could not be made after three tries, for example because the AI service was down, the card says "Your daily brief could not be made today." with Try again. Pressing it makes today's brief at once with one request to the AI. If it fails again the card says "Still could not make it. Try again in a few minutes."; when zonask cannot reach the AI at all it says "Your brief cannot be made right now."
If none of your Google accounts is connected and at least one needs you to reconnect it, the card instead says "No daily brief: zonask lost access to your mail and calendar. Reconnect your account." with Reconnect.
What it reads
It reads, only in memory: emails of today and yesterday that need you, tasks due today or overdue, promises due today, proposals waiting in Approvals, today's events from calendars set to My calendar, and your open goals.
It also reads what others owe you: up to five open waiting-fors due today or overdue, the earliest first. The AI gets the name of the person you are waiting for, never an address.
Of an email the AI gets the sender's name, the reason it needs you and its short summary; never the subject, the text or an address.
When nothing needs you, no AI is asked and the brief says "Nothing needs a move this morning."
The brief on Headquarters
Your daily brief shows Focus for today, a focus line, a short paragraph and up to three moves.
An open goal with a date appears in the brief seven days and one day before it is due. The reminder is worked out when you read the brief.
Each move shows its task, promise, proposal or email as you see it elsewhere, its goal as "Goal:" and the goal's title or "No goal linked", and a line saying where it comes from.
That line is written by zonask from your data, not by the AI, for example From your calendar block 09:00 and two emails from the same contact, You promised this by 12:00, Waiting in Approvals since yesterday, or for something you are waiting for, You asked and the person's name, then for this by 12:00.
The AI may only point to your own items and open goals; a move about anything else is left out.
The footer says when the brief was made, for example "Generated 07:02 from mail, calendar and goals".
Ticking a move
Ticking a task marks it done, ticking a promise marks it kept and ticking a waiting-for marks it done; unticking opens it again.
A proposal never gets a checkbox: Open in Approvals opens its card there, and the move shows done once you answered it.
An email move opens the email, and shows done once you marked it done or not for me.
Discuss in chat opens the assistant with your brief; only its id is in the address, and zonask reads the brief on the server.
What is stored and for how long
The focus line, the paragraph and the source lines are stored encrypted with your data key; the moves keep only which item, goal and done state.
No subject, email text or address is stored with the brief, and a brief is deleted 30 days after its day.
Delete all my data removes your goals and briefs with everything else.
In Claude or ChatGPT
list_goals shows your goals by horizon and asks about last week's unfinished goals. Its goals card offers Done and Drop on open goals, and Done, Move to this week and Drop on carried goals. Each button shows a proposal before you confirm, and after Saved. the card reads your goals again, so a goal you moved or finished changes its place. An open goal with a date says how many days are left, Due today, or how many days it is overdue. A goal carried over from last week is listed once, under Last week's goals. save_goal adds, changes, moves or deletes one after you confirm; a fourth open goal asks you first, and moving one to this week asks the same way when this week is already full.
daily_brief shows today's brief, or one of the last 30 days, as a card where the host supports it and as a short text otherwise.
Without a connected account and with one that needs you to reconnect it, daily_brief answers that zonask lost access to your accounts, with a link to reconnect them, instead of saying when the brief arrives.
When today's brief could not be made, daily_brief says so and names retry_brief, which makes it again after your yes and shows the brief as daily_brief does.
To finish a move from the chat, Claude uses change_task for a task, close_commitment for a promise and answer_approval for a proposal, each with your yes.
A goal's measure works in chat too: save_goal sets a target and a unit, updates the current number, or removes the measure, and list_goals shows each goal's progress line.
send_goals_to_knowledge sends the same note as the goals page: it first shows you the note, and sends it only after your yes. It runs only when you ask for it.
In Claude, try Set my calls goal to 4 or Send my goals to my second brain.
In Claude, try Show my goals to see the horizon groups and What is left over from last week? to answer the carried goals question. Try What should I focus on today? or Set a goal: two proposals out this week.