Run of Ten Plan

When To Use

Prospecting always comes last, then forty rushed notes go out when work dries up. This turns your shortlist into one small run for this week and answers: who am I writing to, why, and what is each message waiting on?

When Not To Use

If you have not chosen your people, do that first; this plan never picks anyone for you. Once messages are sent and replies begin, the Follow-Up Tracker takes over what is due.

Inputs

• The people you chose, from your Contact Shortlist and Warm Path Check, with the reason for each if you have one.
• Any research, points or messages already done for these names.
• The time you will block this week. Optional: the Google Calendar connector, used to read your week for a free block. It creates and changes no event. If you have none of this, I start from the names you paste and a reason in your words for each, and mark the plan as a first draft.

Approach

Small runs, one at a time, in good weeks too, described generically. About ten people is a size one person can research, write to and answer properly beside their real work; it is a working habit, not a tested number. The steady run answers the cycle of full months and empty ones, because conversations are opened before the work runs out. The failure it prevents: a panicked week where forty people get the same rushed note, followed by two quiet months.

Workflow

1. Ask at most three questions: when your time block is this week, whether the previous run is finished or closed, and whether anything has changed for a name since you chose it.
2. Check before starting. One run at a time: if the last run has messages unsent, finish or close it first. Take about ten names, never the whole list. Fewer is fine.
3. Put warm paths first: people you will ask for an introduction, then people you will write to directly, then cold with a trigger.
4. For each person, carry over your one reason to write. If none is chosen, the status is "to research".
5. Give each person one status, about your actions only: to research, points ready, written, sent by you, reply. Status never describes the person or how likely they are to answer.
6. Mark "ready" only when you have written the message yourself and it has been through the Message Checklist and Grammar Check. Points ready is not ready.
7. Close the run: count what you sent, say who moves to the Follow-Up Tracker, send what is still waiting back to your shortlist, and set the date the next run starts.

Output Format

# Run of Ten Plan
Run: [number] | Week of: [date] | Time block: [day and time you set] | Previous run: [finished / closed]
## The run
| Person | Path | Reason to write | Status | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [name] | [introduction / direct / cold with a trigger] | [your one reason] | [to research / points ready / written / sent by you / reply] | [your next action] |
## Ready to send
- [name]: written by you, checklist and grammar check done
## Waiting
- [name]: [what is missing]
## Back to the shortlist
- [name]: [reason about this run, never about the person]
## Decision
[Your name] decides by [date] which messages go out this week and when the next run starts.

Done When

• The run holds about ten names or fewer, all chosen by you.
• Every person has one reason, one status and one next step.
• Nothing is marked ready that you have not written and checked.
• The next run has a start date.

Quality Bar

• One run at a time; a run never grows into a batch.
• Status describes your actions, never the person.
• The run continues in good weeks, at a size you can keep.
• No message text appears in the plan; it lives where you write it.
• About ten people, each message written and sent by you; nothing is scheduled or sent for you.

Next

Run reach-follow-up-tracker (Follow-Up Tracker) to see which replies and follow-ups are due.

About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).