Five sites is where memory stops working. Not because the work is hard, but because the context no longer fits in one head.
This is a worked week for one person and five named sites. The names and numbers are fictional, and they are written out so you can swap in your own.
The roster and the assumptions
Northline Studio is one person, Priya, and five retainer clients.
| Site | Build | Refresh | Sources connected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgeline Roofing | Astro, in a repository | 7 days | Search Console, Analytics |
| Cedar and Slate Interiors | WordPress | 7 days | Search Console |
| Brightwater Dental | WordPress | 14 days | Search Console, Analytics |
| Foxglove Bakery | Static, no repository | 14 days | Search Console |
| Meridian Landscaping | Astro, in a repository | 7 days | Search Console, Analytics |
The effort assumptions, before any incident.
| Task | Minutes per site |
|---|---|
| Read the queue and the new comments | 20 |
| Decide, then ship the approved change | 45 |
| Answer one client question | 15 |
| Monthly update per client | 30 |
The first three rows are the weekly work. Eighty minutes a site comes to four hundred minutes, which is six hours and forty minutes across five sites.
The last row is monthly. Thirty minutes a site is two and a half hours a month. It lands in whichever week the update is due.
The week
- Monday, 90 minutes. Triage every site. Nothing ships today.
- Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 hours. Work the two 7 day sites, then one 14 day site.
- Thursday, 90 minutes. The remaining two sites, and read last cycle’s data.
- Friday, 40 minutes. Close the week, and choose Monday’s first item.
That adds to six hours and forty minutes, which is the eighty minutes a site from the table above.
The triage rules
Every new item gets one of four states in under two minutes.
- Queue when it affects a page with impressions or enquiries, and it fits one cycle.
- Reply when a person asked a question and no site change is needed.
- Defer with a date when it is real but the month is full.
- Dismiss with a reason when it fails both tests in rule one.
Then order the queued items, highest first. Missing sources come before lost impressions, which come before impressions with no clicks. A client request in writing beats everything below it.
The queue is capped at eight items per site. A ninth item means triage produced a list instead of a decision.
A worked week
Monday’s triage produced this queue.
| Site | Item | Why it is here | Cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgeline Roofing | Rewrite three service titles | Impressions, no clicks | Tue |
| Cedar and Slate | Reconnect Search Console | Token expired, data missing | Tue |
| Meridian | Fix two 404s from the January move | Linked from an old page | Wed |
| Brightwater | Add an alt attribute to the hero | Audit finding, contact page | Wed |
| Foxglove | Publish the hours change the owner sent | Client request, in writing | Thu |
| Foxglove | Investigate the price page | No impressions after 60 days | Defer one cycle |
Five items, one defer, four shipped across three days. The defer has a date, so it is a decision rather than a loose end.
The exceptions
Four things break the week, and each one has a rule in advance.
An outage. The site is the queue. Everything else is deferred with a reason, and the next update says what happened and when.
A missing source. One cycle goes to access. The update names the number that is missing rather than reporting a fall to zero.
An active project. A rebuild or a new page is not a queue item. It moves to project time, and the retainer scope drops that month.
Nobody replies. After two cycles without a decision the item is deferred with a note. It is never shipped on the client’s behalf.
What to measure
| Measure | Source | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Items shipped per cycle | Closed queue items | 3 to 6 across five sites |
| Age of the oldest open item | The queue | Under 21 days |
| Verdicts recorded | Change history | One per shipped item |
| Access gaps | Connections list | Zero, or a named owner each |
The second number matters most. A queue with old items is a queue nobody is deciding on, however busy the week felt.
The plan, ready to use
site: Northline Studio, five retainers
owner: one person
weekly
- monday 90 min triage only, nothing ships
- tue/wed 180 min two 7 day sites, one 14 day site
- thursday 90 min remaining two sites, read last cycle's data
- friday 40 min close the week, choose monday's first item
monthly
- 30 min a site, in the week the update is due
rules
- queue cap eight per site; states are queue, reply, defer, dismiss
- order: missing source, lost impressions, impressions without clicks,
client request in writing, oldest first
- ship only what a person approved; record the verdict later
exceptions
- outage: the site is the queue
- missing access: one cycle on access, numbers stay missing
- project work: moves to project time, retainer scope drops
- no reply in two cycles: defer with a note, never ship on their behalf
What this does not solve
One person cannot absorb a sixth site without dropping something. The plan makes that trade visible, which is not the same as making it free.
Two incidents in one week will push a deferred item into the next cycle. That is a normal outcome, not a failure of the plan.
Acceptance: the week is working when
- every site had a triage pass on Monday, and nothing shipped that day
- the queue per site stayed at or under eight items
- every shipped change was approved by a person first
- deferred items carry a date, and dismissed items carry a reason
- the Friday close produced a decided list for the following Monday
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Triage takes two hours | Items arrive without evidence | Send them back, and ask for the source |
| The same site always runs late | It has the most changes, or a missing source | Give it its own day, or fix the access |
| A client stops answering | Nothing visible followed the last question | Show the queue and the shipping record |
| The month feels full of small work | No cap on shipped changes | Cap it, and defer the rest with dates |
| A project swallows three weeks | No boundary was agreed | Re-quote, and drop the retainer scope |
Limits
The hours above are a model from one fictional studio, not a benchmark. Track one cycle and replace them with your own numbers.
A sixth site, a faster cadence, or two incidents in a week all break the shape. The plan makes that visible, which is not the same as making it absorbable.