Encode the full action protocol in your notification text — 'Daily Review' is vague, '3 wins, 1 lesson, tomorrow''s top 3' is executable

Why This Is a Rule

A digital trigger notification is a micro-instruction delivered at the moment of activation. When that instruction says "Daily Review," your brain must translate the label into action steps: "What do I do in a daily review again? Let me think... wins, lessons, tomorrow's priorities?" This translation requires working memory and decision-making — exactly the cognitive resources that should be spent on the review itself, not on remembering what the review involves.

When the notification says "Daily Review — 3 wins, 1 lesson, tomorrow's top 3," the translation is pre-computed. You read the steps and execute them. No memory retrieval, no decision-making, no activation-energy barrier between seeing the notification and starting the action. The notification has become a just-in-time checklist.

This is Write agent actions as procedures a stranger could follow — aspirations and principles are not executable steps (procedural action steps) applied specifically to digital trigger text. The notification is the trigger AND the action specification in a single package. This matters because digital triggers (phone alarms, calendar events, app notifications) are the most common trigger type for modern behavioral agents, and their text field is prime real estate for reducing activation friction.

When This Fires

• When setting up any recurring digital reminder or notification
• When a notification-triggered agent fires inconsistently despite the trigger itself working — check if the notification text is too vague
• When reviewing existing notifications for actionability
• When transitioning from generic reminders ("Exercise!") to behavioral agent systems

Common Failure Mode

Generic notification labels: "Meditation," "Write," "Review," "Exercise." These fire fine as triggers but leave a gap between trigger and action that requires cognitive bridging. "Meditation" → "Where do I meditate? How long? What technique?" Each unanswered question is a friction point that competes against dismissing the notification.

The Protocol

(1) For each digital trigger, open the notification text and check: does it contain the complete action protocol? Could someone who has never done this behavior execute it from the notification text alone? (2) If the text is a generic label → rewrite to include specific steps. "Meditation" → "Meditation — 10 min, sit at desk, Waking Up app, daily meditation." "Exercise" → "Exercise — 20 min walk, grab shoes by door, loop around the block twice." (3) Keep the text scannable: numbered steps or dash-separated items work best. No paragraphs. (4) Include location and materials if relevant: "at desk," "grab notebook," "open [specific app]." (5) Test: when the notification fires, can you start acting within 5 seconds without opening any other reference? If yes → the encoding is complete.