After recurring activities, spend 60 seconds recording…

Add a 60-second structured observation step immediately after recurring activities, recording one sentence about output and one about potential changes, to convert open-loop repetition into closed-loop learning.

When This Fires

After any recurring activity you do at least weekly: meetings, writing sessions, code reviews, presentations, one-on-ones
When an activity feels stagnant — "I've been doing this the same way for months"
When building feedback loops for activities that currently have none
Complements A complete feedback loop needs three elements (feedback loop structure) with the minimal implementation

Common Failure Mode

Skipping the observation because "nothing notable happened." That's the most important time to observe — the absence of notable events means the activity ran on default, which means no learning occurred. The observation should still happen: "Output: standard result, no deviation. Change: none needed today." Even a null observation maintains the habit of observing.

The Protocol

(1) Immediately after a recurring activity ends, before moving to the next task, spend 60 seconds. (2) Write one sentence about output: what happened? What was the result? What was the quality? Be specific, not evaluative — "Wrote 400 words in 30 minutes" not "Decent writing session." (3) Write one sentence about potential change: if you were to do this again tomorrow, what one thing would you change? This can be "nothing" — but you must explicitly consider the question. (4) Store these observations in a simple, accessible format: a running note, a spreadsheet row, or appended to the activity's calendar event. (5) Monthly: review the accumulated observations. Patterns that recur across multiple observations are your highest-leverage improvement targets.