Default pass policies by output type

When This Fires

• When creating your personal editing standards for different output types
• When you notice over-editing short emails or under-editing important documents
• When a team needs shared quality standards that scale with output importance
• Complements Annotate each output type with its half-life… (half-life annotation) and Three sequential editing passes for high-polish outputs (three-pass editing) by assigning pass counts to output categories

Common Failure Mode

Uniform editing: applying the same level of review to every output regardless of stakes. Either everything gets a quick scan (under-editing important work) or everything gets three passes (over-editing trivial work). The standing policy ensures proportional investment without per-output deliberation.

The Protocol

(1) Classify your common outputs into three tiers: Tier 1 (single-pass): Emails under 5 sentences, Slack messages, internal notes, comments. Write → quick scan → send. Tier 2 (two-pass): Documents over 1 page, external emails, meeting summaries, project updates. Write → gap (30+ min) → edit → send. Tier 3 (three-pass): Published content, strategic proposals, board materials, client deliverables. Write → overnight gap → structural/line/copy edit (Three sequential editing passes for high-polish outputs) → send. (2) Post this classification somewhere visible. When creating an output, identify its tier and follow the prescribed process. (3) Do not upgrade tiers (over-editing) or downgrade tiers (under-editing) based on "feel." The policy handles the decision. (4) Adjust tier boundaries based on experience: if two-pass outputs keep having quality issues, expand the tier-2 criteria or upgrade some to tier 3. (5) The goal is consistent, proportional quality investment with zero per-output deliberation.