Track decision quality, comprehension, and emotional…

Rate your decision quality, comprehension speed, and emotional regulation daily on a 1-5 scale across five consecutive workdays to detect attention debt accumulation before subjective awareness registers the degradation.

When This Fires

During high-demand work periods (launches, deadlines, incident response)
When you suspect your cognitive performance is declining but "feel fine"
As a baseline measurement practice to understand your normal capacity
When building self-awareness about your cognitive limits and recovery needs

Common Failure Mode

Rating yourself as "fine" every day because you're comparing against how depleted you could be rather than how sharp you actually are. Use behavioral anchors: decision quality 5 = "I made decisions quickly and confidently today"; 1 = "I deferred or reversed multiple decisions." Comprehension 5 = "I read and understood documents on first pass"; 1 = "I re-read paragraphs multiple times." Emotional regulation 5 = "I responded calmly to frustrations"; 1 = "I reacted disproportionately to minor irritants."

The Protocol

Daily, at end of workday: (1) Rate three dimensions 1-5: decision quality, comprehension speed, emotional regulation. (2) Use behavioral anchors, not feelings — "Did I make good decisions?" not "Do I feel smart?" (3) After five consecutive days, review the trend. Stable or rising → sustainable. Declining → attention debt accumulating. (4) If declining: identify the cause (too little sleep, too many meetings, no recovery breaks) and intervene structurally before the debt compounds further.