Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Keep commitments at 70-85% of capacity — the 15-30% slack…
Maintain commitment-to-capacity ratio between 0.70 and 0.85 to preserve system stability, keeping 15-30% of capacity uncommitted as structural buffer for variance absorption.
On depleted days (capacity 1-2), cap deep work at 1 hour…
When daily capacity rating is 1-2 (depleted/foggy), limit focused work to 1 hour maximum and allocate remaining time to administrative tasks, recovery, or maintenance rather than forcing deep work.
Rate capacity 1-5 in your first 30 minutes — then select…
Rate your daily capacity on a 1-5 scale within the first 30 minutes of your workday before starting any tasks, using the rating to select which tier of work plan to execute that day.
When commitments exceed capacity, only three fixes work
When commitment-to-capacity ratio exceeds 1.0, intervene only through cut (remove commitment entirely), defer (move to future period with capacity), or delegate (transfer to someone else)—productivity techniques cannot solve overcommitment caused by arithmetic mismatch.
Normal daily capacity variation is not a problem — only…
Treat common-cause capacity variation (daily fluctuations within your normal 2-5 hour range) as system-inherent rather than problems requiring intervention; investigate and respond only to special-cause variation (events falling outside normal range).
Distribute work unevenly across the week — load…
Allocate weekly focused work hours unevenly based on predicted daily capacity levels (more hours to high-capacity days, fewer to low-capacity days) rather than distributing work uniformly across all days.
Plan from your average capacity, not your best day — five…
After measuring five days of actual focused work time, use the daily average (not the best day or hoped-for number) as your baseline planning capacity for all future scheduling decisions.
Two weeks at sprint pace creates recovery debt — expect…
When sprint pace (exceeding sustainable pace) is maintained for more than two consecutive weeks, expect proportional recovery debt requiring at least one week of reduced output to repay accumulated cognitive deficit.
State observable facts before evaluative labels in code…
When giving feedback in code reviews or technical discussions, state observable facts (nesting levels, exit paths, line numbers) before applying evaluative labels to enable problem-solving rather than defensiveness.
Your capacity ceiling is where strong output stops…
During capacity measurement, rate output quality at the end of each work block (strong/acceptable/weak) and identify the cumulative hour mark where strong output stops as your effective capacity ceiling for planning purposes.
Decompose peak-day tasks and pre-load early components…
Decompose tasks due on peak-load days into components that can start independently, then pre-load early components into low-load days to smooth temporal distribution.
Front-load highest-priority work — end-of-week…
Place most important committed work early in the week and early in the day so that end-of-week and end-of-day buffers can absorb delays without threatening highest-priority deliverables.
Calibrate buffers by consumption rate — above 80% means…
Track weekly buffer consumption rate—if consistently consuming more than 80% of buffer, increase buffer size; if consistently consuming less than 20%, buffer can be tightened.
When one-third of commitments are failing, stop accepting…
When more than one-third of your active commitments are late, incomplete, or lower quality than promised, stop accepting new commitments until the ratio improves to preserve remaining trust accounts.
Alternate between cognitive pools — creative, then…
Sequence work blocks across different cognitive pools (creative, then analytical, then social, then administrative) rather than stacking same-type work, to allow depleted pools to recover while fresh pools carry the load.
When you see repetition, forced output, or errors — switch…
When a cognitive pool (creative, analytical, social) shows degradation markers—repetition, forced output, errors, disengagement—switch to a different pool type rather than pushing through, even if scheduled time remains.
Increase capacity target by 10% per week only if quality…
When capacity building, increase target output by 10% per week only if quality metrics held steady or improved AND you met target on at least 4 of 5 days in the previous week.
Two weeks without progression = deload 10% — you overshot…
When capacity building fails to meet progression criteria for two consecutive weeks, reduce target by 10% to deload—you have overshot sustainable progression rate and need to consolidate at a lower level.
Measure honest current output over 3 representative days…
When building capacity from a new baseline, measure current honest output over at least three representative days—not best days or aspirational targets—to establish accurate starting point.
Ask 'what was the system state' not 'who caused this'…
In blameless postmortems, frame questions as 'what was the system state at [time]' and 'what information was available' rather than 'who caused this' to shift from evaluation to observation and enable information sharing.
Above 0.85 capacity, counter-offer new requests…
When your commitment-to-capacity ratio exceeds 0.85, respond to new requests with explicit counter-offers stating either a later start date or a specific trade-off rather than accepting or declining without alternatives.
Signal capacity proactively with operational language…
Design capacity signals with neutral, operational framing (traffic light status, numerical availability) rather than emotional or complaint-based language, delivering them before requests arrive rather than as request-time justifications.
Map annual capacity month by month — distribute…
Create annual capacity maps rating each month 1-5 based on historical data, then distribute annual commitments proportionally to predicted monthly capacity rather than dividing by twelve uniformly.
When overloaded, ask the requester
When utilization exceeds 85% and a high-stakes request arrives, respond with the trade-off question format: 'If I add this, which of my current commitments should I deprioritize?' directed to the requester with decision authority.