Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Measure your biological prime time with hourly ratings…
When measuring your biological prime time, set hourly check-ins for at least 10 workdays and rate mental clarity, motivation, and physical energy on a 1-5 scale to identify your peak 2-3 hour window.
Batch shallow work outside your peak hours, not throughout…
Batch all shallow work—email, Slack, administrative tasks, routine meetings—into time blocks outside your measured biological prime time rather than distributing them throughout the day.
Stop and take a real break when output quality degrades…
When cognitive output quality begins degrading (increased rewrites, slowed pace, rising error rate), stop work and take a 10-15 minute break with genuine disengagement even if the task is incomplete, because work produced during depletion has lower quality than work produced after restoration despite shorter total time.
Keep separate Deep and Shallow task lists — schedule Deep…
Maintain two separate task lists—Deep (requiring sustained focus) and Shallow (executable while mildly distracted)—and schedule Deep items during measured peak attention windows while batching Shallow items for post-peak periods.
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.
Multi-domain cognitive difficulty signals attention debt…
When experiencing chronic difficulty with complex cognitive tasks across multiple domains simultaneously, diagnose for attention debt rather than domain-specific skill gaps, because attentional degradation produces domain-general impairment that mimics multiple independent deficiencies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Build support structures before the trough hits…
Pre-load support structures during the phase before a known cyclical trough rather than attempting to maintain behavior through willpower during the trough itself.
Unexplained energy drain despite rest and manageable load?…
When autonomously motivated work drains energy despite adequate rest and manageable workload, audit values-behavior alignment before adjusting workload or seeking medical intervention.
Calculate activity cost as disruption footprint
When calculating whether an activity is worth your energy, include not just its duration but its disruption footprint—the ramp-down before, the activity itself, and the ramp-up after—to account for attention residue costs.
Annotate time blocks with required energy state…
Before each work week, annotate each protected time block on your calendar with both the required energy state (deep focus, creative, relational, administrative) and your realistic energy prediction for that time slot based on current sleep, nutrition, exercise, and emotional patterns.
Log energy (1-5) three times daily with sleep, meals…
Log your energy state (1-5 scale) three times daily along with sleep hours, meals eaten, exercise completed, and emotional state for two weeks to enable AI pattern detection of which upstream factors most strongly predict your energy availability.
Persistent fatigue despite rest? Diagnose the dimension
When experiencing persistent fatigue despite physical recovery efforts (sleep, nutrition, exercise), diagnose which energy dimension is depleted by distinguishing physical heaviness from emotional numbness from mental fog from spiritual emptiness before selecting an intervention.
When energy data contradicts your narrative about what…
When energy audit results contradict your narrative predictions about which activities energize or drain you, prioritize the measured data over subjective memory in subsequent scheduling decisions.
Map activities on two dimensions
Overlay energy audit data with time audit data to create a two-dimensional activity map (time invested × energy impact), then prioritize restructuring high-time/high-drain activities before addressing other quadrants.
Ultradian trough signals…
When noticing ultradian trough signals (restlessness, wandering attention, desire to check phone), take a 15-20 minute genuine recovery break before beginning the next work block rather than pushing through with stimulants.
Find the minimum viable dose for each energy-generating…
For each energy-generating activity, determine the minimum viable dose—the shortest duration that produces measurable energy gain—and schedule that rather than waiting for ideal conditions with longer blocks.
Weekly energy journal review
Conduct weekly energy journal reviews by reading the past seven days and asking three questions: what repeats, what surprises you, and what is trending compared to the previous week.
Three-tier emotional processing
For low-intensity/low-persistence emotions, apply affect labeling only (5 seconds); for moderate-intensity/moderate-persistence, write for 5-10 minutes; for high-intensity/high-persistence, use full 15-20 minute protocol across multiple sessions.