Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
60-90 minute boxes for creative work, 15-25 minutes…
Use time-boxes of 60-90 minutes for creative and strategic work requiring divergent exploration before convergence, and 15-25 minute boxes for administrative work where compression forces efficiency, matching box duration to the cognitive signature of the task type.
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.
Classify every decision as one-way or two-way door before…
Before beginning deliberation on any decision, classify it as one-way door (irreversible/high-stakes) or two-way door (reversible/low-stakes) and allocate analysis time proportionally—minutes to hours for two-way doors, days to weeks for one-way doors.
Two-way door decisions with sub-week reversal costs get 24…
For two-way door decisions where reversal costs under one week of effort, set a decision deadline of 24 hours or less regardless of how the decision feels emotionally.
The critical path is your minimum duration — no amount…
Identify the critical path (longest chain of dependent tasks) as the minimum project duration, recognizing that no amount of parallelization or additional resources can compress completion time below this constraint.
Pre-define allocation rules for contested time blocks…
Before any contested time block arrives, define the allocation rule (priority ordering, rotation schedule, or time-slice) that resolves contention in advance rather than negotiating access when the block arrives.
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.
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.