Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1214 answers
Choose one workflow you already have documented — or one you perform regularly but have not yet written down. Identify whether it currently has an explicit trigger or whether it relies on you 'remembering' or 'feeling like it.' If there is no trigger, design one using the if-then format: 'When.
The most common failure is designing triggers that are actually goals in disguise. 'When I feel motivated to exercise' is not a trigger — it is a hope. 'When I notice the kitchen is messy' is not a trigger — it is a judgment call that requires the very executive function the trigger is supposed to.
Every workflow needs a clear trigger that initiates the sequence.
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Take one recurring workflow from your life — morning routine, weekly review, project kickoff, content publishing, anything you do repeatedly. Write out every step as you currently understand it. Then, for each step, apply the ambiguity test: if you handed this step to a competent stranger with no.
Going too fine. Atomicity is not an instruction to decompose every action into its smallest conceivable components. If your morning workflow includes a step that says "pick up the toothbrush with your dominant hand," you have passed the useful threshold and entered bureaucratic overhead territory..
Each step in a workflow should be small enough to complete without ambiguity.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Choose a workflow you repeat at least weekly — a morning routine, a meal prep sequence, a work session setup, a weekly review. Write down every step in the order you currently perform them. Now, for each pair of adjacent steps, ask: Does step B require the completed output of step A? If the answer.
Two opposite errors are common. The first is treating everything as sequential when most steps have no real dependency — you wait for the oven to preheat before you start chopping, even though chopping requires nothing from the oven. The workflow takes twice as long as it needs to. The second.
Some steps must happen in order while others can happen simultaneously.
Build verification points into workflows to catch errors before they propagate downstream.
Build verification points into workflows to catch errors before they propagate downstream.
Build verification points into workflows to catch errors before they propagate downstream.