Task selection

Most people start with the tool and look for something to point it at. That order produces novelty and very little value. Start from the work instead: for one week, note every task you repeat, roughly how long it takes, and — the part almost everyone skips — what "good enough" actually means for it.

The quality bar is what decides whether a task is a candidate at all. A first-draft internal summary has a forgiving bar and a fast feedback loop, so it is a good place to begin. A figure that goes to a client has an unforgiving bar and a slow loop, so it is a poor one until you have built the verification step in module three.