AI
The Rule That Counts My Approvals as Work
By Khai Tran · · 2 min read
Red closed 63 items on my to-do lists and still had about 430 it couldn't verify. Then I gave it a rule that counts approvals, vetoes and review cards as work it creates for me.
Week ending October 30.
On Saturday I asked Red to work through its open to-do lists, close whatever the evidence showed was done, and bring me only the real decisions.
It closed 63 items. Forty-four were finished, with evidence for each. Nineteen had been replaced by newer work. Every closure came with a way to undo it, and Red closed nothing just because it was old or past its date. The open count went from 643 to 583, though other sessions were working that day too. About 430 of the items still open were unverified.
It brought me the decisions it couldn't make, and I answered them that afternoon.
On Wednesday I gave Red a rule that now sits at the top of its rulebook: "Red exists to reduce Khai's workload, not create work for Khai."
Anything new, whether an agent, an automation or a workflow, has to answer three questions in writing. Does it remove or substantially reduce work I'm doing now? Can it run reliably without frequent intervention? Is its value greater than the time and attention it takes to maintain? If the answer keeps coming back no, that piece gets simplified, redesigned or removed.
The rule also spells out what counts as work for me: approvals, decisions, vetoes, review cards and repairs. That includes the notice I get each week before one of these entries goes out.
It doesn't loosen any approval Red needs from me. It filters what gets built.
Red didn't add a new routine to enforce it, because a new routine would fail the same test. It offered to add the three questions to the quarterly review it already has. As of Wednesday, I haven't answered.