The Learning Strategist library
Ideas you can put to work.
Practical reading on attention, thinking, and AI. Start with the problem in front of you.
Make the trade-off visible.
Before agreeing to a new request, name the work it would move.
Read the methodLeave a return note.
Preserve enough context to restart without rebuilding your thinking.
Read the methodWrite the brief before the prompt.
Give AI the outcome, evidence, and constraints it cannot infer.
Read the methodAttention & choices · Practical method
Make the trade-off visible before saying yes.
A new request rarely arrives with a list of the commitments it would displace. If you accept it immediately, that decision happens silently. Your earlier work absorbs the cost.
Pause long enough to ask two questions: what happens if this waits, and what existing commitment moves if it starts now? A deadline alone does not describe the consequence of waiting.
Put the decision into words.
“I can take this today. That would move the review to Thursday. Which outcome needs protecting?”
This gives the other person a concrete choice. You may do the work now, schedule it for later, renegotiate another commitment, or pass it to the person who owns it.
Try it today: choose one incoming request. Write its consequence of waiting and the commitment a new yes would move. Use those two lines before you agree.
Notes & thinking · Practical method
Leave a return note before the next interruption.
A task label such as “finish the proposal” tells you what remains unfinished. It says little about the thinking you had already done. When you return, you have to find the thread again.
Before switching, leave four short lines: where you stopped, what you decided, what remains uncertain, and the exact next move.
A worked example
Where I stopped: compared two rollout options.
Decision: phased rollout fits the support capacity.
Uncertainty: the estimate for the first week is unverified.
Next move: check that estimate before writing the recommendation.
The note holds the state of the work. You can inspect it when you return instead of reconstructing the previous hour.
Try it today: before one consequential switch, record the four lines. On your return, use the next move as your starting point.
Use the free Meaning Layer template · Explore the note-taking book · Get the next field note
AI & context · Practical method
Write the brief before you write the prompt.
An AI tool can produce a fluent answer while missing the context that makes an answer useful. The outcome, standards, sources, and constraints need to be visible before the tool starts.
Begin with a short brief. State what you are trying to achieve, who will use the result, what evidence it should draw on, what limits it must respect, and who owns the decision.
Make uncertainty visible too.
Separate confirmed facts from assumptions. Name missing information and ask the tool to flag it. Then check the output against the sources and constraints in the brief.
“Compare these two options using the attached estimates. Treat the support figure as unverified. Show what would change if that estimate doubles. I will make the final recommendation.”
Try it today: choose one real task. Add the outcome, sources, constraints, uncertainty, and decision owner before you ask AI to help. Review the answer against those same five items.
See the Context Brief worked example · Get the next field note