Guide / Research & notes
Turn a research question into an evidence table that survives disagreement
A small source-row protocol keeps the question, claim, passage, and unresolved conflict visible before anyone writes the summary.
3 min readPRACTICAL GUIDES
Do the work. Check the handoff.
A task, a concrete setup and a result another person can inspect. These guides turn documentation and research into proposed operating procedures.
No matching pieces. Clear the search or choose another topic.
Guide / Research & notes
Check PDF extraction before you trust the summary
A searchable page can still have scrambled columns, dropped table headers, or plausible OCR errors. Inspect the extraction before summarizing it.
3 min readGuide / Research & notes
Hand off a citation library without handing over a puzzle
A useful Zotero handoff includes readable metadata, accessible attachments, a scope note, and a receiver check—not just an export file.
3 min readGuide / Setup & friction
Audit knowledge-base access with allowed and denied tests
A permission audit is incomplete until ordinary users can open what they need and are blocked from what they should not see.
4 min readGuide / Writing & documents
Build a reusable writing brief before polishing the prompt
A durable brief separates audience, verified facts, house style, and acceptance checks so the work can survive a different writer or tool.
3 min readGuide / Writing & documents
Review the diff for altered facts, not just improved prose
A version comparison catches changed numbers, dates, qualifiers, and links that a smooth reread can miss.
3 min readGuide / Meetings & email
Review a shared-inbox draft without colliding or sending early
Assign the conversation, preserve internal context, separate approval from sending, and run a final recipient check at the last responsible moment.
3 min readGuide / Meetings & email
Reconcile meeting actions across a recurring series
Recurring meetings produce overlapping summaries. Reconcile each action against the current system of record before assigning or closing it.
4 min readGuide / Meetings & email
Write an asynchronous status update from source records
A credible update links completed work, names the current blocker, assigns the next move, and dates the next checkpoint.
3 min readGuide / Writing & documents
Hand off an accessible document with structure intact
Headings, links, alt text, and checker results matter, but the receiver still needs to navigate and understand the final file.
3 min readGuide / Evidence
Run a workflow pilot that can answer a real question
A small scorecard can compare baseline effort, output quality, and rework without pretending a handful of jobs is a controlled study.
3 min readGuide / Setup & friction
Calculate the total cost of a workflow, not just the subscription
A short equation exposes setup, review, exception handling, and metered actions that a monthly plan price leaves out.
3 min readGuide / Automation & agents
Prevent duplicate records before an automation goes live
A stable business key, an idempotency record, and a conflict path are safer than hoping repeated events never arrive.
3 min readGuide / Automation & agents
Separate retryable failures from work that needs a person
Bounded retries can absorb transient faults; permanent errors and exhausted attempts need a visible exception queue with an owner.
3 min readGuide / Automation & agents
Design approval gates that reviewers can actually use
A gate needs a decision packet, a timeout, and invalidation rules; an Approve button alone only creates a new queue.
3 min readGuide / Automation & agents
Release an automation change like a small software change
A sandbox sample, regression set, change note, and gradual rollout make workflow edits easier to inspect and reverse.
3 min readGuide / Coding & data
Reconcile a spreadsheet before writing the story around it
Totals, keys, row counts, and granularity checks should pass before a chart or narrative turns an error into a conclusion.
3 min readGuide / Coding & data
Validate the SQL answer before trusting the sentence
A query can execute successfully and still answer the wrong question; inspect grain, joins, filters, nulls, dates, and control totals in read-only work.
3 min readGuide / Coding & data
Review an AI-assisted code change as a change, not a speed claim
Keep the diff small, run relevant tests, and inspect secrets and dependencies before debating whether the assistant felt fast.
3 min readGuide / Setup & friction
Run a vendor exit drill before the exit is urgent
Export is only the first checkpoint: map dependencies, inspect formats, restore representative work, and disconnect the old system last.
3 min read