Lesson 3: Write the Method Down

🎯 Overview

In Lesson 1 you wrote down what actually happens for one job. That page describes the present. This lesson turns it into a method: a page that tells anyone how to do the job right, every time.

A method needs only four parts. What starts it. The steps in order. What "done" looks like. And who decides when something unusual comes up. Construction people already know this shape. It is a work method statement for an office job.

📌 The rule of this lesson: a method has a trigger, steps, a definition of done, and a named decider for exceptions.

🧭 Context

The difference between notes and a method is a simple test. Hand the page to someone who has never done the job. If they can do it without asking you questions, it is a method. If they come back with questions, the answers to those questions belong on the page.

You are not writing for the expert who does the job today. You are writing for the next person. Later, the next person might be an AI program: an AI worker that follows your written rules and uses your files. A program is the ultimate literal reader. If the page is clear enough for a program, it is clear enough for anyone.

<!-- image: One method card for the quote-request job, laid out like a work method statement: trigger at the top, numbered steps in the middle, a "done means" checklist, and an exceptions box naming who decides -->

🔧 How it works: the four parts

Take your Lesson 1 page and rebuild it in four sections.

• Trigger: what starts the job. "A quote request arrives in the office inbox." One line. If two different things start the job, that is two triggers, and that is fine.
• Steps: the numbered actions, in order. Each step says who does it and where the information lives. Use the official homes from your Lesson 2 register. "Get prices from the official price list" beats "find the prices."
• Done: what finished looks like, as checks. "The quote is sent. The follow-up date is in the calendar. The job is recorded in the quote log as sent." If you cannot check it, it is not done.
• Exceptions: the unusual cases, and who decides them. "Quote over $20,000: the owner decides. Client asks for credit terms: the owner decides." The method handles the normal. A named human handles the rest.

The exceptions section is what makes delegation safe. Staff never guess on the big calls, because the page says who to ask. Guessing is banned. Asking is built in.

If you already installed an agent tool from the Resources setup guide, you can use it here at conversation level. Paste your Lesson 1 page and this prompt, then review what comes back and fix it. The tool drafts. You decide.

Here are my rough notes on how one job in my business gets done.
Rewrite them as a one-page method with four sections:
Trigger (what starts the job), Steps (numbered, each with who does it
and where the information lives), Done (a short checklist of what
finished looks like), and Exceptions (unusual cases and who decides).
Keep my words where you can. Where my notes are unclear or a step has
no owner, do not guess: add the question in brackets for me to answer.

🧠 Why this works

The four parts each kill one common failure. A trigger stops the "nobody knew it was their turn" failure. Owned steps stop the "someone" failure from Lesson 1. A done checklist stops the "sent the quote, forgot the follow-up" failure. A named decider stops the "staff guessed on a $40,000 call" failure.

Notice what the method does not need. No software. No flowchart tool. One page of plain writing does the work.

🧩 How it fits

The method reads from the register: every step points at an official home, never at a copy. Lesson 4 adds the last part, a log line at the end of every run, so the method can improve. In the paid courses this same page becomes a "skill": a written method for one repeatable job, done the same way every time. You are writing that page now, for free, for a human.

🛠️ Build it / try it

1. Take your Lesson 1 page. Rewrite it under four headings: Trigger, Steps, Done, Exceptions.
2. Give every step a named doer. No "someone" survives this pass.
3. Point every information step at an official home from your Lesson 2 register.
4. Write Done as three to five checks you can verify.
5. List two or three real exceptions and name the decider for each.
6. Hand the page to a colleague who does not do this job. Note every question they ask. Put the answers on the page.

✅ What good looks like

• One page with the four sections, and no step owned by "someone."
• A colleague who has never done the job can follow it, or every question they asked now has its answer on the page.
• The Done section is a checklist, not a feeling.

💡 Key takeaways

• A method is one page: trigger, steps, done, exceptions.
• Write for the next person, not the current expert.
• Done means checkable. Exceptions mean a named decider, so nobody guesses.
• This page later becomes an AI skill with almost no changes. Clear for a program is clear for everyone.

Next: Lesson 4, Let the System Improve (logs, weekly reviews, and fixing the method instead of the person).