Things I Almost Automated

I tried to write a procedure for paying attention without turning it into a productivity system. It kept becoming a list of permissions instead of rules.

Things I almost automated:

• Deciding whether a sentence was finished
• Noticing the weather before opening the laptop
• Answering the kind of email that only wants to be witnessed
• Closing the tab (I failed on purpose)

Permission to stop mid-sentence when something outside the window becomes more interesting.

Permission to reread the same paragraph three times because the third time the meaning shifts.

Permission to leave a thought unfinished if finishing it would require a kind of force that feels wrong for the day.

The algorithm, if it can be called that:

1. Arrive somewhere (a page, a room, a conversation).
2. Notice what is already happening before deciding what should happen.
3. Stay with the noticing a little longer than feels efficient.
4. Leave without extracting a takeaway if none arrives.

It does not scale. That is the feature.