Tool 25 of 32
Gate-First Sequencing
Anything whose outcome could change other work is a gate, and gates run first no matter how small they look.
In Plan, on the candidate task list, after the depth verdict and the ranked moves exist.
Step 6 of 7 · Days 9 and 10
Plan
In what order, by whom?
A plan is an order of operations, not a list of good ideas. Everyone knows what they are doing, what done looks like, and why this comes before that.
Why this step exists
Plans fail for boring reasons. Too much at once, goals that quietly cancel each other, big irreversible moves made before cheap informative ones, and a plan that reads well on day one and means nothing by day 30 because nobody knows who does what.
What you leave with
- Every item tagged as a gate, waiting behind a named gate, or free to run
- Goal pairs that would cancel each other sequenced instead of run in parallel
- Moves ranked with certainty weighted over cheapness, and every chosen move recording what it pushed aside
- A written price on every later change, and a visible number that buys patience for invisible deep work
The usual miss
Skipping here because planning feels like progress before the pattern is confirmed. A plan built that early is a guess with a schedule.
5 tools
Tool 26 of 32
Contradiction Gate
Finds goal pairs that quietly cancel each other before they become one uncontrolled experiment.
In Plan, on every pair of goals that will run at the same time, inside the sequencing work.
Tool 27 of 32
Definiteness Scoring
Weights certainty over cheapness, because one hard, certain move beats five easy hopeful ones.
In Plan, on the candidate move list, after gates are marked and the stop line exists.
Tool 28 of 32
Trade-Off Price Tag
Every change to the plan gets a written price before it is accepted. Nothing is absorbed silently.
Any time a change to the committed plan is requested, before that change takes effect, and again at every checkpoint next to the baseline.
Tool 29 of 32
Leading-Indicator Shield
Pairs every stream of invisible deep work with a visible number that buys it patience.
In Plan, from the Value-Source Audit's numbers, then reviewed weekly, indicator first, for as long as the deep work stays invisible.