How Do You Manage AI Agents? Give Each One a Job, a Schedule and a Stop Rule
An agent without a job, a schedule and a stop rule is a pet project. Here is how to run AI agents so they give you energy back instead of more to check.
Author
Erick Stoic
Articles
Why Does AI Make Me Busier? What a WIP Limit Fixes
AI made starting free. Finishing still runs through one person: you. Here is what a WIP limit is, how to pick your number, what to do when it is full, and how to test it for 14 days.
What Goes in a Team Working Agreement for AI? A Template for Rules, Guardrails and Human Checkpoints
A prompt is disposable. A rule compounds. Here is the five-part template for a team working agreement for AI, where the human checkpoints go, and how to write version one in an hour.
What Should You Automate With AI? A 4-Question Filter Before You Delegate
Your backlog is a queue of unmade decisions, not a to-do list. Here is the 4-question LEAF filter to run before you hand anything to AI, plus the guardrails for what survives.
What Is Sustainable Productivity? A Human Definition for the AI Era
Sustainable productivity is doing meaningful work at a pace you can keep for years. Here is the definition, the LEAF filter, the 4 TSP Power-ups and a 14-day experiment to start.
Non-Negotiable Habit Tracker 2026
Two versions: Google Sheets and Notion. For the handful of habits that hold everything else up.
The Neuro-Flow Daily Checklist
This isn't a to-do list. It's a neurological alignment system — use it to protect your focus hardware.
The Chronotype Audit: Why 65% of You Are Scheduling Like the Wrong Species
What if the reason your 5 a.m. routine failed wasn’t lack of discipline, but biology? This article reveals why 65% of people are “Third Birds” whose cognitive peak hits mid-morning, not at dawn. Drawing on Daniel Pink’s research, it maps the three chronotypes (Larks, Third Birds, Owls), ex
The April Experiment: What I Learned Going Slower in an AI World Telling Me to Speed Up
The April Experiment is a 30‑day slow productivity lab in the middle of an AI boom that keeps telling us to move faster. Instead of adding more tools, I cut my AI stack from eleven to three, rebuilt my weeks around deep work, and used the F.A.K.E. Framework to delete the “AI made it easy”
The 3-Tool Rule: How I Reduced My AI Stack and Doubled My Focus
Six months ago, I was running 11 AI tools at once; and drowning in them. BCG research on 1,488 workers confirms it’s not just me: productivity peaks at 2–3 tools and drops sharply at 4 or more. In this article, I share how I cut my AI stack down to 3, the F.A.K.E. Framework I used to filte