Does it serve my objectives?
Not "is it useful". Almost everything in a diary is useful to somebody.
Unlocked
01 · OBJECTIVES
02 · HABIT
03 · SOMEONE ELSE
PASTE THIS FIRST
DO
DELEGATE
DELETE
THE LAST QUESTION
01 · THE AUDIT
02 · FRIDAYS
03 · WHO NEEDS TELLING
04 · ANY LIST
Three questions
Every item from last week gets asked all three. It's the method I teach the leaders I coach, with AI doing the sorting.
Would dropping it cause real harm, or am I just used to it?
The standing meeting nobody would set up today. The report you still send because you always have.
Could someone else do it 80% as well?
If yes, it goes to Delegate, even if you'd do it slightly better yourself.
The three questions, and what they're measured against
Start the chat with this, before prompt 01. If you already have an objectives file from the Morning Brief, tell it to read that instead of typing them out.
Before we start, here's how I want you to judge my work. My objectives for this quarter are: 1. [objective] 2. [objective] 3. [objective] For every task I show you, ask three questions: 1. Does it serve one of those objectives? 2. Would dropping it cause real harm, or am I just used to it? 3. Could someone else do it 80% as well as I do? Your job is to take things away, not add them. Don't suggest new tools, systems, routines or habits. If you think something is missing, tell me what it would replace. Leave personal things (the gym, the school run) out unless I ask. If you can't judge an item without knowing whether it has worked before, ask me rather than guess.
Three piles, one last question
Every item lands in one pile. Then one question about the week as a whole.
Only you, and it matters.
It passed all three questions. Protect the time for it.
Someone else, at 80%.
A person on your team, a freelancer, or an automation.
Nobody.
It failed the first two questions. Stop doing it, and tell anyone it affects.
What's the one thing I can stop doing that makes everything else easier?
Not the smallest thing you could drop. The one that takes the pressure off everything around it.
Your first Subtraction Day in six steps
- Get last week out of your calendar. If your calendar is connected to Claude, tell it to read last week. If not, open week view and take a screenshot, or copy the list of events. Either works.
- Do a five-minute brain dump. Everything that isn't in the calendar: the emails, the admin, the thing you did at 10pm. Dictate it. Messy is fine.
- Paste the three questions first, then prompt 01. Read the three piles before the last question. Move anything it got wrong and tell it why; it will re-sort.
- Act on one item from each pile. Not everything. Block time for one Do, hand over one Delegate, stop one Delete. This week.
- Tell the people it affects. Anything you stop that someone else relied on gets a short message. Prompt 03 works out who and writes it.
- Book Subtraction Day. Fifteen minutes every Friday, same questions, new week. Prompt 02 sets it up as a scheduled task in Claude, so the list is waiting when you sit down.
The prompts
01 is the audit. 02 makes it a Friday habit. 03 and 04 deal with what comes next.
Subtract from my week
Paste after the three questions, with your calendar and brain dump underneath.
Here is everything I did last week: my calendar [paste, or read it if connected] and a brain dump of everything else [paste]. Ask the three questions of every item, then put each one in a pile: → Do: only I can do it, and it serves an objective. → Delegate: someone else could do it 80% as well. Say who, or what kind of person. → Delete: nobody should do it. Be honest, even if I've done it for years. Show me the three piles with a one-line reason for each item, and a rough estimate of the hours a week in Delegate and in Delete. Then answer one last question: what's the one thing I can stop doing that makes everything else easier? One answer, not a list, and say why. Don't add anything to my week. No new tools, systems or routines.
Subtraction Day, scheduled
In Claude Cowork: Scheduled tasks, new task, Fridays at a time you're at your desk, paste this, save. It needs your calendar connected.
Every Friday, run my Subtraction Day. Read this week's calendar and objectives.md. Leave personal commitments out. 1. Ask the three questions of every item: does it serve an objective, would dropping it cause real harm or am I just used to it, could someone else do it 80% as well? 2. Sort everything into Do, Delegate and Delete, one line of reason each. 3. Read last Friday's list in my Outputs folder. Did I stop what I said I'd stop? Name anything that crept back. 4. Answer the last question: what's the one thing I can stop doing next week that makes everything else easier? Keep it to one page and save it to my Outputs folder as subtraction-YYYY-MM-DD.md. Then ask me what I did this week that isn't in the calendar, and sort those too. Don't add anything to my week.
The stop-doing message
For the Delete pile, once you've decided.
Here's what I'm stopping: [paste the items from the Delete pile]. For each one, tell me who is affected and whether they need telling at all. Some things can just stop. For everyone who does need telling, draft a short, warm message: what's stopping, from when, and what they can do instead, if anything. No over-apologising and no long explanation. Under 100 words each, in my voice.
Subtract from a project or a meeting list
Same questions, pointed at something smaller than a week.
Here's [a project plan / my list of recurring meetings / this quarter's priorities]: [paste]. Ask the three questions of every item. Then tell me what I can take out without losing what the [project / meetings / quarter] is for, what can go to someone else, and what has to stay. Start with the item that would make the biggest difference if it went. Don't suggest anything new.
Subtraction or the Work Redesign?
They sit side by side. The Work Redesign sorts a week into four buckets, estimates the hours and rebuilds the week from scratch: run it when you want to start again. Subtraction only asks what can go. It takes fifteen minutes, so it's the one to run every Friday to stop the week filling back up.
Why AI adds
In 2021, researchers at the University of Virginia asked people to make a Lego structure strong enough to hold a brick. Adding a piece cost ten cents. Taking one away was free, and it was the best answer. Only 41% took anything away. When the instructions reminded them that removing was free, 61% did. (Adams and colleagues, Nature, 2021)
AI does the same, and it learned the habit from us. "Help me be more productive" gets you a new system, three apps and a morning routine. The three questions are the reminder that removing is free.
Downloads
When it's not quite right
Everything came back as Do
It's being polite. Add "Assume I can only keep half of this. What goes?" and run it again.
It suggested a new app, system or routine
That's the adding habit. Tell it: "Only take things away. Don't suggest anything new." The prompts already say so, but it sometimes needs telling twice.
It wants me to delete something I have to do
Tell it why ("that return is a legal requirement") and it'll move it. If it keeps happening, add your must-dos to the objectives so it knows.
I don't have anyone to delegate to
Then Delegate means an automation, a freelancer, or a hire you're working towards. Ask it to re-sort with that rule and mark which items AI could take on.
The Friday task didn't run
Open Scheduled tasks and check the task's history. The usual reason is the laptop was asleep or the Claude app was closed. Leave the app open on Friday afternoon, or move the time.