The printable CI toolkit.

A living map of your life's work, like a will or a living trust: where the work comes from, what it is, how you handle it, what good looks like, and who it's for. Fill left to right in about twenty minutes, then review it on a set schedule (we suggest quarterly) and update it as life changes.

Quality and delivery measures become the requirements that drive our notifications and the daily newspaper, which feeds the kanban and the daily report-out. Check: does every output serve a named customer? If not, drop it or park it.

Once you know your customers, map what each one needs from you. Start with the C column of your SIPOC. Ideas: family, spouse, work team, close friends, guests, and yourself.

Listen first: for each customer from your SIPOC, write what they would actually say (their words, feedback, what you notice) and the need underneath. Then write the CTQ, critical to quality: a plain, checkable standard for “good” that also goes into the SIPOC's quality column.

A good CTQ is something you could check on a calendar or a count. “Be more present” → “dinners without screens, most nights.”

Every small thing points up (hoshin kanri). Write top to bottom; each level should name the one above it serves.

Decide exactly what counts before you measure. Then measure two ordinary weeks, before you change anything.

Write the definition before you look at the number.

An A3 can stand in for a whole plan-do-check-act cycle on one page. Put the one-off in the middle. Fill the branches before you hand it to a deep-work partner; the branches become the brief's headings.

The A3: the same brief on one page. The mind map's branches fill it in.

Files, inboxes and notes, organized like a well-run workshop. Do the first pass once; then keep the weekly shine.

The current best way to run a routine, written down. If a step has a clear “done when,” a routine can eventually run it for you.

For each routine or helper, name what could leave the house (send, spend, book, delete), how we make the safe path the easy one, and where it stops and asks for us.

Our one rule: if it leaves the house, it waits for a yes. When unsure, the item goes in “Needs you.”

One card per item. Set a small limit on Doing and on Waiting on you; when a column is full, nothing new moves in until something moves out.

The Level-week planner is the same idea at a different level: the week instead of the day-to-day items. Also see Visual management & andon in Act.

Spread the week evenly: a little deep work, admin, people time and home each day, instead of spikes. Keep one day free.

Any day marked heavy? Move one block to a light day before the week starts.

Same idea as the Kanban board and other visual boards, at a different level: the whole week.

One row per recurring task. Exactly one A per row. If it leaves the house, the A is you.

For each agent or routine: what could go wrong, how bad, how likely, and the guardrail that prevents it. Re-check when a new bot joins the team.

Standard guardrails: drafts not sends (poka-yoke) · stops and asks (jidoka) · heartbeat, fail loud.

One page that tells you whether the system is working. Pick three to six measures, tie each to your future self or a macro-plan theme, and review them weekly in the week-ahead, not daily. This is also our Check: see where we are and act on anything not performing the way we expect. Your first reading, before you change anything, is your baseline.

Pick a handful of tasks or items. For each one, jot when it was asked for, when we started it, when it was done, and how much of that was real working time. Bring the averages to the Control Tower KPI sheet.

Short cycle time plus low carryover means work is flowing. If carryover climbs, we take on less, not more.

Do it once before you change anything to capture a baseline, then monthly or quarterly to check and to close the loop. List what you say matters (from your future-self values), then pull the facts from your calendar or a time audit. No grades: one observation, one small experiment, check again next month.

Gemba means go and look. Walk one real loop with real data (screenshots, a week of inbox and calendar). For each step, write what really happens and tag the waste with a DOWNTIME letter.

Tally a month of one thing (emails by kind, tasks by type, hours by lane). Sort biggest first, add a running total, and circle the few that make about 80%.

RCA (root cause analysis), part one: 5 Whys pairs with the Fishbone / CEDAC sheet to dive deeper into causes. When something slips, ask why until you reach a cause you can fix. Stop when the answer is a process, not a person.

RCA (root cause analysis), part two: CEDAC extends the fishbone and pairs with 5 Whys to dive deeper into causes. Write the problem in the middle. Brainstorm possible causes under each category, then circle the likeliest and test it with 5 Whys.

For each Control Tower measure: what normal looks like, who checks it, the signal that means act, and the reaction.

Signal vs. noise: one odd week is noise. A run of three drifting the same way, or a point outside the range, is a signal.

One glance, not a read. Sort this week's items by color, put anything red in “Waiting on you,” and keep the page short.

A steady rhythm of check-ins keeps the system honest. For each tier, write when it happens, what we look at, who brings the numbers, and how we know it's done.

Ideas: a morning brief · a week-ahead · a monthly say-vs-do review · a quarterly SIPOC check-in. Keep one day free, away from screens.

PDCA is kaizen at its core. Every time you edit or turn down a draft, jot what you changed and what the system should keep. Then save it where your AI will read it next time.

Examples: “warmer, shorter” → style · “never say X” → rule · “always cc Y” → preference.