Working while waiting

When you run a longer task in the background, you do not need to sit and watch a progress bar. You can use that time to organize your notes, draft an outline, or plan your next step.

Working this way follows two simple rules:

1. If a step needs information that is not ready yet, pause it. That pause is not an error; the step must wait for its inputs.
2. An unfinished task is simply still running. If a task stops on an error, find the cause before you start it again.

Planning before stepping away

In technical livestream rS2nh2G-2Sk at [46:16]-[46:55], the presenter showed what happens when you start without a clear goal or stopping point. You end up waiting without knowing what the tool will produce. Without clear boundaries, the task can wander, run in circles, or produce vague text you have to fix by hand.

Before you step away from a longer task, check three items:

• Which exact source file should the tool read?
• What specific question must it answer, and in what format?
• What exact check tells you the draft is ready to review?

Try it

Suppose you run Task A to pull key facts from notes.txt, and you set Task B to check those facts against checklist.txt. Task B needs the output from Task A before it can do any work. While Task A runs, you write an introduction. When you check back, Task A has stopped with the message: 'Source file unreadable.'

Next

Open Your saved work in the sidebar to review your active tasks. Make sure each task names a specific source file and a clear stopping point before you begin. To practice setting clear boundaries on a job, select Start a task. When you are ready to review a completed run, choose Check a draft.