2.2.1 - The Routine Work Checklist Nobody Talks About

Routine work checklist

Is this routine work clear or drifting into unnecessary custom build?

The call

Name the routine work before it hides inside custom effort. Otherwise AI helps you over-engineer tasks that should stay standard.

Why it matters

Most delivery delay comes from over-customising standard tasks instead of improving core user outcomes. AI can compare routine options quickly, but human judgement decides when routine work should stay standard and when it should become strategic. The difference is between reliable execution and expensive complexity that users never asked for.

Explainer

Routine work is not background noise. It is the repeatable work that keeps the core path reliable once people start using it. Until you can name one recurring task, one owner and one done condition, routine work stays invisible and under-owned. AI can help automate pieces of it, but it cannot decide what must be checked every time.

Make the routine work checklist concrete

Compare the broad version with a version you can actually test.

• Too vague: We will sort out the routine operational work later.
• Concrete enough to test: Every time the tooltip data changes, one person verifies the JSON is valid, checks that each slug matches a published post and confirms the tooltips render correctly before deploying the theme.

The second version lets two people do the same checks from it.

Check the routine work checklist

• Pass: You can say what repeats, who owns it and what done looks like each time.
• Fail: If routine work still means all the boring parts, the checklist is not clear enough yet.

Do not move into scale, release or automation work until this passes.

How to use AI for the routine work checklist

• AI chat: Rewrite the routine work checklist until you can state all three parts clearly.
• vibeCoding: Build the thinnest flow that tests this routine work checklist in practice before broader build work.
• AI-assisted coding: Carry the same routine work checklist into implementation and review so the live system keeps the same decision.

Sharpen the routine work checklist

Copy this prompt into AI chat, replace the bracketed lines with your real routine work checklist and keep the instruction exactly as visible here.

You are checking whether this routine work checklist is clear enough before you move forward.

Constraint:
The routine work checklist must be specific enough that two people would do the same checks from it.

Working draft:
Recurring task: [what repeats]
Owner: [who owns it]
Done condition: [what done looks like each time]

Task:
Decide whether this routine work checklist is specific enough to guide the next decision. If it is vague, rewrite it so two people would make the same decision from this routine work checklist.

Check:
- Would two people interpret this the same way?
- Does it stay concrete enough to guide the next step?
- Does it meet this bar: You can say what repeats, who owns it and what done looks like each time.

Return:
- A corrected routine work checklist
- A short explanation of what was vague

Evaluation

Before accepting the result, check whether two people would do the same checks from it.

Example

To help you work through this, here is a real example. StartWithYourContext is an AI search tool built as part of the vibe2value project. Here is how its routine work checklist was written using the three parts:

• Recurring task: Every time a new post is published or updated, the tooltip data in the theme needs to be checked and deployed.
• Owner: Whoever publishes the post is responsible for verifying the tooltips match.
• Done condition: The JSON is valid, the slug matches the published post and the tooltips render correctly on the live site.

That checklist is specific enough that two people would do the same checks from it.

When there is more than one side

Not every product has a single set of routine work. When a system serves more than one side, each side generates different recurring tasks and routine work for one side may be invisible to the other.

Multi-sided worked example

For example, StartWithYourContext has two different sets of routine work:

• Content creator side: Every new post needs tooltip data added, validated and deployed. The check is whether the tooltips render correctly on the live page.
• Developer side: Every theme change needs to be built, committed through the branch workflow and deployed. The check is whether the built assets match the source changes.

Both are real routine tasks, but they belong to different parts of the system. If only one is tracked, the other drifts.

Risk and mitigation

• Risk: Treating routine work as strategic by default, which increases complexity while the core user outcome stays unchanged.
• Mitigation: Require one direct user-impact signal before moving any routine item into custom implementation.

Key takeaway

Do not move forward until you can say what repeats, who owns it and what done looks like each time.

Work through this in a workshop

If your routine work checklist is still unclear, bring it to a free weekly workshop. Bring the messy part of your AI-assisted build and leave with a clearer next step. In some sessions, we walk through practical examples on the Cloudflare Workers stack to show how a rough idea turns into something that actually runs.

What do you think?

How are you deciding what should stay routine in your build process and how is AI helping you keep custom effort focused on real value?