THE BOTTLENECK AUDIT  —  where your hours actually go
From "The One-Person AI Business — Intermediate", Chapter 1
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"I'm the bottleneck" is true but useless. A bottleneck has a SHAPE — a
specific place the flow jams — and until you know the shape you'll systematise
the wrong thing first. So you measure. For ONE ordinary week you log what you
do, tagged by function, AS YOU GO — not from memory on Friday, which is where
this goes wrong.

⚠️ This is the most valuable week of measurement you'll do, because every later
chapter is aimed by it. It's mildly annoying for a week. Do it anyway.


THE LOG  (rough blocks, tagged as you go — not reconstructed later)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Tag every block with ONE function: DEMAND (getting attention) · SALES (turning
attention into buyers) · DELIVERY (making/sending the thing) · SUPPORT (looking
after customers) · FINANCE (the numbers).

  Day     What you did                        Function   Rough time
  ------  ----------------------------------  ---------  ----------
  Mon     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Mon     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Tue     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Tue     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Wed     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Wed     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Thu     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Thu     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Fri     __________________________________  ________   ______
  Fri     __________________________________  ________   ______
  (add rows — a week rarely fits in ten lines)


THE WEEK, ADDED UP  (by function)
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  DEMAND   ______ hrs      SALES   ______ hrs     DELIVERY ______ hrs
  SUPPORT  ______ hrs      FINANCE ______ hrs         TOTAL ______ hrs


THE FOUR THINGS THE LOG TELLS YOU
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  1. WHERE THE HOURS ACTUALLY ARE — usually not where you thought.
       Biggest function: ______________________________________

  2. JUDGEMENT vs GRIND — grind is repetitive, rule-shaped, low-decision work.
     It hands off first and most safely; judgement you keep longest.
       The grind inside that function: ________________________

  3. FIRST TO DELEGATE — the function that, run without you, frees the most
     hours for the LEAST risk to quality.
       First function to hand off: ____________________________

  4. WHAT "GOOD" LOOKS LIKE — in your own words. You meet this standard
     already; you've just never had to write it down.
       "Good" for that function is: ___________________________
       ________________________________________________________


ASK YOUR REASONING ENGINE  (to see the pattern you're too close to)
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  "Here is a week of my hours, tagged by function [paste the log]. Which
   function eats the most time? Within it, which parts are repetitive
   rule-shaped grind versus real judgement? And which single function, handed
   off first, would free the most hours for the least risk to quality?"


THE FORCING COMMITMENT  (write it, dated — this aims the whole book)
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  "In the week of ______, my hours split roughly: demand ___, sales ___,
   delivery ___, support ___, finance ___. The function eating the most time is
   ______. The first function I will hand off is ______, because ______."

That last line is a commitment: you've named the first thing to take out of your
own hands, on the evidence, dated — so you can't drift into systematising
whatever merely feels urgent this week.

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  Yours to keep — free, and no strings attached.

  One tool from the ePORTS One-Person AI Business series. The worksheet gives
  you the "what"; the books give you the "why". This one is from Intermediate —
  build the operating system that lets one person run the whole business.

  The full shelf, whenever you're ready:  eports.global/one-person-ai-business
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