The Decision vs. Procedure Question

This is the one question that separates automatable work from work that still needs you.

Decisions: "Should we reach out to this lead?" "Is this customer angry or just curious?" "Which vendor should we use?" These require judgment. Context. Experience. These are still you.

Procedures: "When we get a new lead, format their data and add it to our CRM." "Send a thank-you email 24 hours after someone buys." "Convert all PDFs to text and save them in a folder." These are rules, not decisions. These automate.

The tricky part is that a lot of work looks like decisions but is actually procedures in disguise.

You think: "I need to review each customer inquiry and respond appropriately." Sounds like judgment, right? But if you actually watch yourself, you probably respond to 80% of inquiries with a template. For the other 20%, you pause and write something fresh. That's the automation insight. Automate the 80%, keep the 20%.