Getting Stuff Done: how we work (with AI)

We organise our shared work as text files in a few shared folders (repos), and we do most of it by talking to an AI that reads and updates those files for us. This page is the path through it, in order. It is a first version and will grow.

The path

1. Post-its and filing cabinets (about 12 minutes). The picture behind everything: sheets, folders, cabinets, post-its and pointers, and how they map onto digital tools and AI. Part 1 matters most; skim Part 2.
2. How we plan and track work (about 10 minutes). Where each kind of thing lives, the planning rhythm, and recipes for starting a project, logging a task and asking your AI for your week.
3. AI is the interface (15 minutes). Why we stay in the conversation with the AI instead of opening apps, and the everyday loop: what's on this week, turning a mess into a plan, updating progress, handing work on. Read the opening and Chapter 1.
4. Set up your computer (with AI) (30 minutes, hands on). One prompt that gets Claude to set up git, GitHub and our task board on your laptop. You need to be in the life-itself GitHub organisation first.
5. Beads (reference). The task board your AI reads and writes. Read it once you've used it a little.

Where things live

• Tao (this site): who we are and how we work.
• Planning: what we're doing now. Initiatives, projects, people, weekly plans and the task board.
• Each team's repo (podcast, community and so on): that team's working papers.

Most repos are private, so some links only open once you are in the GitHub organisation.

Good to know

• This is a first version. Chapter 1 of "AI is the interface" is still being finished, and later chapters are not written yet.
• Words like repo, clone, Beads and AGENTS.md come up early. Each guide has a glossary at the end, and the Tao has a Glossary too.
• Stuck, or need your people/ record in Planning? Ask Rufus.

Other patterns we use

• Issues and Tasks: writing good tasks in any tracker (GitHub Issues is now little used; Beads is the default)
• Meetings: patterns for meetings
• Shape Up: how to shape a piece of work before doing it