One task at a time (the habit that stops the mess)
Ask AI for five things in one message and you get a muddle you cannot check. Ask for one, check it, then the next. Slower per message, faster per job.
By Nick
On this page
- A habit
- Nothing
- Beginner
Before you start
1. Why five-in-one goes wrong
“Fix the typo, make the intro shorter, add a line about prices, change the tone, and check the dates.” It does all five, roughly, in one go. Now you have one blob to read, and if the tone is wrong you cannot tell whether the dates were checked. With an agent that edits files, it is worse: one large change you either accept whole or undo whole.
2. Ask for one
I have several things I want done. Let's do them one at a time. First, only this: [one
task]. Do that and stop. Show me the result and wait; I will give you the next one.Check it. Say “good, next: …” or “no, because …”. Repeat.
3. Let it tell you when a task is too big
If a single task is still coming back as a blob, say “break that into steps and do only the first”. A coding agent’s plan mode is this idea with a button on it.
The prompt above, with 'fix the typo in line two' as the one task
Done. Line two now says “We open at 9am” instead of “We open at 9pm”. I haven’t changed anything else.
Ready for the next one.
Short enough to check in a minute, and nothing else changed.
If you catch yourself saying “and also” mid-message, that is two tasks. Send the first.
