Skill · Prompt

The weekly review prompt — five minutes that turn experience into skill

Three questions a week to know whether you're getting better or just getting used to mediocre.

TypePrompt

You've used an agent for six months. Honest question: are you getting better, or just getting used to mediocre? Most people can't answer — not because they're bad at it, but because they never stopped to measure. The experience flows past with nowhere for it to settle into a lesson.

A feedback loop isn't extra work — it's the thing that turns flight-hours into skill. And it doesn't need to be elaborate: note one thing that didn't work, one that did, then change exactly one template. Three steps, five minutes, once a week. The cheapest thing you can do that still compounds.

✕ No loop

Use it every week, never stop to measure

▼

The misses repeat; the wins go unrecorded, unrepeated

▼

Six months on: more habit, not more skill

✓ Minimum loop

Each week: 1 thing that didn't work · 1 that did

▼

Change exactly one template/prompt/rule

▼

Six months on: you've banked what actually works

Paste it into a Friday note, or save it as a command you run each week. Keep it to three lines — the temptation is to write a report, but a long report is one you'll skip next week. The power is in line three: one change, so next time there's something different to measure.

Paste into the chat

Weekly review (5 minutes). Answer three, one line each:

1. One thing that did NOT work with the agent this week — what, and why?
2. One thing that DID work — what made it work, so I can repeat it on purpose?
3. The single template, prompt, or rule I'll change because of (1) and (2).

Keep it to three lines. This isn't a report — it's turning this week's experience into next week's skill. If nothing changes in line 3, the review didn't do its job.

Prefer your agent install it?

Add this rule to my CLAUDE.md, verbatim:

Weekly review (5 minutes). Answer three, one line each:

1. One thing that did NOT work with the agent this week — what, and why?
2. One thing that DID work — what made it work, so I can repeat it on purpose?
3. The single template, prompt, or rule I'll change because of (1) and (2).

Keep it to three lines. This isn't a report — it's turning this week's experience into next week's skill. If nothing changes in line 3, the review didn't do its job.

Did this help?

Tags#measure #skill

Other skills

01Verify Before You Call It Done 02Plan First, Then Code 03Map the Blast Radius Before You Edit 04If It's Deterministic, Don't Make It Guess 05Diagnose From the Symptom, Not the Guess 06Make It Argue Against Its Own Plan 07Hand Off to Your Next Session 08A Review That Doesn't Rubber-Stamp 09Run to the gate, then stop — not step-by-step 10A CLAUDE.md skeleton — turn a description into operating law 12Split the work into focused slices, each with clean context 13Is this even worth an agent — ask before you open the chat 14Probe with a small task before you trust it in a new domain

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✕ No loop

✓ Minimum loop

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