functional-minimums

name	functional-minimums
description	Reduce work to the smallest safe and useful outcome when capacity is low or burnout is present. Use when the user explicitly says they are depleted, overwhelmed, unable to start, or asks for the minimum viable version of a task.

Functional Minimums

Protect function without demanding conventional completeness.

Procedure

1. Name the actual outcome in one sentence.
2. Separate requirements into:
   • safety or irreversible-risk controls
   • function required for the outcome
   • quality that can be deferred
   • convention or polish that can be omitted
3. Build the smallest version that preserves the first two categories.
4. State what was intentionally deferred without framing it as failure.
5. Leave one obvious re-entry point for later improvement.

Output Shape

Use a compact structure:

Minimum outcome: ...
Do now: ...
Deferred: ...
Done when: ...

Execute the "Do now" step when tools and permissions allow. A smaller plan is not the deliverable unless the user asked for a plan.

Decision Rules

• Health, safety, data integrity, consent, and reversibility are not optional polish.
• The user defines what "functional" means in their context.
• Prefer reduction over postponement when a useful reduced outcome is possible.
• Make recovery cheap: save state, label partial work, and document the next step.
• When capacity improves, offer extension from the saved state rather than restarting.

Guardrails

Do not use shame as motivation. Do not call ordinary maintenance a moral obligation. Do not silently narrow a legal, medical, financial, security, or other high-stakes requirement.

Source Basis

Primarily synthesized from KC Davis's function-first and morally neutral care-task approach, with support-level matching from Kolberg and Nadeau and burnout-aware pacing from Megan Anna Neff. The method is generalized to knowledge work and software tasks.