I'm working on building what I call the "machine". I have an obsession with trying to systematize all aspects of a business. To turn it into an equation. To make it as reliable and unbreakable as possible. In my eyes, structure allows for consistency, and consistency allows for growth. A lot of the terminology below was learned by using Linear, our project management software. This is where I'm at so far:

What is a cycle?

A cycle is a two-week block of time. Monday to Sunday, 14 days. Everything you plan to accomplish goes into the cycle before it starts. There are roughly 25 cycles in a year.

The idea is simple. Instead of planning day by day or maintaining a never-ending to-do list, you commit to a small number of things every two weeks and focus on those. When new stuff comes in mid-cycle, it doesn't interrupt what you already committed to. It goes into the backlog and gets considered for the next cycle.

How work is organized

There are four levels:

Initiatives are the big picture. These are strategic goals with a target date. "Get both companies running on cycles by Q2" or "launch the newsletter by June." You set these quarterly. They rarely change.

Projects live under initiatives. Each project has a clear definition of done. "Done when every team is planning in 14-day cycles" or "done when 10 issues are published." Projects usually span multiple cycles.

Issues are the actual tasks. One person, one clear outcome, completable in hours or days. "Map current meetings to teams and propose new structure" or "write the first newsletter." These are what get pulled into cycles.

Cycles are the clock. They make everything move. Without them, initiatives are just ideas, projects are just plans, and issues sit in a backlog forever.

How a cycle runs

Friday before the cycle: Planning session. Review what got done last cycle, look at active projects, pull 8-10 issues from the backlog, commit to them. Deadlines go in first. Remaining capacity goes to strategic work that moves projects forward.

Monday through Sunday: Execute. Work the issues you committed to. If new things come up, capture them and throw them in the backlog. Don't add to the cycle unless it's a genuine emergency.

The following Friday: Mid-cycle check-in. Are you on pace? If not, cut scope. It's better to finish 6 things than half-finish 10.

The Friday after that: The cycle is ending. This is the planning session for the next cycle. Close out what's done, review what didn't get finished and why, plan the next 14 days.

The daily formula

The cycle tells you what to work on. The daily formula tells you how to work.

Zero inbox: First thing every day. Scan your messages, email, notifications. Know what's happening. Flag anything urgent. This isn't about responding to everything. It's about making sure nothing is on fire and you know what your day looks like.

Work the cycle: Open your cycle board, pick the next issue, do the work. Different days have different energy. Some days are heavy with meetings. Some days are wide open for deep focus. Don't fight what the day is. Use it.

Capture: Throughout the day, ideas come up. Tasks come up. Things people say in meetings that need to become action items. Capture all of it in one place. Don't organize it in the moment. Just dump it fast and get back to what you were doing.

Process: End of the day, go through what you captured. Each item either becomes an issue in the backlog, gets routed to the right person, gets handled in two minutes, or gets killed. Nothing stays unprocessed for more than a day.

Read and write: 30 minutes each, end of day. Read whatever you're working through. Write about what you're building, what you're learning, what broke. This is how thinking compounds over time.

Meetings

Meetings should align to teams. If you're on the team, you're in the meeting. Each team gets two meetings per cycle: a planning session and a mid-cycle check-in. That's it. Everything else should be handled async through the project management tool.

This alone can cut a meeting-heavy calendar in half.

The self-improving part

At the end of every cycle, you ask one question: what broke?

Not what went wrong. What part of the system didn't hold up? Maybe the planning session was too rushed. Maybe an issue was scoped too big and should've been broken into smaller pieces. Maybe a meeting was useless and should be cut.

You identify one fix and apply it next cycle. Just one.

25 cycles per year. 25 fixes. By cycle 10, the system is fundamentally different from where it started. That's the bet. Small, consistent improvements compound faster than big overhauls.