Episode Details

If someone I manage sends me a 10-page document to review, then it might take me 20-60 minutes to review. It's therefore a somewhat meaty task, that would be easy to delay.

But before doing the full review, I think it's good to spend 2-5 minutes giving high-level comments, as soon as possible.

1. Sometimes this will immediately catch some high-level mistake or miscommunication: you can give them feedback on this mistake and they can immediately begin working on an improved version. (Whereas if you’d waited longer to give the feedback, you’d delay them.)
2. Sometimes you can quickly ascertain that it's good enough, and they can progress with the project.
3. Sometimes you will realize that you need to review it in more depth. Maybe you have time to do the full review now. If not, spend <5 minutes giving initial feedback, focused on:
   1. Any high-level comments that they could be working on between now and when you get a chance to properly review. This allows them to begin the fix sooner, and it will mean that the thing you review later is closer to what you want (thus saving you time on the final [...]

---

First published:
February 11th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RnJF45pRyqz9dwvDd/unblock-quickly

Linkpost URL:
https://newsletter.samepagemanagement.org/p/unblock-quickly

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.