Practical Workflows & Anti-patterns

~12 min · dispatch, patterns, anti-patterns, workflows

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Patterns that pay rent

The Dispatch tasks that justify the setup investment all share three properties: they happen often (daily/weekly), they're verifiable (you can tell if the output is right at a glance), and they free attention (the time saved isn't replaced with checking the result). Optimize for those three.

Anti-patterns to avoid: using Dispatch as a one-shot reminder (just use Reminders.app), using Dispatch for tasks that need iteration (Cowork at the desk), chaining 5 dependent Dispatch tasks at once (you'll lose track — break into smaller pieces or run live), Dispatch + risky permissions (SendEmail + open-ended task = bad day).

Code

Workflows that work·text

1) Train commute → workday startup
   8:00  send Dispatch: "summarize yesterday's commits + open PRs"
   8:25  notification fires; Mac has report ready
   9:00  arrive at desk, start day with synthesis already done

2) Friday wind-down
   17:00 scheduled: "compile weekly progress report"
   18:00 leave, knowing Monday-self has summary ready

3) End-of-month billing
   1st-9am scheduled: "reconcile last month's transactions"
   Receive notification, review, file in 5 minutes instead of 30

Anti-patterns·text

✗ "Dispatch: remind me to send the proposal"
   → Reminders.app does this in 2 seconds, no Mac required.

✗ "Dispatch: research, draft, refine, polish, send the doc"
   → Five steps, one ambiguous; needs Cowork at desk.

✗ "Dispatch: post my Twitter thread"
   → PostToSocialMedia is denied by default for a reason.

✗ "Dispatch: do the thing we talked about"
   → Strangers can't tell if it succeeded; neither can your Mac.

External links

Dispatch best practices

Exercise

Audit your last week. Pick the single most-repeated task that produces a file. Build a Dispatch (scheduled or ad-hoc) for it. After two weeks of operation, decide: did it pay back the setup cost? Adjust accordingly.