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Lesson 04 of 06 · published

Remote Task Delegation Patterns

~14 min · dispatch, delegation, patterns, mobile

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What's worth dispatching, what isn't

The right Dispatch task: long enough to make leaving worthwhile, well-scoped enough that it can finish without you. Bad Dispatch tasks: short and cheap (just do them at your desk), or open-ended and ambiguous (you'll need to redirect mid-flight, but you can't).

The pattern that works: well-defined inputs + well-defined outputs + pre-approved tools. "Take the 8 PDFs in ~/inbox/contracts/, extract dates and amounts, write ~/Desktop/contracts-summary.csv." Inputs known. Output known. Tools obvious from the verb list. Dispatch can run unsupervised.

The pattern that fails: "Look into our database performance and figure out what's slow." Open-ended. Will hit ambiguity. Will pause for clarification you can't provide. Save those for when you're at the desk.

Code

Three Dispatch-shaped tasks·text
1) Document processing
"Take all PDFs in /inbox/contracts. For each, extract: client,
 effective date, expiry, value, key obligations.
 Write /Desktop/contracts-summary.csv."

2) Data refresh
"Pull yesterday's transactions from the analytics MCP.
 Update /Desktop/finance/daily-report.md with totals,
 anomalies, and a top-10 list."

3) Folder reorganize
"Reorganize /inbox: subfolders by file type, kebab-case names,
 generate /inbox/INDEX.md. Don't touch files in /inbox/keep/."
Bad-fit tasks (do these at the desk)·text
✗ "Look into our DB performance" — too open-ended
✗ "Help me think about the architecture" — needs you in loop
✗ "Email Bob about the proposal" — stop: SendEmail is denied
✗ "Fix anything broken" — undefined success criteria
✗ "Refactor the auth module" — needs review mid-stream

External links

Exercise

Identify three real recurring tasks in your week. For each, decide: Dispatch, Cowork, or do-it-yourself? Send the Dispatch-shaped one as a real task. Note what made it dispatch-able versus what made the others not.

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