Lesson 03 — A2 Delegation: Splitting Research And Admin Work

Learning objective (Bloom's: Apply): Apply a deliberate delegation split — what goes to Claude, what stays with you, and how you'll check the handoff — to two real chunks of your business: interview-notes research legwork, and pitch-tracker admin.

Standard: AIHC.1.A2 (Delegation), Band 1. Touches X9 (ask/act boundary: don't sit on work Claude could safely run; don't silently hand off a judgment only you hold) and X7 (your attention is the scarcest resource in a one-person business — delegation is how you protect it).

Incoming mastery (from Lesson 01): AIHC.1.A2 = 0.35 — you hand work over reactively, without naming the split.

Structure: PBL — your real pitch tracker and a real background question from "The Last Mill" are today's cases. Band 1; timing-tolerance honored: 4 cycles, each a full pause point.

Trust boundary named up front (R13): two features this lesson uses have real limits worth knowing before you lean on them. File creation/editing is on by default on your plan but capped at 30MB per file, both uploads and downloads [S08]; Research, once toggled on, "searches both connected internal context… and the broader web" [S11] — you have no integrations connected, so today it's web-only, but that's a fact worth knowing before you ever connect one.

Cycle 1 — What a delegation split actually names

• SAY: A split names three things: Claude-side (research legwork, transcription, spreadsheet upkeep), Priya-side (which source to trust, which anecdote leads, final wording), and check-method (how you'll confirm the handoff before it ships). Skipping this either wastes your attention on work Claude could run, or silently hands off a call only you can make.
• SEE: A described split-table, generic newsroom version, three columns populated with examples of each.
• DO: Draft this exact three-column table for your real current workload: one real interview-notes task and one real pitch-tracker task, split honestly. (Evaluation: checks all three columns are filled per task, not just two.)

⏸ Pause point. Banked: one real three-part split table.

Cycle 2 — Delegating pitch-tracker admin, for real

• SAY: Claude can create and edit working spreadsheets — Excel files "with working formulas" [S08] — which is genuinely admin work: recomputing days-since-pitched, sorting by follow-up deadline. None of that touches which pitch you actually prioritize; that stays yours.
• SEE: A described before/after of a real pitch-tracker row: the same data, now with a =TODAY()-[date pitched] formula Claude added, highlighted.
• DO: Using Cycle 1's split, have Claude turn your real pitch tracker into a working .xlsx with at least one live formula (Settings > Capabilities must have "Code execution and file creation" enabled — on by default on your plan [S08]). Review the output against your split before accepting it. (Evaluation: checks a working formula exists and that she logged a review step, not just an accept-on-sight.)

⏸ Pause point. Banked: one real working pitch-tracker file.

Cycle 3 — Delegating research legwork, keeping the check-method explicit

• SAY: Research runs multiple interconnected searches and returns citations you can check back against [S11] — real legwork delegation, not answer-delegation. Enable it via the "+" button (bottom left of the chat box) → "Research" [S11]; note the hard prerequisite — "You must have web search turned on for research to function" [S11, S09]. Delegating the search is not the same as skipping the check — that's next lesson's job (B1); today you're only naming which category this output falls into.
• SEE: A described Research transcript backgrounding one real source mentioned in her interview notes, citations visible.
• DO: Run Research for real on one background question from "The Last Mill." Log which of Cycle 1's three categories the output falls into (Claude-side legwork? something you still need to weigh?). (Evaluation: checks the log names a category, not just "it worked.")

⏸ Pause point. Banked: one real Research run, categorized.

Cycle 4 — Making the split standing

• SAY: Like last lesson's fixed/open rules, a delegation split can live in your project instructions too — so you're not renegotiating who-does-what every single task.
• SEE: A described project-instructions panel with one new line added, naming the standing split.
• DO: Write one project instruction sentence naming your standing delegation split for this project, and save it. (Evaluation: checks it references at least the Claude-side/Priya-side distinction, not just "help me with admin.")

⏸ Pause point. Banked: one standing delegation instruction, saved. Four cycles complete.

Independent at-bat

Take one real admin task you haven't delegated yet — an overdue line in your pitch tracker. Delegate it cold using the three-part split, no table given this time.

Exit ticket (climbing to Apply — the objective's level)

1. (Remember) Name the three parts of a delegation split.
2. (Understand) Why is "whatever's fastest today" a worse delegation rule than a named split, specifically for someone running a one-person business? One sentence.
3. (Apply) New task: "chase down whether the mill closed in 1987 or 1989." Split it into the three parts.
4. (Apply — objective level) Take one task from your real pitch tracker you haven't delegated at all yet. Write its three-part split and run it.

Ledger write

ledger_append:
  learner_id: L3-CONS-PRIYA
  lesson_id: L3-cons-priya-03-A2-delegation
  standards:
    - {standard: AIHC.1.A2, mastery_before: 0.35, mastery_after_simulated: 0.60}
  bloom_reached: apply
  auto_score: ""
  self_score: ""
  structure_used: PBL
  referents_used: []
  journal_prompt: >
    Which task did you catch yourself about to hand off blind before you'd named the split — and
    which column (Claude-side, Priya-side, check-method) did you have to think hardest about?
  next_lesson_seed: "A2 moving fast; keep heavy scaffolding on A3 (her lowest, 0.20) next"

RUBRIC SELF-AUDIT

Escalation: all load-bearing indicators PASS → auto-ship.