Task Decomposition Worksheet

Print this. Fill it in before you open your AI tool, not after.

A big project isn’t one task. It’s a stack of smaller ones, and they aren’t the same kind of work. Some phases your AI tool can speed up. Some need your slow, careful judgment. This sheet helps you sort them out first, so you direct the AI on purpose instead of handing it everything and hoping. Fill in one row per phase. Be honest about the last column: that’s the part only you can do.

Project name: _______________________________________________

Goal (one sentence, what “done” looks like):

The plan

Fill in one row per phase of your project. For each phase, decide who leads: Human (only you can do this well), AI (safe to hand off and steer), or Hybrid (you work together). The first row is filled in as an example.

Phase	Who Leads (Human / AI / Hybrid)	What AI Speeds Up	Human Checkpoint (verify & judge)
Example: Brainstorming the theme	Hybrid	Throws out 20 ideas fast so I have something to react to	I pick the one that fits our community; the AI can’t feel that
Brainstorming
Researching
Drafting
Proofreading
Final synthesis (pull it together, decide what to send)

How to use each column

Who Leads. Ask: could only I do this well, or can the AI carry it if I steer? Speed, volume, and rough first drafts point to AI. Judgment, real experience, and the final call point to Human. Most rows land on Hybrid.

What AI Speeds Up. Name the specific thing the AI does faster than you: twenty ideas in seconds, a first draft off a blank page, messy notes turned into a clean table. If you can’t name one, that phase might be a Human phase.

Human Checkpoint. The most important column. Before this phase counts as done, what must you personally verify or decide? A fact to check, a number to confirm, a tone to fix, a “does this actually fit us?” gut check. Never let a phase pass without filling this in.

Remember

Keep your hand on the wheel. The AI drafts fast; you judge, verify, and decide. For every draft it hands back, you should be able to say why each change you made improved it. If you can’t explain your edits, you’re not done reading yet. That’s what it means to be the author instead of the forwarder.

Use “your AI tool” to mean whichever tool you’ve chosen. The phases and checkpoints on this sheet work the same no matter which one you use.

This worksheet was developed with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. It’s educational, fact-checked where applicable, and may contain minor errors. It’s not a substitute for professional advice.