Name the job

A job you cannot name is a chat. A Job Card is the trigger, the inputs, the artifact, and the line Grok is not allowed to cross.

Why this matters

People type “help me with work” and get a fluent plan for a desk they do not sit at. They feel productive. Nothing they already had to do is finished.

This track is the default Applied door. Office, shop, classroom, household business, student desk, county window. You do not need GIS, a drone, a shop SOP, or a course number. You need one job that repeats. Specialty tracks stay for teachers, shops, writers, and field crews. Start here if you are not sure.

The failure is not “using AI.” The failure is letting Grok decide what the job is. “Help with listings” invents square footage. “A better prep list” invents an allergen claim. “A public notice” invents a statute. Name the job first.

If you cannot point at a trigger that already happens this week, you have a wish. Pick the thing that already lands.

Teach

A Job Card is one page. Not a handbook. Not a prompt library. The smallest description a tired Monday-you could run without inventing policy.

Write these lines, in this order:

1. Job name. One verb, one object. “Reply to a listing inquiry.” “Understand customer service” is not a job.
2. Desk. Inbox, counter, classroom, kitchen, county window. One place — where the artifact is born.
3. Trigger. A form, a text, a clock. Not “when I feel behind.”
4. Inputs. Listing sheet. Signed allergen list. Assignment. Office template. Missing → NEED, not “Grok will look it up.”
5. Output. A 12-line reply. A prep list. A 150-word bulletin block. No named artifact, no job.
6. What Grok may draft. Shorten. Sort. Turn bullets into the shape. List questions you still answer from a source you own.
7. What Grok must never decide. Price. Grade. Hire. Legal yes. Allergen yes. “The board approved.” “Great buy.” “Clear to file.” “This will get an A.” Use your desk’s words.
8. Who sends or signs. You, the owner, the clerk, the pastor, the instructor. Never Grok.
9. Stop when. “I can send after one edit.” Empty stop lines produce essays.

Honest jobs. Interview. Tighten. Find two jobs taped together. Reprint from your answers. Do not invent policy. Dishonest jobs. A rate, a statute, a grade scale, a due date, a “we usually…” Missing fact → NEED.

One job. A realtor who also teaches Sunday school has two desks. Pick one. You cannot pass with “my whole life.”

Shape, not costume

• Realtor — trigger: inquiry on a listing you have. Never-decide: list price, square footage, HOA, “great buy.”
• Cook — trigger: tomorrow’s service. Never-decide: allergen status, cook temp, “safe for the nut-free ticket.”
• County clerk — trigger: a notice the office already must publish. Never-decide: legal sufficiency, a deadline the model did not take from your calendar.
• Teacher — trigger: a parent asked about last week’s work. Never-decide: the grade, “your child is failing.”
• Student — trigger: a quiz or paper that already has a date. Never-decide: a due date you did not type, “this will score an A.”
• Shop owner — trigger: a vendor or customer ask you already have. Never-decide: refund, price, Saturday hours.
• Church secretary — trigger: Sunday announcements. Never-decide: the pastor’s words, an offering total, “the board approved.”

Tools. grok.com. Thread job card — [job]. You talk; Grok writes the card. If you cannot name the trigger and the never-decide line, sit with paper first.

Worked example

A county clerk. The job is not “help with government.” It is the short public notice the office already publishes when a hearing date is set.

Job (clerk-written, before Grok): Draft the 120-word hearing notice from the intake slip: type, date the supervisor already set, room, contact window. The clerk sends.

She did not ask for “a professional public notice.” She asked for a Job Card, one notice type, no invented statute or “this is legally sufficient,” NEED if a fact is missing, interview first.

Grok wrote a card, then added “include SDCL 1-25 and a 24-hour posting rule.” She deleted both. The statute is the attorney’s. The posting clock is on the office calendar. What Grok got right: must not say this notice is valid, complete, or ready to post.

Reprinted card: trigger = intake slip with a date already set; inputs = type, date, room, contact window; output = 120-word draft; may draft = sentences from those four facts; never decide = validity, extra citations, a date she did not type; signer = clerk; stop = she can paste into the template after one edit.

What never entered the thread: a citizen’s full address, a Social Security number, a sealed file. The job can be named without the file.

Your turn

Open grok.com. New thread named job card — [your job]. Bring a job you already do. A messy habit counts. A hypothetical bakery does not.

Exercise d-any-l01-e1

Copy-ready prompt

Send this first. Answer Grok’s questions. Do not let it skip ahead.

I am in Grok Mastery (Russell Tech), Pathway D, Any desk, lesson 1 — name the job.

Interview me with exactly seven short questions, one at a time:
1) Job name in one verb + one object (I will draft it; do not invent a better career)
2) Desk — where this actually lives
3) Trigger — what starts it this week
4) Inputs I must have before work starts
5) The output artifact (what exists when we stop)
6) What I will never let an assistant decide
7) Who is allowed to send or sign

Rules:
- Do not invent a price, grade, statute, allergen claim, due date, staff member, or "we usually."
- If a policy is missing, write NEED — do not fill a helpful default.
- After I have answered all seven, write a Job Card with exactly these headings:
  - Job name:
  - Desk:
  - Trigger:
  - Inputs:
  - Output:
  - What Grok may draft:
  - What Grok must never decide:
  - Who sends or signs:
  - Stop when:
  - NEED:
  - Session stamp: today's date and "Job card written by Grok in this thread."
Do not write the weekly artifact yet. Stop at the card.

If Grok dumps all seven questions, answer in one block and tell it to proceed. If it adds a policy you did not give, tell it to delete the invention and reprint the card.

Artifact to paste

1. Grok’s Job Card (all headings, including NEED and the session stamp).
2. The seven answers you gave (short).
3. Two lines from you:
   • Never-decide is mine: yes/no — if no, what Grok added.
   • This job already happens on: plus a day this week, or it will fire on: plus a date.

Rubric

• Pass: The card is Grok-authored and stamped. Job is one verb and one object you named. Trigger is a real event. Never-decide is specific to this desk, not “be careful.” Signer is a human. The job is yours.
• Fail: “Help me with work.” A card you typed without Grok. Invented policy left in. A domain (“real estate,” “school”) instead of a job. A hypothetical desk you do not sit. No session stamp.

Common failure

The common failure is naming a domain. “Help with real estate.” “Help with church.” Grok will write a career pack. Name the artifact that already has a trigger.

The other failure is letting Grok pick the never-decide line. It will write “do not give legal advice” and then advise. You write the line in the words your desk uses: the refund, the grade, the allergen, the “board approved.”

What’s next

You have a card. Next: run that job once — a before, an after, and a written list of what you refused.

I am in Grok Mastery (Russell Tech), Pathway D, Any desk, lesson 1 — name the job.

Interview me with exactly seven short questions, one at a time:
1) Job name in one verb + one object (I will draft it; do not invent a better career)
2) Desk — where this actually lives
3) Trigger — what starts it this week
4) Inputs I must have before work starts
5) The output artifact (what exists when we stop)
6) What I will never let an assistant decide
7) Who is allowed to send or sign

Rules:
- Do not invent a price, grade, statute, allergen claim, due date, staff member, or "we usually."
- If a policy is missing, write NEED — do not fill a helpful default.
- After I have answered all seven, write a Job Card with exactly these headings:
  - Job name:
  - Desk:
  - Trigger:
  - Inputs:
  - Output:
  - What Grok may draft:
  - What Grok must never decide:
  - Who sends or signs:
  - Stop when:
  - NEED:
  - Session stamp: today's date and "Job card written by Grok in this thread."
Do not write the weekly artifact yet. Stop at the card.