Sources for the Routine Run method

Holding, and deciding

1. The machine holds, you decide

Gilbert, S. J. (2015). Strategic offloading of delayed intentions into the external environment. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(5), 971–992. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.972963
Grinschgl, S., Papenmeier, F., & Meyerhoff, H. S. (2021). Consequences of cognitive offloading: Boosting performance but diminishing memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(9), 1477–1496. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211008060
Parasuraman, R., & Manzey, D. H. (2010). Complacency and bias in human use of automation: An attentional integration. Human Factors, 52(3), 381–410. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720810376055
Risko, E. F., & Gilbert, S. J. (2016). Cognitive offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(9), 676–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002
Storm, B. C., & Stone, S. M. (2015). Saving-enhanced memory: The benefits of saving on the learning and remembering of new information. Psychological Science, 26(2), 182–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614559285

2. One routine, many runs

Feldman, M. S., & Pentland, B. T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48(1), 94–118. https://doi.org/10.2307/3556620
van der Aalst, W. M. P., Weske, M., & Grünbauer, D. (2005). Case handling: A new paradigm for business process support. Data & Knowledge Engineering, 53(2), 129–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2004.07.003

3. Built by running

Feldman, M. S. (2000). Organizational routines as a source of continuous change. Organization Science, 11(6), 611–629. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.6.611.12529
Imai, M. (1986). Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. Random House.
Keiser, N. L., & Arthur, W., Jr. (2021). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the after-action review (or debrief) and factors that influence its effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(7), 1007–1032. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000821
Spear, S., & Bowen, H. K. (1999). Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System. Harvard Business Review, 77(5), 96–106. https://hbr.org/1999/09/decoding-the-dna-of-the-toyota-production-system
Tannenbaum, S. I., & Cerasoli, C. P. (2013). Do team and individual debriefs enhance performance? A meta-analysis. Human Factors, 55(1), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720812448394

Runs and the routine

4. Each run takes its own path

Degani, A., & Wiener, E. L. (1993). Cockpit checklists: Concepts, design, and use. Human Factors, 35(2), 345–359. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872089303500209
Pentland, B. T., Hærem, T., & Hillison, D. (2011). The (n)ever-changing world: Stability and change in organizational routines. Organization Science, 22(6), 1369–1383. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0624

5. Kept once, reaches every run

Argote, L., & Ingram, P. (2000). Knowledge transfer: A basis for competitive advantage in firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82(1), 150–169. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2000.2893
Darr, E. D., Argote, L., & Epple, D. (1995). The acquisition, transfer, and depreciation of knowledge in service organizations: Productivity in franchises. Management Science, 41(11), 1750–1762. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.41.11.1750
van der Aalst, W. M. P. (2001). Exterminating the dynamic change bug: A concrete approach to support workflow change. Information Systems Frontiers, 3(3), 297–317. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011409408711

Attention

6. Only what is going

Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(1), 87–114; discussion 114–185. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X01003922
Leroy, S. (2009). Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109(2), 168–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002
Monsell, S. (2003). Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 134–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00028-7
Wiradhany, W., & Nieuwenstein, M. R. (2017). Cognitive control in media multitaskers: Two replication studies and a meta-analysis. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 79(8), 2620–2641. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1408-4

7. One step at a time

Rosenbaum, D. A., Gong, L., & Potts, C. A. (2014). Pre-crastination: Hastening subgoal completion at the expense of extra physical effort. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1487–1496. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614532657
Zhu, M., Yang, Y., & Hsee, C. K. (2018). The mere urgency effect. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(3), 673–690. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy008

8. Steps, not checkboxes

Campbell, D. T. (1979). Assessing the impact of planned social change. Evaluation and Program Planning, 2(1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-7189(79)90048-X
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery. https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
Galla, B. M., & Duckworth, A. L. (2015). More than resisting temptation: Beneficial habits mediate the relationship between self-control and positive life outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(3), 508–525. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000026
KC, D. S., Staats, B. R., Kouchaki, M., & Gino, F. (2020). Task selection and workload: A focus on completing easy tasks hurts performance. Management Science, 66(10), 4397–4416. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3419
Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667–683. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024192
Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Time

9. If this, then that step

Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
Sheeran, P., Listrom, O., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2025). The when and how of planning: Meta-analysis of the scope and components of implementation intentions in 642 tests. European Review of Social Psychology, 36(1), 162–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2024.2334563
Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit–goal interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

10. Check-ins where there is no date

Ancker, J. S., Edwards, A., Nosal, S., et al. (2017). Effects of workload, work complexity, and repeated alerts on alert fatigue in a clinical decision support system. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 17, 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-017-0430-8
Karlan, D., McConnell, M., Mullainathan, S., & Zinman, J. (2016). Getting to the top of mind: How reminders increase saving. Management Science, 62(12), 3393–3411. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2296
Smith, R. E. (2003). The cost of remembering to remember in event-based prospective memory: Investigating the capacity demands of delayed intention performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29(3), 347–361. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12776746/

11. Dates that float

Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the "planning fallacy": Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 366–381. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.366
Kelley, J. E., Jr., & Walker, M. R. (1959). Critical-path planning and scheduling. In Proceedings of the Eastern Joint IRE-AIEE-ACM Computer Conference, 160–173. https://doi.org/10.1145/1460299.1460318

12. Put off, not dropped

Leroy, S., & Glomb, T. M. (2018). Tasks interrupted: How anticipating time pressure on resumption of an interrupted task causes attention residue and low performance on interrupting tasks and how a "ready-to-resume" plan mitigates the effects. Organization Science, 29(3), 380–397. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1184
McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (2000). Strategic and automatic processes in prospective memory retrieval: A multiprocess framework. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14(7), S127–S144. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.775
Tversky, A., & Shafir, E. (1992). Choice under conflict: The dynamics of deferred decision. Psychological Science, 3(6), 358–361. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00047.x

Rhythm

13. On the go, and time set aside

Allen, D. (2001; rev. 2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Viking / Penguin. https://gettingthingsdone.com/
Fitz, N., Kushlev, K., Jagannathan, R., Lewis, T., Paliwal, D., & Ariely, D. (2019). Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 101, 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.07.016
Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005

14. Filter what arrives

Kushlev, K., Proulx, J., & Dunn, E. W. (2016). "Silence your phones": Smartphone notifications increase inattention and hyperactivity symptoms. In Proceedings of CHI 2016, 1011–1020. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858359
Ruiz Pardo, A. C., & Minda, J. P. (2022). Reexamining the "brain drain" effect: A replication of Ward et al. (2017). Acta Psychologica, 230, 103717. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691822002323
Stothart, C., Mitchum, A., & Yehnert, C. (2015). The attentional cost of receiving a cell phone notification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 41(4), 893–897. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000100

The whole

15. The tune and the playing

Barrett, F. J. (1998). Coda: Creativity and improvisation in jazz and organizations: Implications for organizational learning. Organization Science, 9(5), 605–622. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.9.5.605
Haynes, A. B., Weiser, T. G., Berry, W. R., Lipsitz, S. R., Breizat, A.-H. S., Dellinger, E. P., … Gawande, A. A. (2009). A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population. New England Journal of Medicine, 360(5), 491–499. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa0810119
Weick, K. E. (1998). Introductory essay: Improvisation as a mindset for organizational analysis. Organization Science, 9(5), 543–555. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.9.5.543

16. A guide, not an autopilot

AI Incident Database. (2025). Incident 1152: Replit's coding agent ran destructive commands on a live database during a code freeze. https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1152/
Amazon Web Services. (2017). Summary of the Amazon S3 service disruption in the Northern Virginia (US-EAST-1) Region. https://aws.amazon.com/message/41926/
Goddard, K., Roudsari, A., & Wyatt, J. C. (2012). Automation bias: A systematic review of frequency, effect mediators, and mitigators. JAMIA, 19(1), 121–127. https://doi.org/10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000089
Onnasch, L., Wickens, C. D., Li, H., & Manzey, D. (2014). Human performance consequences of stages and levels of automation: An integrated meta-analysis. Human Factors, 56(3), 476–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720813501549
Parasuraman, R., Sheridan, T. B., & Wickens, C. D. (2000). A model for types and levels of human interaction with automation. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, 30(3), 286–297. https://doi.org/10.1109/3468.844354
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (2013, October 16). In the Matter of Knight Capital Americas LLC (Release No. 34-70694). https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2013/34-70694.pdf

18. Steps become habit, or the machine's

Kalyuga, S., Ayres, P., Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (2003). The expertise reversal effect. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_4
Lee, J. D., & See, K. A. (2004). Trust in automation: Designing for appropriate reliance. Human Factors, 46(1), 50–80. https://doi.org/10.1518/hfes.46.1.50_30392
Stawarz, K., Cox, A. L., & Blandford, A. (2015). Beyond self-tracking and reminders: Designing smartphone apps that support habit formation. Proceedings of CHI 2015. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702230
van de Pol, J., Volman, M., & Beishuizen, J. (2010). Scaffolding in teacher–student interaction: A decade of research. Educational Psychology Review, 22, 271–296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-010-9127-6

Where it comes from, and how it compares

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493
Slimmon, D. (2019, July 15). Do-nothing scripting: The key to gradual automation. Dan Slimmon (blog). https://blog.danslimmon.com/2019/07/15/do-nothing-scripting-the-key-to-gradual-automation/

Findings are described on the method page in our own words. Follow a link to read the original. Sources last checked 25 September 2026.