I have a system that sounds tedious and is actually the highest-leverage thing I do: every time I do something new, I make a skill. Every time I do something again, I update the skill.
That's it. That's the whole system. And it has changed how I work more than any single tool.
What a Skill Actually Is
A skill is a reusable prompt template with context, constraints, and examples baked in. Think of it as teaching your AI how to do a specific task the way you want it done — once — so you never have to explain it again.
When I say "everything is a skill," I mean it literally. Here's what's in my library right now:
My voice. I built a skill that writes like me. It knows my tone, my phrasing, the way I structure arguments. Funny side note — I've always been an em dash person. Used them constantly. Now that the skill handles my writing, seeing em dashes in the output feels wrong. Like watching someone do an impression of you that's slightly too accurate.
Brand compliance. Every document, every slide, every one-pager — automatically uses our brand colors, typography, and layout patterns. No more fixing hex codes or hunting for the right template.
Decision matrices. I took my favorite decision framework from an HBS course and turned it into a skill. Now any time I need to evaluate a complex decision, the structure is there. Same rigor, every time, without rebuilding the matrix from scratch.
Press release drafting and compliance review. This one streamlined our entire IR process. One skill drafts the release in the right format. Another reviews it for compliance — fact-checking, disclosure requirements, the works. What used to take multiple rounds of back-and-forth now runs through a structured pipeline.
The Tax and the Payoff
Building a skill adds 5 to 10 minutes to a task. That's real time. When you're in the middle of something, spending extra minutes to generalize your approach feels like a distraction.
But the math is simple.
That 5-minute investment saves time on every future instance. By the third or fourth use, you're net positive. By the tenth, it's not even close. And the quality compounds too — each time you use a skill and notice something to improve, you update it. Version 12 of a skill produces dramatically better output than version 1.
What Compounding Actually Looks Like
Three things happen when you build skills consistently:
You polish less. The output gets closer to final on the first pass. Early on, I'd spend significant time editing AI output to match what I wanted. Now the skills encode what I want. The gap between raw output and finished product keeps shrinking.
Docs and logic standardize. Every press release follows the same structure. Every decision matrix uses the same framework. Every branded document looks right. This isn't just efficient — it's professional. Consistency signals quality.
You can share them. This is the multiplier most people miss. A skill isn't just a personal productivity hack — it's transferable. When a teammate needs to write in the company voice, or draft a release, or make a branded deck, the skill is there. You're not just scaling yourself. You're scaling the team.
The Mindset Shift
Most people optimize individual tasks. Faster typing, better shortcuts, memorized templates. That works, but it scales linearly.
Skills scale exponentially. You're not asking "how do I do this?" You're asking "how should this always be done?" And once you answer that question, you never have to answer it again.
The system is simple. The discipline is building the skill when you're tempted to just do the task and move on. But if you can get past that — if you can invest those 5 minutes consistently — the compounding will change how you work.
Start with the task you do most often. Build the skill. Use it. Refine it. Then do the next one.