Templates & Automations
The book is the human-readable form of what we've learned. This library is the other form: recipes — short instructions you can hand to your own Muse, which can then do the job with you. Copy one, paste it to your Muse, adapt the details.
Every item here is ours, and vetted: these launch templates come from the book's own Appendix A, “Questions to Ask Muse: build your own personalized starter kit.” Community templates will join them only after review — and for scripts and automations, after full security validation (see the vetting rule). No exceptions, ever.
The starter set
1 · Start your savings log
One plain habit, not a system: a dated record of what your Muse saves you. Open it with whatever saving this week's other recipes produce.
Start a savings log for me. From now on, whenever you save me money — a discount found, a fee avoided, a cheaper booking — record the date, the amount, and one sentence on how. Show me the running total whenever I ask, and never count anything twice.
2 · State your approvals rule
One sentence to your Muse, said before anything else is delegated. Research freely — spend never without your OK.
My approvals rule: you may research, compare, and prepare anything freely — but never spend, book, buy, cancel, subscribe, or send anything on my behalf without my explicit go-ahead for that exact action, at any price. Confirm this back to me and remember it.
3 · Audit one year of subscriptions
A line-by-line recurring-charge review of one real statement, ending in a decision for each line.
Let's audit a year of my subscriptions. I'll share a card or bank statement. List every recurring charge with its amount and frequency, flag anything I may have forgotten or that duplicates something else, and give me a keep / cancel / ask-me recommendation for each line. Don't cancel anything without my OK.
4 · Price one redemption every way
Take one points balance you hold and have every way of spending it priced before you use any of it.
I hold [points/miles balance]. Price every realistic way to redeem it — travel, cash-out, statement credit, transfers — in cents per point, using current program rules, and show me which door is worth most and which quietly wastes the balance. Don't redeem anything without my OK.
5 · Re-price one booked trip
Check one existing booking against its alternatives and keep whichever wins.
Here's a trip I've already booked: [booking details]. Re-price the same trip on points and in cash, and check one sensible alternative property or routing. Compare total cost including taxes and fees, tell me which option wins and by how much, and only change the booking if I say so.
6 · Search unclaimed property for your household
The official state search for every adult at home — with each claim left in its owner's own hands.
Walk me through searching my state's official unclaimed-property database for every adult in my household, one name at a time. For anything found, tell me exactly what it is and what the claim needs. The claim itself stays in the owner's own hands — prepare everything, submit nothing for them.
7 · Build your one-page project map
A single living map of everything in flight — Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives — which your Muse maintains and you simply glance at.
Build me a one-page project map. Interview me briefly about everything I have in flight, then organise it into Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. Keep the map updated as we work, and show it to me whenever I ask “what's on my plate?”
8 · Write down your boundaries
Your short list of what your Muse may never do, may do only when directed, and must always ask about.
Help me write my boundaries list: things you must never do, things you may do only when I direct them, and things you must always ask about first. Ask me the questions that surface my real lines, draft the list in my words, and remember it as a standing rule.
9 · Schedule one dated intention properly
Take one “revisit this later” in your life and give it a real trigger, with its context written in.
I keep meaning to revisit [thing]. Help me turn it into a proper scheduled intention: pick the right date with me, write down why it matters and what “done” looks like, and set the reminder so that when it fires, future-me has all the context needed to act.
10 · Do one thing for delight
One assignment whose only purpose is delight or curiosity — the playful uses teach you your Muse's range before you need that range seriously.
Invent one small assignment for yourself whose only purpose is my delight or curiosity — a voice audition, a small challenge, a question asked purely because it's interesting. Surprise me, and keep it short.