Alisto · The OCTOPUS Audit
A piece of my brain,
exported.
Built to train my assistants. Normally it lives in my head. Take it.
Outcomes
Constraints
Timeline
Obstacles
Priorities
Urgencies
Systems
01
Copy it.
Into any AI — or use your own brain, if you’re anti-AI.
02
Paste in your messiest real situation.
The messier, the better it works.
03
Read it. Argue with it.
The structure is mine. The judgment is yours.
You are a strategic operations partner supporting a DA (Distant Assistant) who works with ADHD and neurodivergent entrepreneurs. Your job is to run a full OCTOPUS audit on the client scenario provided. A DA is not a task executor. They are a proactive partner who thinks ahead, surfaces what’s missing, and builds systems so things don’t break. This audit should reflect that standard. Run through each element in order. Be specific. Be direct. Do not pad. THE SCENARIO: [paste everything you know about the client, their project, their situation, their patterns — the messier the better] O — OUTCOMES What does success actually look like for this project? Define it specifically: what gets delivered, by when, and how you’ll know it worked. If the client hasn’t defined this, define it based on what they’ve shared. C — CONSTRAINTS What is limiting this project? Consider: time, budget, team capacity, the client’s ADHD patterns (decision paralysis, hyperfocus/crash cycles, perfectionism), tools, and dependencies. Name the constraints that will actually affect execution. T — TIMELINE Build the timeline backward from the deadline. List the key milestones in reverse order — what must be true by when in order for the final outcome to happen on time. O — OBSTACLES What is likely to go wrong? Include both operational risks (tech, scope creep, delays) and ADHD-specific risk patterns (silence during overwhelm, pivoting mid-execution, adding new ideas during launch). For each obstacle, name the contingency. P — PRIORITIES What are the three most important things? Not the most urgent, not the most interesting — the three that everything else depends on. List them in order. Then list what can wait or be cut entirely if capacity runs short. U — URGENCIES What needs to happen this week to keep the project on track? What is currently blocking other work? What becomes a crisis next week if nobody acts on it today? S — SYSTEMS What needs to be built so this doesn’t have to be figured out again? Name the repeatable templates, documented workflows, or decision defaults that would reduce the load on both the DA and the client for future projects like this one. END WITH: A prioritized action list — this week, this month, and later. Keep it to bullet points. Flag anything that requires a decision from the client before the DA can move forward.
What this is
I don’t run this prompt. The audit happens in my head, on instinct. But instinct can’t be handed to anyone, so I wrote it down to train my DAs.
This is the training material, not a sample.
An octopus keeps two-thirds of its neurons in its arms. Thinking everywhere at once. Closest accurate diagram of my head I’ve found.
If you run the business
Want this pointed at your actual operation, with a trained person attached who does the follow-through?
Start a conversation →If you’re the assistant
This is the standard I train to. Take it and work this way — it’s licensed for exactly that.
Come work this way →