How to write a personal operating manual
A personal operating manual — sometimes called a "how to work with me" guide — is a short document that tells colleagues how you think, communicate, and make decisions. Done well, it cuts onboarding time in half and removes the small daily frictions that compound into burnout.
Why every team benefits from one
Teams calibrate faster when assumptions are written down. Instead of guessing whether a new teammate prefers Slack or email, async or sync, blunt or cushioned feedback — they read the manual once and adjust. CanonIQ exists to make this calibration repeatable: your blueprint becomes the source, and your manual is one of its outputs.
The five sections that matter
- Operating defaults. Working hours, time zone, focus blocks, preferred channels.
- Strengths and friction. Two or three things you do well; two or three things that drain you.
- Feedback style. Format, timing, and tone that actually land.
- Decision-making. When to loop you in, how much context you need, what "done" looks like.
- Personal context. The handful of human details that explain the rest.
A 20-minute drafting process
Open a blank doc. Spend four minutes on each section above. Don't edit while you write — capture the honest version first. Once it's drafted, share it with one trusted colleague and ask: "What's missing? What would have helped you in your first week working with me?" Revise, then publish.
Let CanonIQ do the heavy lifting
If you've already taken the CanonIQ quiz, your blueprint already encodes most of this. Head to Outputs to generate a starter manual, or to Compatibility to see how your defaults interact with a teammate's.