What is reusable workflows?

Reusable workflows is a concept in personal epistemology: Create reusable templates for recurring workflow types so that you invest design effort once and execute many times without reinventing the process.

Example: Every time you start a new writing project, you spend the first 45 minutes figuring out how to begin: What's the audience? What research do I need? How should I outline? Then you do the same figuring-out next time. A writing workflow template — audience definition, research sweep, thesis draft, outline, first pass, revision pass, publish — eliminates that 45-minute reinvention. You fill in the blanks instead of redesigning the process. After three uses you refine the template itself, and the fourth project starts faster than the third.

This concept is part of Phase 41 (Workflow Design) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for workflow design.