Action item
A specific task arising from a discussion, written with one owner, a due date and a clear result.
Plain language, practical examples
The productivity and AI glossary.
Terms are easy to repeat and harder to use. Each entry gives you a short definition, a grounded example, a practical test and an honest link to how Plexii relates.
40 termsExamples, not slogansSources where history or evidence matters
A
AI agent (agentic AI)
Software that uses an AI model and tools to pursue a goal across several steps, with defined limits on what it may do.
AI hallucination
An AI-generated statement that sounds plausible but is false, unsupported or inconsistent with the available source material.
Asynchronous work
Work arranged so people can contribute at different times without everyone being present simultaneously.
B
Body doubling
Working in another person’s presence to make it easier to begin, continue or finish a task.
Brain dump
A quick, unfiltered capture of open tasks, concerns and ideas before they are sorted into a workable system.
Bring your own key (BYOK) for AI
Using your own AI provider API key inside another application, with usage billed by that provider.
C
Cognitive load
The amount of mental effort required to hold and work with information at one time.
Context switching (at work)
Moving attention from one piece of work to another, then rebuilding the mental context needed for each task.
D
Daily standup
A short daily check-in about progress, the next useful step and anything blocking it.
Decision log
A dated record of decisions, their owners, reasoning, alternatives and conditions that could cause a review.
Deep work (and shallow work)
Sustained, distraction-limited work on a demanding task that benefits from concentrated attention.
E
Eat the frog
A prioritisation method that starts the day with the most important or most difficult useful task.
Eisenhower matrix
A two-by-two grid that sorts work by urgency and importance to help decide what to do, schedule, delegate or drop.
F
Flow (flow state)
A state of absorbed attention often associated with clear goals, immediate feedback and a workable challenge.
G
Gantt chart
A timeline view in which each task is a horizontal bar running from its start date to its end date.
H
Human in the loop
A person checks or approves an AI system’s consequential steps instead of letting every action happen automatically.
I
Information overload
Having more inputs than you can reasonably process into understanding, a decision or an action.
K
Kanban board
A visual workflow in which cards move through named stages and work in progress can be limited.
L
Local-first software
Software that keeps the primary copy of your work on your device while treating network services as optional helpers.
M
Meeting minutes
A concise record of a meeting’s decisions, actions and essential context rather than a word-for-word transcript.
Mind map
A diagram that begins with one central subject and branches outward into related ideas or parts.
P
Parkinson’s law
The observation that work tends to expand to fill the time made available for it.
Planning fallacy
The tendency to underestimate how long future work will take despite evidence from similar past tasks.
Pomodoro Technique
A focus method built around timed work intervals, short breaks and a longer break after several intervals.
Project brief
A short document stating why a project exists, what it will produce, for whom, by when and how success is judged.
R
RAG status
A red, amber or green signal used to summarise project health, always best paired with a reason and next step.
S
Scope creep
Unapproved growth in a project’s work, deliverables or requirements after its scope was agreed.
Second brain
An external system for capturing notes, sources and ideas so they can be found and used later.
Single source of truth
One agreed place where a fact is maintained, with other documents linking to it rather than keeping separate copies.
Statement of work (SOW)
A document defining a project’s objectives, scope, deliverables, schedule, responsibilities and acceptance conditions.
T
Task paralysis (task initiation)
The experience of wanting to act but struggling to begin, choose or move to the next step.
Time blindness
Difficulty sensing how much time has passed or estimating how long a task will take.
Time blocking
Planning the day by reserving named blocks of calendar time for specific kinds of work.
Timeboxing
Giving an activity a fixed maximum duration, then stopping to assess, finish or schedule another box.
Two-minute rule
A name shared by two methods: doing very short tasks now, or shrinking a new habit to a two-minute start.
U
Utilisation rate
Billable time divided by available working time, usually expressed as a percentage for a person or team.
W
Weekly review
A recurring check of inboxes, commitments, calendars and priorities used to prepare the coming week.
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
A hierarchy that divides a project’s complete deliverables into smaller, manageable work packages.
Z
Zeigarnik effect
A proposed memory effect involving unfinished tasks; newer evidence more clearly supports a tendency to resume interrupted work.