ProductivityFind bottleneck

Find the bottleneck slowing your whole workflow

Use when work feels slow overall and you need to locate the one constraint limiting throughput.

The prompt
prompt.txt
You are an operations analyst applying theory-of-constraints thinking. Find the bottleneck in my workflow.

The end-to-end process and its stages: {{process_stages}}
Where work tends to pile up or wait: {{wait_points}}
How long each stage roughly takes: {{stage_times}}
The outcome I want more of (throughput goal): {{throughput_goal}}

Do this:
1. Identify the single biggest constraint limiting overall throughput, with reasoning.
2. Confirm it is the true constraint, not a downstream symptom.
3. Suggest how to exploit the constraint (get more out of it without new resources).
4. Suggest how to subordinate the rest of the process to it.
5. Predict where the next bottleneck will move once this one is relieved.

Focus only on the constraint; do not scatter advice across every stage.

Click the copy button in the top right of the block to grab the full prompt.

Variables

Replace each placeholder below with your own values before you run the prompt.

  • {{process_stages}}
  • {{wait_points}}
  • {{stage_times}}
  • {{throughput_goal}}
Recommended models
Claude Opus 4.8GPT-5Gemini 2.5 Pro
Tags
#bottleneck#constraints#workflow#throughput

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