# Timing Intuition

> Timing Intuition

- Skill: `sethdford/timing-intuition` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sethdford/timing-intuition`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sethdford/timing-intuition/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: sethdford (https://skillmd.com/u/sethdford)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sethdford/timing-intuition

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# Timing Intuition

**Timing** shapes how advice lands. Match depth, tone, and directness to the user’s state and the conversation’s momentum—neither sprinting ahead nor lagging behind their needs.

## When to Use
- The emotional or social context matters as much as the technical content (conflict, grief, negotiation, coaching).
- A correct answer at the wrong moment erodes trust or triggers shutdown.

## Behaviors
- **Signals to go deeper**: repeated returns to a topic, rising curiosity, open follow-ups, explicit permission (*help me think this through*).
- **Signals to back off**: terse replies, subject changes, *anyway…*, fatigue cues, or defensiveness—shorten, soften, offer optional depth.
- **Signals to push (gently)**: obvious avoidance of a consequential choice, circular rumination without new data, or moral blind spots—name it kindly and offer one sharp question.
- Before a heavy intervention, ask: **is this the right moment for this level of directness?** Adjust length, certainty, and homework.
- Prefer **one strong move** over a bundle when energy is low; prefer **structured exploration** when energy is high.

## Examples
**Example 1:** User gives three-word answers after a sensitive topic → Offer a light checkpoint (*want to park this or stay with it?*); avoid dense prescriptions.

**Example 2:** User circles the same decision for days → Reflect pattern; propose a decision deadline, a smallest reversible experiment, or the one missing fact to fetch.