The model: Goal, Constraints and Moves
The three things Clearahead tracks, in plain language, and how they connect.
Everything in Clearahead sits on three kinds of Model item: one Goal, a small number of Constraints, and the Moves aimed at them. Nothing else. No task lists, no departments, no quarterly OKRs — just the thing you’re going for, what’s stopping you, and what you’re doing about it.
The three model items
Goal — the one ambitious direction the company is committing to. There’s only ever one active Goal. It’s written as a sentence anyone in the company could repeat, not a target with a metric attached.
Constraint — a condition that’s genuinely limiting progress towards the Goal, written as a diagnosis (“Production capacity is preventing us taking on profitable demand”), not a task. A Constraint can sit directly under the Goal, or underneath another Constraint as a deeper cause.
Move — something you believe could change a Constraint, written as a belief: “we believe doing X could change Y because Z.” Every Move addresses exactly one Constraint.
How they connect
- A Constraint constrains the Goal (or contributes to a deeper Constraint above it).
- A Move addresses a Constraint.
In the app’s side menu this shows up as a simple tree: the Goal at the top, its Constraints branching below with a path line back up to it, and each Constraint’s Moves listed underneath. The numbered circles beside Constraints are their priority order — which ones AJ and the team should be concentrating on right now.
Focus Constraints
Rather than picking a single “Primary Constraint” and freezing everything else, Clearahead tracks the focus Constraints: the deepest, still-unresolved Constraints on the Goal’s causal chain. There can be more than one in focus at a time — but keep this list short. If everything is in focus, nothing is.
Status vs. progress
Every Model item has a status, and it’s a small, fixed vocabulary:
- Goal:
draft→active→achievedorabandoned - Constraint:
hypothesis(an idea, not yet evidenced) →validated(confirmed as a real blocker) - Move:
proposed→active→blockedordoneorstopped
A Constraint’s status is only its diagnosis. Whether it’s actually shifting is tracked separately as its progress — no change, easing, getting worse, or removed (cleared entirely). So “it’s easing” or “it’s cleared” is a progress update, not a change of status.
The loop in practice
Clearahead keeps the Constraint → Moves → Learn loop in one place, versioned, with AJ helping you talk through the diagnosis as your team learns.
Ask AJ
“Can you talk me through our model right now?”
“What’s still missing before this Constraint is properly defined?”
Read next: Setting your first Goal
Related: Glossary · Working with Constraints