REFLOW

Trace how something scarce (money, attention, information, work) actually moves through the system, so leaks, queues, and overloaded handoffs become measurable.

Money leaves your household faster than either of you can explain. The budget says you should be saving $800 a month; the account says otherwise. You've stared at totals and categories, but totals are snapshots. What's missing is the movie: how cash actually moves, where it pools, and where it silently drains.

REFLOW means tracing how something scarce actually travels through a system, so leaks and pile-ups become measurable. The cue: accumulations or shortfalls appear with no visible transfer explaining them. Name the parts explicitly: stocks (checking balance), inflows (paychecks), outflows (bills, transfers), queues (the reimbursement you never filed), losses (subscription overlap, fees), and handoffs (the money one partner moves that the other doesn't track). Follow the scarce quantity most tied to your outcome, dollar by dollar for one month. It works when a specific leak or overloaded handoff turns from vague suspicion into a number: $214 a month in forgotten subscriptions, $300 stuck in the "I'll pay you back" queue between spouses. Don't use it to mash unlike quantities into one unit, adding up money, time, and stress as if they share a scale, and don't draw arrows without quantities; an unquantified flow diagram is decoration.