Three Priorities With Done Criteria

Max three priorities per day. Each one has a specific done condition written before I start. I do not let myself work on anything else until these three priorities are completed.

Prioritization happens the night before, not while I am already under pressure.

The done criteria keep each task in scope. Without them, work expands. I finish what I set out to do and keep going indefinitely because there is always more to improve, more to add, more to refine. With a clear done condition, I stop when I’m supposed to.

I feel much better about closing the day with real progress on three defined objectives instead of partial progress on ten undefined ones.

Together they apply the same principle at two scales: scope the day to three things, scope each thing to a specific outcome. Both are about staying within defined bounds rather than chasing every direction the work could go.