Personal WIP Limits Skill

Twelve half-done things is not twelve things in progress — it's twelve contexts paying switch-tax (context-switch-budget arithmetic), twelve stale re-entries, and a finish rate near zero, because starting is cheap and finishing is expensive and unlimited WIP always buys the cheap thing. The limit — three active outcomes, hard — forces the trade unlimited-WIP hides: starting the new means parking something, said out loud. Everything else supports the cap: the parking lot (where the other nine wait, honorably), the start-gate (the new enters only when something finishes or gets consciously demoted), and the two-week experiment that converts the internal skeptic with their own throughput data.

What This Skill Produces

• The active three — chosen from the current pile (task-triage-matrix verdicts feed this), each with its next action and finish line
• The parking lot — the demoted work, parked with a one-line state note so re-entry is cheap when its turn comes
• The start-gate — the rule at the door: finish, park-consciously, or decline (saying-no-kindly handles the outward face)
• The throughput experiment — two weeks at WIP-3, finishes counted, vs. the historical baseline

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The full in-progress pile — everything started-and-unfinished, honestly (the count is the diagnosis; most people find 8–15)
• The finish lines — per item, what done means (delegation-brief done-test grain); half the pile usually has no finish line, which is why it can't finish
• The involuntary WIP — the boss-assigned and the blocked-on-others; the cap counts what the user controls, and the blocked get their own lane (waiting ≠ active)
• The historical finish rate — roughly, what actually completed in the last month (the baseline the experiment beats)

Framework: The Limit Rules

1. Three active, by outcome not task: the cap counts outcomes in progress ("the vendor decision," not its seven subtasks) — three is the level where each gets real weekly momentum (weekly-review-ritual big-three alignment is intentional: they're the same three). Four is the compromise that becomes seven by Friday.
2. Parking is honorable, and stated: demotion to the lot is a decision, made out loud ("the newsletter redesign parks until the audit ships") with a one-line state note ("drafts in folder X, blocked on nothing, next: pick template") — so parked work re-enters cheaply instead of restarting from archaeology. The lot is reviewed at the weekly; it is not a graveyard with better PR (task-triage-matrix someday-file logic).
3. The start-gate forces the trade: every new commitment faces the question "which of the three does this displace?" — finish one first (the default answer), park one consciously, or decline the new. The gate converts scope creep from ambient to visible; the displacement question is the entire mechanism.
4. Blocked isn't active: work waiting on others moves to the waiting lane with its chase date (follow-up-chaser owns the cadence) — it doesn't occupy a WIP slot, but it doesn't vanish either. The slot opens; the chase continues.
5. The experiment converts the skeptic: two weeks at WIP-3, finishes counted against the baseline — the standard result (more completions, not fewer, despite "doing less") is the counterintuitive evidence that makes the limit stick. The decision-journal pre-registration applies: predict the finish count before, review after.

Output Format

WIP Limit: [name] — active cap: 3

The Active Three

The Parking Lot

[Each: the one-line state note · reviewed at the weekly · the conscious-demotion statements made]

The Lanes

[Waiting-on-others: item × chase date · the involuntary (boss-assigned) noted honestly]

The Start-Gate + Experiment

[The displacement question, posted · the two-week finish-count vs. baseline: predicted [N], actual [ ]]

Quality Checks

• Active items are outcomes with finish lines, capped at three
• Every parked item has its state note and demotion was said aloud
• Blocked work lives in the waiting lane with chase dates, not in slots
• The start-gate question is installed at the door
• The experiment has a predicted number and a review date

Anti-Patterns

• Do not cap tasks instead of outcomes — thirty subtasks of one outcome is one slot, not thirty
• Do not park silently — unconscious demotion is just the old drift wearing a system's badge
• Do not let blocked work squat in active slots — waiting is a lane, not a job
• Do not negotiate the cap upward mid-crunch — the crunch is the argument for the cap
• Do not skip the experiment — the limit survives on its own throughput evidence or not at all