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personal-wip-limits

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Cap your work-in-progress so things finish — the personal WIP limit (3 active outcomes, defended), the finish-before-start rule with its exceptions named, the parking lot for the overflow, and the throughput evidence that converts the skeptic. Use when asked I have twelve things half-done, why does nothing ever finish, set a WIP limit for my work, or I start everything and complete nothing. Produces the active-list cap, the parking protocol, the start-gate, and the two-week throughput experiment.

skills/personal-wip-limits/SKILL.md

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# Personal WIP Limits Skill

Twelve half-done things is not twelve things in progress — it's twelve contexts paying switch-tax ([context-switch-budget](../context-switch-budget/SKILL.md) 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](../task-triage-matrix/SKILL.md) 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](../saying-no-kindly/SKILL.md) handles the outward face)
- **The throughput experiment** — two weeks at WIP-3, finishes counted, vs. the historical baseline

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