Write the stop date before the budget.
Projects rarely fail on day one. They fail slowly. A tool that was supposed to take a month takes four, everyone is sunk into it, and no one wants to be the person who calls it. The spending continues because stopping feels like admitting a mistake.
A stop date changes that. It is a date written down at the start, before any money is committed, on which the owner looks at the result and decides to continue, change course or end it. Not finishing by that date is information, not failure.
It works for work you do yourself and for work you pay someone else to do. The only requirement is that you write it down before you start.
What to do
- Write what done means in one or two sentences a stranger could check. Include a measurement: what you count today, and what you expect to count after.
- Measure the starting number now and save it.
- Set a stop date. Nothing is bought or built past that date without the owner deciding again.
- Name who decides on that date. One person.
- On the day, measure again, compare, and write down the decision and the reason.
- If you continue, set a new stop date. Do not let it roll on quietly.
When not to
For small, reversible tasks that take an afternoon, this is overkill. Just do them. The stop date earns its keep on anything that takes weeks, involves outside work, or spends money that you cannot easily get back.