Write a Stop Condition: What Arrives, From Whom.

Pick one activity, not the project.

Start with the activity that will fill your evening tonight. If several qualify, pick the one you would defend fastest over dinner. Because that speed is the tell, it points to the right choice. Write one sentence for one activity, and do not write a second. That is how you define done for a task.

The rules for each blank when you write a stop condition.

The first blank holds a reply, a payment, a signature, a quote, a refusal or a delivery date. Here is the test: could it be true Tuesday and false Thursday depending on sleep? Then it is a feeling wearing a coat. However, the second blank needs somebody you are waiting on now, not someone who might see finished work.

A worked example with a pricing page.

Suppose tonight you are rebuilding your pricing page for the fourth time. "I will stop when the pricing page is right" fails both blanks. Instead, try stopping when a quote comes back from the supplier you emailed on Tuesday. Among stop condition examples, that one stings, because it admits the page was never the blocker.

Finally, ask whether a stranger could say next month if it came true. If yes, you managed to write a stop condition, so add today's date beneath it. If no, you learned what the activity really is. In short, each time you write a stop condition, you gain information.