What is the Rule of Three?
The Rule of Three is choosing three outcomes for the day, and treating everything else as optional. Three is small enough to hold in mind and finish, and large enough to constitute a real day's work.
Why three
A list of twelve provides no guidance, because everything on it looks equally required and the easiest item wins. Three forces the choice to happen in the morning, while you are calm, rather than at 3pm under pressure. It also makes the day assessable: at the end you either did them or you did not, with no partial credit from having been busy.
Choosing them
- Outcomes, not activities. "Send the client the revised quote" can be finished. "Work on the quote" cannot.
- Ask what would make today count. If the answer is a fourth item, one of your three is wrong.
- Include one you are avoiding. Three comfortable tasks is a way of feeling productive while the real work waits.
- Fit them to the hours you actually have. Three items needing nine hours in a day with four free is not a plan.
Scaling it
The same shape works weekly and quarterly: three outcomes for the week, three for the quarter, with the daily three drawn from them. The value is the constraint. Loosen it to five and within a fortnight you are back to an ordinary list.
