Close Back To The Start
A part is finished only when everything it caused work for is finished; stop when the first thing you touched closes by that rule.
Formerly Discharge
The day ends when the first thing handed out is the last one closed.
Seen in David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 2004
Try it on your work
Each time a part of the thing you're working on causes another part to need work, note the debt. A part is finished only when every part it caused work for is finished. Stop when the first part you touched is finished by this rule. That is the true end; the declared one was earlier.
Every claim in your project that creates a further question owes that question an answer. A claim is settled only when its questions are. Stop when the opening claim is settled by this rule. Count how many claims were "done" before they were.
A piece of work that hands something to another person is not complete until that person's piece is. The day ends when the first thing handed out is the last one closed. Stop there, not at the clock.
How it has been used
Dijkstra and Scholten’s termination-detection method tracks a computation that spreads work across a network. A message that activates more work creates a debt of acknowledgement; a participant cannot report completion while consequences it created remain active. The origin knows the whole computation has ended only when all those obligations have collapsed back to it.
Where it leads
Grouped under Help me bring it to a close