Ratchet
Every round spends something that cannot return.
Count down the blanks.
Seen in Michael Landy, Break Down, London, 2001
Try it on your work
Find a number in the thing you're working on that can only go down and cannot go below zero: blank areas, loose parts, unresolved joins. Each round of work must lower it. You may not raise it again. Stop at zero; the work is finished by definition, not by feel.
Count the sentences in your project's description that you are not sure of. Each revision must reduce the count and may not add an uncertain sentence. Stop at zero. If you cannot get there, the unsure sentences are the project.
Choose a measure of open items that has a floor and cannot be gamed upward: questions without owners, decisions without dates. Every meeting must lower it. Stop at zero; a meeting that cannot lower it is cancelled.
How it has been used
To prove a program finishes, computer scientists find a number it must decrease at every step and can never push below zero: if it always goes down and has a floor, the end is guaranteed. A ratchet does the same for a wheel, and a countdown for a launch.
Where it leads
Grouped under Help me bring it to a close