Work the most downstream pipeline stage first — Deliver…
Before every work session, consult your pipeline board and work on the most downstream stage that contains items (Deliver before Polish, Polish before Review, Review before Draft) to pull from bottlenecks rather than accumulating work-in-progress.
When This Fires
- At the start of every production work session when deciding what to work on
- When your pipeline has many items in early stages but few reaching completion
- When you feel busy but aren't shipping or delivering outputs
- Complements Set WIP limits per pipeline stage (solo (WIP limits) and Move outputs forward through pipeline stages… (pipeline stages) with the session-level prioritization rule
Common Failure Mode
New-start addiction: always choosing to draft new items because starting is more fun than finishing. The pipeline accumulates 10 drafts, 3 items in review, 2 in polish, and 0 deliveries this week. The backlog grows while nothing ships. The downstream-first rule forces you to finish before starting.
The Protocol
(1) Before each work session, scan your pipeline board from right to left: Deliver → Polish → Review → Draft. (2) Work on the first stage (from the right) that contains items. If there's an item ready to deliver → deliver it. If Polish has items → polish them. (3) Only move to the next upstream stage when the downstream stage is empty or blocked. (4) New drafts are the last priority — only start new work when all downstream stages are clear or waiting on external input. (5) This feels counterintuitive (you want to create, not polish), but it maximizes actual output throughput by prioritizing completion over initiation.