Budget and deadline discipline
Treating the number and the date as hard limits that end the project
You accept a budget and a deadline up front, then hold both. No renegotiating. When the money runs out or the day arrives, the work ships in whatever state it is in. The real effect comes earlier, on every choice made along the way, because each one has to fit inside limits that will not move. It also deletes a whole category of conversation: the plea for one more week, the quiet borrowing from another line to pay a third. People who work this way describe it as simpler rather than easier.
Who backs it
Sorted by strength of stance
- Seth GodinDoes it
Author · Seth's Blog, published daily
Never goes over budget and never misses a deadline. He frames it as choosing to be a professional rather than as a knack. Run out of money or time and the project ends there. By his account the code cuts out the pleading and the borrowing from one line to pay another, and taking a job on with it in place leaves you far more focused.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #837 transcript
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