Why You Need to Use the Rule of Three Passes

A simple trick for finishing any project quickly and with quality.

There’s a lot of different takes on effective work methods out there.

If you’re a writer, perhaps you’re into fast drafting.

For me, it’s all about the Rule of Three Passes:

I don’t remember where I picked up this little tip, but I’ve used it for almost two decades now when working on code and scripts. But I’ve found it works just as well with any creative task you take on.

Breaking your work into three focused passes, each with a purposeful goal that builds off of the last step, is a great way to be productive with your time and avoid spinning on perfection.

The first pass is all about getting something functional created. It doesn’t need to be pretty or ready for others to see; this is your time to prove your idea is workable.

In coding, this is your first pass at demonstrating functionality.

With writing, this could be your fast draft where you turn off your internal editor. If you’re manufacturing something, this is your proof of concept or prototype.

The entire point of this pass is to make something workable. That’s it.

After all, if you don’t have something functionally working, there’s no point in going any farther with it.

By focusing on making something functional, you avoid the perfection trap by continually telling yourself that this isn’t the final product.

You’re not trying to make anything for consumption yet. Let your first pass be ugly. Let it be un-optimized.

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