Chapter 2 does not cheer for attack. It warns that a long campaign spends people, grain, and the next cycle. Victory is valued; duration is not. Victory here first means a clean end — best if the fight never starts, next if it ends on a written stop date. A conflict with no aim, no ceiling, and no review will thin both sides.
“Faster” often becomes more lines at once. That is not speed. It is clutter. Real speed is order: count what each day burns (people, money, trust, time), write the stop date, then ask what would be left for the next cycle if this drags.
Check the burn in front of you with four questions:
- What is the aim, and is it worth this conflict?
- Where is the ceiling — the point at which you must stop, rather than add one more day?
- Which signal would justify continuing — not merely prove that people are busy?
- If two weeks show no signal, how do you change or stop? Without that line, do not start.
An action with a stop condition is not weaker. It protects the next cycle: the people are still there, the judgment is still there, and you can still choose to stay out once more. Verifying one thing to keep or stop in ten days is closer to preservation than lighting ten lines in ten days. The second is only a noisy march.
Do not ask “which battle is worth fighting this quarter.” Ask whether this burn can still be afforded, and whether stopping would leave the next cycle better. Fast means ending wasteful consumption soon — not opening a fight soon.
Write the cost of one more day and a stop date on Chapter 2. The method page can put these four questions on one sheet.