Rule of 3
A productivity method introduced by J.D. Meier in 'Getting Results the Agile Way' that involves identifying three key outcomes you want to accomplish at different time horizons (day, week, month, year). The approach forces prioritization and helps maintain focus on what truly matters.
Last updated: 2026-03-20 17:52
Overview
The Rule of 3 was introduced as a productivity tool in J.D. Meier's book 'Getting Results the Agile Way,' popularized by various productivity experts including Chris Bailey (author of 'The Productivity Project').
How It Works
The rule is simple: write down three things you want to accomplish today, three things you want to accomplish this week, and three things you want to achieve this year.
Key Principles
Focus on Outcomes, Not Activities: The most important aspect is focusing on outcomes over activities. You're driving for three results (or outcomes), which helps you ground your activity against something meaningful.
Hierarchical Perspective: When you have 3 outcomes at each level (day, week, month, year), you can see the forest for the trees - your three results for the year are bigger than your three results for the month, which are bigger than your three results for the week and day.
Benefits
Forces Prioritization: You will have to be ruthless with what you focus on—you can only choose three main priorities each day, week, and year, making it a forcing function for prioritization.
Simplicity: The most powerful feature is that it only takes a few minutes every day.
Reduces Reactive Work: When you decide the three most important things to spend your time on, you take back control of your day; you are no longer in reactive mode.
About JD Meier
JD Meier is Satya Nadella's former head innovation coach, bestselling author of Getting Results the Agile Way, with 25 years at Microsoft. The Rule of 3 helped him achieve being on time, on budget, high impact for more than a decade as a program manager at Microsoft for even multi-million-dollar projects.
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