Two Questions that Ends My Sunday Dread

Less chaos, more closure—use the two-question rule.

I used to spend Sunday evenings with a pit in my stomach. Not because I hated work. I enjoy what I do.

I hated work leaking into my weekends, the 10 p.m. pings, and the “one last thing” that never seemed to end.

That changed when I started asking two questions—before any project, with clients, teams, and even myself.

The two questions

1. What does done actually look like?

2. What will we do when something new comes up?

Simple on paper. Brutal in practice. They stop chaos before it starts.

I learnt this the hard way.

A “two-week” deck polish for a client turned into five. “Add one slide?” became “Try a new layout?” became “Can we include 2020 data?” By week five I’d rebuilt the deck—twice. When I finally shipped, the reply was: “You’re wonderful—this is the last one.” It wasn’t.

That’s when I realized the problem wasn’t the client. It was me. On the next project, I attempted to answer the two questions.

I said. “What does ‘done’ look like?” Silence. Then: “A completed campaign.” “Great—define completed.” I agreed on one ad concept, three images, and one caption—ready for review.

Then I asked, “What will I do when something new comes up?” “We’ll list it and handle it after this version ships.” Done.

I finished on time. No back-and-forth. No Sunday dread. Just a clean closure.

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