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essay ·Jun 11, 2026 ·4 min read

Shipping one task at a time

Work in progress is a tax you pay in confusion. I run a strict queue of one, for clients and for myself, and it is the single biggest reason things actually ship.

D David KrugWeb design & development · since 2007

Work in progress is a tax you pay in confusion. I run a strict queue of one, for clients and for myself, and it is the single biggest reason things actually ship.

A queue of one forces a real decision: what is the single most valuable thing I can finish today? Everything else waits, visibly, instead of rotting half-done in a branch.

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