A WIP limit is a cap on the number of jobs that have been started but not finished at the same time. For freelancers the practical limit is usually three. Every job above that doesn't increase working time — it only stretches out the delivery date of the jobs already waiting.
Why the number of open jobs sets the delivery date
Someone running six jobs at once gives each one an hour a day. A single job finishes in three days, but all six spread across eighteen. The total work is the same; the delivery dates slide back. This relationship, defined in the Kanban method, is why limiting flow speeds up delivery.
The second cost is the cost of attention. Switching jobs means rebuilding the previous context. A day spent moving between five client files ends as a day that moved none of them forward.
How to set the limit
The way to find your own limit is in your past records.
- Count how many jobs were open at once over the last three months.
- Write down the number of days between start and delivery for each job.
- Look at the point where delivery time breaks down as the open-job count rises.
- Take one below the breaking point as your limit and write it on your board.
When the limit is full, a new job isn't refused — it's queued. The date given to the client becomes real.
The limit's second benefit shows up in the price conversation. A freelancer who knows there's work in the queue can give a client asking for a rush delivery a clear answer on either the date or the price. That leverage never forms in a conversation entered on the assumption of an empty calendar.
Getting the board to show this limit
The limit only works if open jobs are visible on one screen. On the Task Management board you can open a column per client and keep in-progress work in one place, and with Kronos you record the real time each job takes. The module list for freelancers is on the Freelancers page.
Here's the limit: the Lodos board doesn't put an automatic WIP cap on a column and block the overflow. The limit stays a rule you set and keep yourself.
The comparison of estimated and actual time sits in the planned-vs-actual breakdown.
FAQ
Doesn't a WIP limit slow the work down? It doesn't. Total capacity is fixed; the limit just splits that capacity across fewer jobs and pulls delivery dates forward.
What do you do when a new job arrives? The job is queued and the client is given a start date. The date on a queued job comes out more realistic than the date on a job started alongside everything else.