{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/set-a-review-trigger-before-sunk-cost-chooses-for-you",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1196",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Set a review trigger before sunk cost chooses for you",
  "summary": "Review the case while you can still change the case.",
  "kind": "protocol",
  "body": "Before investment becomes the main argument for continuing, choose a review trigger: a date, milestone, evidence threshold or major change in assumptions. At that point, reassess value, feasibility and opportunity cost using current evidence. Goal-adjustment research supports adjustment as a distinct self-regulation process; the exact trigger is a decision-design choice, not a scientifically optimal cadence.",
  "limits": [
    "A review trigger reduces ambiguity; it does not remove judgment or prove that a goal should be stopped. Unexpected high-impact evidence should still trigger an earlier review."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-goal-portfolio-and-procrastination"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-C6D23E042D83E7B2"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A 2026 meta-analytic review mapped 1,421 effect sizes from 235 studies and found that goal disengagement, reengagement and goal-striving flexibility have distinct antecedents and outcomes, while rating the accumulated evidence low to moderate overall.",
      "source_id": "RS-C6D23E042D83E7B2",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "High heterogeneity, publication-bias risk and heavy use of cross-sectional studies mean the evidence does not supply a universal rule for when an individual goal should be abandoned.",
      "locator": "Abstract and evidence-quality summary"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "A long-running goal will accumulate time, money or identity investment before you know whether it still makes sense."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "A review trigger reduces ambiguity; it does not remove judgment or prove that a goal should be stopped. Unexpected high-impact evidence should still trigger an earlier review."
  ],
  "example": "Review a six-month product experiment after the agreed usage signal arrives, not only after another six months of effort makes stopping emotionally expensive.",
  "check": "The next review can occur because a prewritten condition fired, not because frustration or investment finally became impossible to ignore.",
  "steps": [
    "The next review can occur because a prewritten condition fired, not because frustration or investment finally became impossible to ignore."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-C6D23E042D83E7B2",
      "title": "A meta-analytic review and conceptual model of the antecedents and outcomes of goal adjustment in response to striving difficulties",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41233533/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1196",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1193",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/distinguish-a-blocked-goal-from-an-obsolete-goal"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-01E44BC725C55AA0",
      "title": "Choose, adjust and finish goals without turning life into a busier calendar",
      "url": "/collections/choose-adjust-and-finish-goals-without-turning-life-into-a-busier-calendar"
    }
  ]
}