Why we flag stale work after 3 days, not 7

We argued about this for two weeks. Seven days felt safe. Three days felt aggressive.

Seven days flags nothing. By day seven, everyone has either picked the work back up or quietly moved on. The flag fires on resolved cases.

Three days flags the gap that matters: the day you said you'd come back to it and didn't. The day a teammate could have helped if they'd known. The day a project lost a slot of momentum.

The trade is uncomfortable to look at. That's the point.