Short answer
Stop Revision when when the lesson and future response are clear or repetition is increasing distress. The exercise is reviewing a past event to identify a more useful interpretation or future response; once that job is complete, continuing should have to provide new information rather than merely more repetition.
Stop when the exercise hands off to action
Once you have identified the lesson and the response you want to use next time, stop replaying the event. This gives the session a practical endpoint. You do not need to wait for perfect certainty, a dramatic mood change or an external result before you are allowed to finish.
Diminishing returns are information
The clearest warning sign is replaying painful events repeatedly or using revision to deny what actually happened. If you notice that pattern, shorten the session or stop it entirely. A boundary is not failure; it is what keeps a voluntary method from turning into reassurance or avoidance.
Use Revision Journal to write the endpoint before you begin. Record what “finished” means for this session, then mark it complete when that point arrives. This is more reliable than negotiating with yourself while emotionally invested in continuing.
A pause protects perspective
After stopping, look for whether the review changes future preparation or behaviour. That feedback comes from behaviour and the situation itself. Another round of the method may be less informative than waiting, practising, asking a question, getting feedback or simply seeing what happens next.
Before continuing Revision, ask what another session could teach you that the current one has not. Once when the lesson and future response are clear or repetition is increasing distress, the next useful information is more likely to come from behaviour, feedback or waiting. If the only reason to continue is discomfort about ending, treat that as a cue to finish rather than as evidence that more practice is required.
A later session needs a changed question
You can return if the goal, obstacle or context genuinely changes. A later use should have a different purpose, not merely repeat the same exercise because stopping felt uncomfortable. Put a review date in Revision Journal if that helps you leave the method alone in the meantime.
Stopping does not erase what you already wrote, rehearsed or noticed. It also does not cancel an outcome. Revision can affect attention or preparation, but it does not control chance, institutions, health outcomes or another person’s decisions.
Three different reasons to finish a session
There are at least three valid endpoints for Revision. First, a task endpoint: when the lesson and future response are clear or repetition is increasing distress. Second, a quality endpoint: the exercise is repeating itself rather than producing clearer thinking. Third, a cost endpoint: time, sleep, comfort or concentration is starting to suffer. You do not need all three signals; any one can be enough to stop.
Once you have identified the lesson and the response you want to use next time, stop replaying the event. Treat that as the hand-off point. Once the method has produced something you can test, more internal work is usually less informative than the test itself.
What continuing can cost
The main risk with Revision is replaying painful events repeatedly or using revision to deny what actually happened. Continuing past the useful point can make the method occupy more attention than the goal deserves. It can also blur the difference between preparation and reassurance, because the session continues not to learn something new but to reduce discomfort about stopping.
If replaying painful events repeatedly or using revision to deny what actually happened starts to appear, give Revision a real break instead of replacing it with mental rehearsal of the same routine. Use Revision Journal to note the pause, then leave the exercise alone until the context changes or a planned review date arrives. The break is part of the boundary, not lost practice.
Record why you stopped
In Revision Journal, add one short line: “Stopped because…” This creates a useful record for later review. If you return, you can see whether the original reason changed. A return based on new evidence is different from reopening the exercise because the old uncertainty resurfaced.
Revision should end with a future-facing sentence
A useful final line is what you will try next time. When that sentence is clear, the review can close. Continuing to replay the past after the lesson is identified usually adds less than practising the new response.
Bottom line
Stop Revision when when the lesson and future response are clear or repetition is increasing distress. Use the method to produce clarity or preparation, then let behaviour, feedback and ordinary life take over.