1. The person whose name is written in this book shall die. 

2. The death will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in mind when writing the name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected. 

3. If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the name, it will happen. Otherwise, the victim wil die of a heart attack. 

4. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. If you want to change the details of death, you can do so during this time limit by drawing two straight lines through the original text and writing in a correction. 

5. You cannot change the time of death, however soon it may be. 

6. You may also write the cause and/or details of death prior to filling in the name of the individual. Be sure to insert the name in front of the written cause of death. You have 19 days to fill in a name.

7. Multiple names can be written for the same cause and details of death so long as they are written within 40 seconds of each other. 

8. The conditions of death will not be realised if they are physically impossible or would require someone to act against their basic nature. 

9. If the cause of death is possible but the situation is not, only the cause of death will take effect for that victim. If both are impossible, that victim will die of a heart attack. 

10. The Death Note can only operate within 23 days. Thus, the time of death cannot be more than 23 days after writing the name. 

11. The Death Note will have no effect on someone who has less than 12 minutes left to live. 

12. The Death Note will have no effect on someone if their name is misspelled four times. 

13. Erasing a name written in this book, or destroying the book, cannot prevent the death from occurring.