Better Ways to Set a Deadline
We all have been there. Loads of deadlines were approaching. The usual 24 hours a day seems to be inadequate. People kept bogging us down with other things to do. We got distracted by the new drama happening on social media. Everything just kept crashing down. Then, our brain suddenly got tingled, overwhelmed by fear, and we became hyperfocused–finishing all the deadlines in a zap. We submitted the works, felt quickly relieved, then began loathing ourselves because we did not do our best to finish them–we survived with a thin razor of time left. Then we repeat this cycle.
Deadlines are indeed the bane of many people’s lives and a source of ruthless worrying pressure. Even so, it is an important part of any task or role and essential for a smooth-running project. Here, we will discuss 5 better ways to set a deadline so you can be at ease when fighting them face to face. Rather than singlemindedly accepting any deadline, we can tweak them ourselves so we can tackle them on time.
1. Use Prioritization
Prioritizing what matters should come first when you decide on a deadline. We can utilize the Eisenhower Matrix to avoid stumbling upon the “Urgency Trap”. By dividing our work into the four quadrants of importance and urgency, you can get a clearer picture of the tasks at hand. First, set the Urgent & Important task to have the closest deadline. After that, move on to the Not Urgent & Important task to be finished. Then proceed to sweep the Urgent & Not Important tasks into the deadline calendar. Lastly, you might need to rethink including the Not Urgent & Not Important task at all. Later, you can set different colors, give a special tag, or set any visual cues to easily differentiate the importance and urgency of the task. By separating the tasks according to prioritization, you can easily realize which task you need to do now. This in turn will motivate you to start doing the tasks because you felt like you are doing something important and/or urgent to yourself.
2. Break Down the Task
One big ambiguous task will never be finished. If the task is simply “finish homework”, you will never get motivated to do it. Finishing “homework” is a big job, more so if there are tons of homework to do. You can do better by breaking it down into smaller subtasks with different deadlines. For example, rather than “finish homework”, you can break it down into “finish homework Math 101 by Saturday”, “read Romeo & Juliet and write a summary by Sunday”, etc. With these subtasks, doing one of them feels more reachable than doing them all at a time. People even divide the tasks smaller into something like “finish homework Math 101 problem 1–5 by Wednesday” and “finish homework Math 101 problem 6–10 by Saturday”. However deep you chose to divide them, the act of doing so will make the deadline more approachable and thus motivate you to finish it.
3. Plan Buffer Time
Based on Hofstadter’s law, anything you do will always take longer than you expect. When you meticulously calculated that a task will take 4 weeks to complete, there is a high chance that it may take 5 weeks or more. We live in a VUCA world where anything can happen at any moment and it may or may not break your plan altogether. For example, an unsolvable error suddenly arises when you work on a software project, or someone suddenly ghosted your team and set back the entire progress. These all are real-life scenarios that may happen when doing a task. Therefore, always plan a buffer or extra time in any deadline you set. Do you think it takes 4 days to do a particular task? Set the deadline for 7 days instead. Even if your initial calculation is correct, you are left with 3 days left, so there is no harm caused. You just need not procrastinate doing the task just because the deadline is longer!
4. Set Up Accountability Partner
Sometimes setting up a little bit of outside push is what we need to finish the tasks. Be it a promise with your co-workers, to bidding some money unless a task is finished–an accountability partner helps you decide and finish your deadlines. When the fear of failing a deadline is not enough to push you to work, you can utilize the pressure coming from other sources too. For example, you have a deadline for writing a book in 3 months. You can ask your trusted friends to help proofread your manuscript every week. With this in mind, you will be sure to have something new written every week, rather than pushing all the work at the last minute. You can also raise the stake by bidding money with your friends if you are not showing any progress each week. These different kinds of pressure, or external motivation, hit home when the failure of missing a deadline cannot. You do not have to set this up for all deadlines, but this strategy works miraculously for that one important deadline you just need to finish.
5. Review Every Once In a While
You have applied all four strategies above–you even used strategies from other articles. Yet you still missed or barely skipped a deadline. “What’s wrong?” you thoughts. Maybe it is time for you to review your strategy for setting up deadlines. Take a break and reflect on what has been done and how it went. Realize that no strategy fits everyone–you will have your preferences or even develop one specifically for yourself. Simplifying your strategy of choices may also work here, as using too many at once might have put you at a lull. This discovery can only happen when you review the way you work every once in a while. Set up free time every month or decide on one when you felt that you gonna crash, there is no need to be so strict about it but you will still need to decide upon it. With a more refined strategy at hand, you will slowly but surely construct your very best ways to set a deadline–and maybe write an article about it in the future like this one!
Deadlines are supposed to increase productivity, not lead to a self-loathing cycle of setting a goal, missing it, feeling bad, and repeating the same cycle once more. So, if your current system hasn’t been working well, try the steps above to feel better about your work and get more done.
This writing is a series of assignments for my program at Generasi GIGIH 2.0 held by Yayasan Anak Bangsa Bisa. Expect more writings to come!
