5 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Deadlines

Deadlines are very useful to keep motivated and avoid the dreaded procrastination bug. Most importantly, a deadline is critical to keep you from wasting your valuable time. Just like a spending budget, a deadline can be a budget for your time and ensure that you stay productive. However, deadlines can actually hurt more than help and need to be used properly, here are 5 common mistakes when making deadlines:

1. Setting Deadlines that are too long.
The less time you have to meet a deadline, the more effective it will be. The deadline that is due tomorrow can motivate even the biggest slackers. If its important enough, you will realistically do everything in your power to get it done.

If you have a 5 year project deadline, it won’t help you stay motivated. Unless this project can be broken down into objectives that can be done today or tomorrow. Utilize deadlines that create a sense of urgency.

An important note: The urgency of your deadline has to also be realistic. Just because you want to double your income in 3 months doesn’t mean it’s possible.

2. Do you really need a deadline or just patience?
Deadlines do not apply to everything. Deadlines are most effective on actions that you can control to generate the desired results.

For example: You want to lose weight, but you don’t have the control on what your body weight is next week. But you do have control on your diet and exercise routine. Its best to set a deadline for your eating and work-out habits, but not a deadline on how much you have to weigh… just have patience.

3. Lack of steps or phases to your final deadline.
You have set a deadline that is due in three weeks. You procrastinate, some time goes by and you are one week away of the deadline. Now you really only have one week to work with.

It’s important to have different phases of a project deadline where you can divide your work into steps. As well as take the pressure off. Thinking about projects as a whole can just overwhelm most people. Dividing the project into phases keeps you focused, motivated, and helps avoid procrastination. It’s simply easier to meet the mini-deadlines within a final deadline.

For example: the first week can be your brainstorming and preparation phase, the second week can be your action / carry-out phase and the third can be your finalizing or revision phase.

4. Failing to research options before setting a deadline.
If you are inexperienced with a particular project, how do you know how much time is needed to finish?
The best way is to ask someone who has experience with similar projects and ask them for an estimated time. This is better than having an uninformed guess. Also, and most importantly, ask their recommendation and advice on different methods.

In addition to asking trusted people of their advice, you should research other options. Is there a better solution? For example, your boss wants you to create a simple blog design in two weeks, but you have no experience with graphic design or familiar with common web development languages such as CSS, PHP, HMTL. You can teach yourself and can take a chance.

Or you can buy and download blog design templates that can be implemented in less than a day. Depending on your main goal, a simple solution might have been already made, by someone who has spent years sharpening their craft.

Ultimately, faster options might not be what you need. But at least it could have saved plenty of time and frustration. It’s worth to review all your options before setting a final deadline.

5. Not recording a deadline or writing it down
This is an obvious one. But if you don’t commit to setting a deadline into your planner or Outlook, then it’s really not a deadline. You can tell yourself you have three weeks and keep track in your head. This can only lead you to change and postpone the deadline or worse yet, simply forget the deadline all together.

If you don’t already, use a program like Microsoft Outlook to set a hard date and even reminders for certain objectives. This will keep you on track and help you fulfill that deadline.