Effectiveness of Deadlines

Eight weeks ago I started tracking what I worked on each day. I laid out a star board for all of my interests, and I would fill in a square if I gave it attention that day. I call this “watering my ideas,” and it has hugely helped me remember and allocate time for the projects that I wasn’t giving enough attention to, including this blog.

Eight weeks ago I also gave myself a goal to publish a post every Tuesday. I have achieved that goal every week without fail, and I am so proud to be consistently adding to my website. The other interests on my board, however, have not seen similar progression.

The reason I have seen good results for my writing is because I gave myself a deadline to reach a goal every week. Having a deadline motivates me to make substantial progress each week, and I can easily review my achievements to see the progress of all my little steps. This provides further motivation to keep the streak going, and eventually forms a habit.

I would call these “micro-deadlines” and they are only effective when managed for yourself. In other words, if you are setting deadlines for others, this approach is not a good idea. The power of these self-motivated deadlines is the sense of ownership and achievement gained. Like I said, I feel so proud to have written a post every week for the past eight weeks, and I would not feel that way if my manager told me to do it.

“Macro-deadlines”, on the other hand, can also play an important role in achieving your goals. Last year I wanted to build a lamp for my desk, so I started planning out all the details. I decided to give myself a deadline of January 1st to complete it, and by January 1st I still wasn’t done. But I was really close! Within two weeks I completed the project and now I happily use my lamp every day.

I believe if I had not given myself that “macro-deadline”, I would still be working on that project today. Having a target completion date motivated me to take significant steps and tackle unknowns that I feared. It is very easy for me to push off decisions to “when I have more information” or “when I have X, Y, and Z done”, but knowing a deadline is approaching is enough for me to make the decision now.

To summarize, I have learned that even though I aim to take little steps in my interests each day, setting personal deadlines is very good motivation for me to reach my goals. Even if I don’t meet the deadline, I still make great progress toward completing a project, and it helps me overcome and face decisions I would otherwise avoid.