You don’t know how much energy you have until you set a deadline to achieve a result. Suddenly your mind starts thinking pro-actively about how you can possibly get things done by that deadline. Thoughts jump into your mind about how you can become more efficient and how you can muster the motivation to take the task to completion. This is a swift change in thoughts from the minute before you make the deadline. If you have a goal you haven’t been getting anywhere on, set a time and date for when you want to complete it.
Don’t Do This If You Are Not Ready
The deadline only works if you already have a goal and an inclination to speed up its completion in some way. You can’t randomly put a 10-day deadline to do something you weren’t already doing, and that you aren’t really interested in, and expect it to finish itself. That will only cause you to be angry that you made a deadline in the first place, because you made it for no reason, and then failed to meet it. On the other hand, if you were reading a chapter every couple days, and set a deadline to instead finish the book in 10 days, it would be worth it.
What Does A Deadline Do?
A deadline provides you with a sense of urgency, but more than that, it constricts the time span your brain allows for planning to completion, forcing it to figure out a more intensive way to complete it earlier than you normally would. A deadline is only as useful as your self-discipline in maintaining it. Self-inflicted deadlines are a real opportunity to amaze yourself. No one else has to know about the deadline, and you can end up getting a large amount of joy from being true to yourself, and also getting the task or project done. Then, you might just pass that happy attitude on to others without them even knowing you set and completed a goal.
If You Planned 8 Days To Complete It, Make It 4
I’m pretty sure it was something I read by Tim Ferris that talked about taking whatever goal you have, and halving the time you planned to take to meet that goal. This matches the point earlier about constriction of allotted time. Just like the fact that an unorganized person given a large garage tends to fill the garage, regardless of its size, an undisciplined person that sets the time to complete their goal as something uncertain or very long, it might take three months to do what could be done in one solid weekend. Sometimes we see in hindsight that we could have worked hard for three days, taken twenty days off, and still gotten as much done as we did in the last twenty-three days. You have the ability to make hindsight your foresight, and set an early deadline, and then use the spare time that follows like it is free time that you have created out of thin air.
Tests Are Deadlines In Disguise
Medical schools, or many other types, have a test each year for students to pass to continue forward. These tests are at certain times, creating deadlines forcing students to have a certain amount of knowledge by that point. The urgency is created and the willing learn large amounts to prepare. Setting a deadline for yourself is like creating a classroom environment in your mind. In fact, I would assume that you would have as much success with self-imposed deadlines as you had or currently have with class deadlines and exams. We tend to be consistent in how we behave, unless we put in enough effort to change one or more of our habits.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! I love setting (and meeting!) deadlines…And good to know that it’s getting my mind going!
Deadlines keep your butts in check so you don’t fall victim to procrastination!
Nice post!
Dani: Thanks for that. We have to keep our minds active or else we get to a point where we don’t notice how much less thinking we are doing.
Jonathan: That sounds about right. Deadlines are anti-procrastination in that way, unless they are ignored, but there is no sense in setting a deadline you might not keep. Thanks for your thoughts.
The sense of urgency and self disciplines are two great factors for deadlines , what I like is the fact that the mind as you mentioned starts thinking proactively ….Grt post and thanks for sharing.
Fatima: I do great when there is urgency involved, and slow down when it is not. One good thing is that knowledge increases urgency, because it reminds us of what little time we have. Thanks for the message.
As the saying goes, “if it wasn’t for last minute, nothing would get done.” Armen, a good followup to this article would be something along the lines of “how to take action, once you got the mindset and a deadline.” The first step is always important, and to create momentum, start small and keep going until you reach your goal/deadline.