Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines
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I have forty minutes to write this article. Do I need to limit my time? Probably not, but I’d like to illustrate a point: Deadlines are useful tools.
Deadlines are a budget for your time. It makes sense that budgeting your money would be more efficient than spending whatever you feel like. A budget forces you to prioritize. Give yourself a limited amount of money and you will use the resources more efficiently than if you buy on impulse.
The same applies when budgeting time. Since time is limited, giving yourself a deadline forces you to prioritize what is most important and cut away what is least.
Ways to Misuse Deadlines
- Deadlines won’t make you more creative. Creativity is randomness. Just because you want to be a millionaire by the end of the year doesn’t mean setting a deadline will miraculously show you the means to doing so. Deadlines are powerful, but they aren’t magic.
- Deadlines won’t make you faster. In the short-term, a difficult deadline might speed you up. But this is an illusion. Long periods of that kind of pressure will only result in burnout and stress.
- Deadlines can slow progress. In some cases, setting a deadline can actually cut you off of solutions that are easier. Deciding that you will finish a website design in two months may cut you off of possibilities for using templates to do it in a few days. Or hiring designers within your budget to do the job for you.
If deadlines won’t make you a genius or dynamo and can actually cut off faster solutions what good are they?
When to Use Deadlines
It’s taken me a bit of practice to know when I should set deadlines for myself and when I should allow results to come naturally. These aren’t specific rules, but they are guidelines I use to make the decision:
- Feature Creep - Expansive goals need deadlines. I always set deadlines for bigger projects where I could add one feature or twenty.
- Distractions - Deadlines keep you focused on the objective and away from minutia. If your goal is likely to slip out of your thoughts, use a deadline to force it back in.
- Fear - What’s the best way to remove a band-aid? Right off! Fear can keep you held hostage for a long time. Setting a deadline forces you through the temporary struggles.
- Constraints - Some deadlines are natural. If you want to run a marathon and your city holds one in four months, that deadline makes perfect sense.
- Push - Are you slowing down? Setting a new deadline can rebuild falling motivation.
Attributes of a Good Deadline
- Objective - Have you reached your goal? If the answer can’t be answered with either yes or no, you need to rephrase it. Vague goals are useless candidates for deadlines.
- Possible - Does your deadline fit your plan or is it wishful thinking? Don’t buy groceries on an empty stomach on don’t set deadlines when drunk with motivation.
- Elimination - Can you eliminate parts of your plan if there isn’t time? You need to know what to abandon if you run out of time.
- Chunked - Break your deadline into components. For this article, I’ve given myself forty minutes to write and ten to do an image.
Be thrifty with your time because you can’t save it or buy any more.
How To Use Deadlines - lifehack.org said,
June 21, 2007 at 5:43 am
[…] Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines - [ScottHYoung] digg_url = ‘http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/how-to-use-deadlines.html’; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin==’string’?digg_skin:”; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds==’compact’) { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url==’string’?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL==’string’?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(”"); } )() Author: Craig Childs Posted: Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 8:42 am Tags: deadline, time+management, timemanagement Bookmark or Share this with a friend! […]
Food for Thought: Are Deadlines Productive? said,
June 21, 2007 at 6:58 pm
[…] I know a lot of people who swear by the “grace under pressure” routine. And they claim that their best work comes out when the timer gets in the red zone. So I guess for these people, deadlines can be productive. Scott Young provides a guide on how to make deadlines productive. […]
eridanis said,
June 22, 2007 at 5:07 am
if deadlines help you, it’s possible you have adult ADD. i do. a deadline can focus you wonderfully, indeed.
but for me, when the adrenaline fades, it’s over.
e~
Business Hacks » Use Deadlines to Your Advantage on BNET said,
June 22, 2007 at 9:01 am
[…] Blogger Scott H Young says there’s a right way and a wrong way to leverage deadlines, which he calls “a budget for your time.” An example of the wrong way is believing a deadline will somehow make you more creative; the right way is to keep you focused on your objective while keeping distractions at bay. Check out Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines, then hit our Comments page and tell us your thoughts on deadlines. We need to hear from you by close-of-business today! […]
One Snarky Chica with Issues » Blog Archive » 5 ways to squeeze more productivity out of your day said,
June 22, 2007 at 9:20 am
[…] 1. Create deadlines for yourself. Deadlines are great because they can help keep you focused and organized. Deadlines keep you from getting distracted but can also work against you if they cause you to stress out. Remember not to stress about deadlines you have created for yourself. A great post on deadlines was posted on Wednesday at Scott H. Young’s blog. […]
Scott Young said,
June 22, 2007 at 1:27 pm
eridanis,
Pretty sure I don’t have ADD. I’ve been characterized as having incredible task focus rather than being easily restless or distracted. And deadlines are a good tool for most, not just a few.
kevinmic’s blog » Blog Archive » Blog post from Scott H Young on Deadlines said,
June 24, 2007 at 5:44 pm
[…] There is an interesting post on the Scott H Young blog about deadlines. See the full post at Scott H Young >> Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines. […]
David Leonhardt’s SEO Marketing Express » Blog Archive » Taming Deadlines said,
June 28, 2007 at 7:53 am
[…] On the Internet, as in every business, it is important to harness Deadlines for success, and ensure they do not overwhelm you. I found a great blog post on taming deadlines that you might find useful. It works for writing. It works for SEO. It works for marketing. It most likely works also for zookeeping, archeology and other fields of activity. […]
停止拖延！20个帮你摆脱萎靡的方法 | Simple Life said,
August 15, 2007 at 3:38 am
[…] 17.设定时间-拿出一个计时器，将它设到六点，花一个小时的时间做你计划列表上要做的事情，然后开始！阅读这篇文章，获取如何在规定的时间内获得最大的工作效率的信息。 […]
Quit Procrastinating! 20 Ways to Energize Out of Your Slump « GM文摘 said,
March 20, 2008 at 9:34 pm
[…] It - Take out a timer, punch in 60:00, outline 60 minutes of work in your to-do list and go! Read this article for more info to maximize your deadline […]
Scott H Young » 100 Good Ideas said,
May 28, 2008 at 6:58 am
[…] Deadline. […]
Swaroop C H, The Dreamer » Archives » Tips for Working From Home said,
July 9, 2008 at 3:36 am
[…] Deadlines are really important. […]