{"id":343,"date":"2007-06-20T05:59:23","date_gmt":"2007-06-20T12:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/20\/budget-your-time-how-to-use-deadlines\/"},"modified":"2018-04-03T08:29:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T15:29:05","slug":"budget-your-time-how-to-use-deadlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/20\/budget-your-time-how-to-use-deadlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"image344\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/Deadline.jpg\" alt=\"Deadline\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I have forty minutes to write this article. Do I need to limit my time? Probably not, but I\u2019d like to illustrate a point:<\/p>\n<h2>Deadlines are useful tools.<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2>Ways to Misuse Deadlines<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Deadlines won\u2019t make you more creative.<\/strong> Creativity is randomness. Just because you want to be a millionaire by the end of the year doesn\u2019t mean setting a deadline will miraculously show you the means to doing so. Deadlines are powerful, but they aren\u2019t magic.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deadlines won\u2019t make you faster.<\/strong> 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.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deadlines can slow progress.<\/strong> 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If deadlines won\u2019t make you a genius or dynamo and can actually cut off faster solutions what good are they?<\/p>\n<h2>When to Use Deadlines<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s 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\u2019t specific rules, but they are guidelines I use to make the decision:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Feature Creep<\/strong> &#8211; Expansive goals need deadlines. I always set deadlines for bigger projects where I could add one feature or twenty.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Distractions<\/strong> &#8211; 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.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fear<\/strong> &#8211; What\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Constraints<\/strong> &#8211; Some deadlines are natural. If you want to run a marathon and your city holds one in four months, that deadline makes perfect sense.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Push<\/strong> &#8211; Are you slowing down? Setting a new deadline can rebuild falling motivation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Attributes of a Good Deadline<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> Objective<\/strong> &#8211; Have you reached your goal? If the answer can\u2019t be answered with either yes or no, you need to rephrase it. Vague goals are useless candidates for deadlines.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Possible<\/strong> &#8211; Does your deadline fit your plan or is it wishful thinking? Don\u2019t buy groceries on an empty stomach on don\u2019t set deadlines when drunk with motivation.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Elimination<\/strong> &#8211; Can you eliminate parts of your plan if there isn\u2019t time? You need to know what to abandon if you run out of time.<\/li>\n<li><strong> Chunked <\/strong>&#8211; Break your deadline into components. For this article, I\u2019ve given myself forty minutes to write and ten to do an image.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Be thrifty with your time because you can\u2019t save it or buy any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have forty minutes to write this article. Do I need to limit my time? Probably not, but I\u2019d 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,4,680],"tags":[26,30],"class_list":{"0":"post-343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-discipline","7":"category-goal-setting","8":"category-nc-productivity","9":"tag-goals","10":"tag-time","11":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/20\/budget-your-time-how-to-use-deadlines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have forty minutes to write this article. 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