{"id":6710,"date":"2017-02-07T09:21:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T16:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=6710"},"modified":"2018-03-29T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T19:59:00","slug":"deadlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/07\/deadlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Set Deadlines for Your Goals?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Say you have a personal goal: you want to build a business, lose weight or learn a language. Does it make more sense to set a deadline for that goal (i.e. I want to speak conversational French in 9 months) or should you ignore it?<\/p>\n

I think this is an interesting question because, on the one hand, a deadline can motivate action. By knowing you need to accomplish something in a particular period of time, you\u2019re less likely to procrastinate on it.<\/p>\n

However, a deadline can also be deflating if it turns out your goals\u2019 natural timeframe isn\u2019t in line with your projections. While you can often accelerate progress by working a bit harder, many goals have a natural timeline they will be achieved at. If you set your deadline much faster than that mark, you may end up frustrated when it looks like you can\u2019t reach it.<\/p>\n

When Do Deadlines Work Well?<\/h2>\n

In my mind, deadlines work well for your goals in the following conditions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You can be confident your deadline and the natural timeframe for the goal are consistent.<\/li>\n
  2. You have a fair bit of flexibility with how much effort you can put into the goal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    With the first point, setting a goal which has a timeframe that is much longer than your deadline will inevitably lead to frustration. For instance, if your goal is to lose 30 lbs in a month, not only is this unlikely to be achieved but you might have to risk your health to accomplish it. Similarly, if you want to build a six-figure online business in six months, you\u2019ll also probably be disappointed, no matter how hard you work.<\/p>\n

    The second point, however, is important too. Deadlines work because they can motivate action. But if constraints mean you really can\u2019t invest more time and energy towards a goal, there isn\u2019t much point.<\/p>\n

    For example, if you\u2019re trying to learn Japanese and you can only invest three hours per week, a deadline doesn\u2019t make much sense to me. Unless you are prepared to increase the investment or work harder when you\u2019re behind on your goal, a deadline is just there to taunt you.<\/p>\n

    What Goals Shouldn\u2019t Have Deadlines?<\/h2>\n

    Conversely, I think goals shouldn\u2019t have hard deadlines when:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. You don\u2019t know what the natural timeframe is for the goal.<\/li>\n
    2. Your investment into the project is relatively fixed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If you have no idea what is a reasonable deadline to set for a goal, I\u2019m not sure it makes much sense to set one. Unless, of course, you can be prepared to ramp up the investment of time and effort by a large amount, in the case that you\u2019re not meeting your target.<\/p>\n

      Set a Period of Focus, Instead of a Deadline<\/h2>\n

      A good alternative, I\u2019ve found, to setting goals with deadlines is to set a period of focus instead. This allows you to constrain your time, so you don\u2019t have a project that extends into infinity. But instead of setting a firm standard you need to reach by the end of the project, you just see how far you can go.<\/p>\n

      The MIT Challenge<\/a>, had a traditional deadline: pass all the exams and do the programming projects in one year. When I was learning Chinese, in contrast, I had a period of focus: learn Chinese over three months and see how much progress I can make.<\/p>\n

      Starting with a period of focus can be useful when you\u2019re not sure what the natural timeframe is for a certain goal. Then, as you\u2019re working on the goal, and have a better sense of where you might end up, you can set a more traditional deadline to motivate action. Halfway through my Chinese learning experiment, I decided to write the HSK 4<\/a>, since I felt it was reachable with the time I had left.<\/p>\n

      What do you do? Do you tend to set deadlines for your goals, a period of focus or neither? What do you do to stay motivated and avoid frustration when working on your own projects?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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