Ways to Set Proper & Realistic Deadlines
As college students, one of the hurdles that we have to face in our daily life is deadlines. No matter how hard the deadlines are, we still have to finish that, like it or hate it.
A few days ago, I took a Soft Skill Class from Generasi GIGIH 2.0 by Yayasan Anak Bangsa Bisa & GoTo. The main topic of this class is Time Management which correlates with one of our concerns, which is deadlines. There are five pillars to make good time management, which are:
All the five pillars above are the most important things to do if you want to have good time management. I am sure that if we can already manage all the pillars above, any deadlines we might have to face in the future will be more manageable.
Deadlines sometimes can be double-edged of swords, which means they can be helpful and can be a source of frustration if set improperly. To avoid the frustrating effect of deadlines, we have to set the deadlines as realistically as possible and put them according to our ability to finish them.
Establishing a personal deadline can sometimes be too lenient because we tend to postpone the deadlines and procrastinate or push ourselves to do so many deadlines in one day.
So, besides setting valuable and realistic deadlines, it is also essential to stick to them. How? Use these five tips strategies!
Disclaimer: I have already tried these five tips, and I found these are the top five for me. Hopefully, it can also be yours! :D
1 — Measure your Capabilities to Finish the Task
Being realistic and avoiding overestimating deadlines is a key to making a proper deadline. Setting attainable goals with reasonable deadlines is better than setting impossible goals that may never see completion. Before arranging our deadlines, we have to know our capabilities to finish them so that we can measure the time needed to complete that.
Sometimes it’s good to push our limit to get the best result but don’t push ourselves too hard; that will only lead us to “burn-out” and affect our performance at work.
2 — Create a Sense of Urgency
The Scarier, The Better
It is one of the untold truths about deadlines. Whenever the deadlines are near, they tend to be more intimidating; with that, we have the tendency to put that in our top priorities.
So setting the deadlines earlier than the actual deadline can be one of the solutions for you if postponing the deadlines is one of your habits. Because when we do not give ourselves way more time than we think we need and create a sense of urgency in our tasks or deadlines, we can finish them as soon as possible, no matter how complex the task is.
3 — Break it into “Bite-Sized” Milestones
A Bigger Task, Bigger Responsibilities
I believe that feeling overwhelmed when it’s time to make some progress on deadlines comes from the responsibility of the task we have to finish. Also, as a human, we tend to be more ambitious with the goals we set for ourselves.
To reduce the overwhelming feeling because of the tasks is to break the larger tasks into smaller — “bite-sized” milestones.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a paper. Rather than telling yourself, “I will finish my whole paper by the second half of the year,” you are better off setting different deadlines for each chapter, a deadline for revising, and so on.
Breaking an enormous task into these smaller milestones makes deadlines feel much more manageable also more likely to get the motivation to start and work toward the deadline.
4 — Set Reminders
Set reminders of our deadlines can help prevent any unpleasant things that might happen in the future, like forgetting to put our submission within the given deadline or getting pushed aside by distractions.
Making a calendar event or setting the alarm on our phone to ring a few times before the assignment’s due date is one of the things you can do to remind yourself. Also, if in the companies, we can write a note on the whiteboard or periodically ask a colleague to check in with you about the progress.
5 — Write it Down
Writing down the deadlines is necessary when we want to make a proper deadline. Having written deadlines makes them more tangible than internal decisions alone. Also, with the written deadlines, we can be more precise with our goals and the time frame of the deadlines.
“Everybody knows the power of deadlines — and we all hate them. But their effectiveness is undeniable.” - David Eagleman
PS. I got these amazing tips from some resources, and one of the most impactful sources for me to make a proper and realistic deadline is this source. You can also check this website to get more information on making your deadlines work!
