Why do we tear away the deadlines and how to stop it

I love deadlines! Especially the whistle with which they break.

Writer Douglas Adams

We all know the importance of planning for effective work. Sometimes we literally obsessed with it. But when it comes time to embark on the task list, we start to lay them, holding out the execution until the last minute, if not completely missed deadlines. So it is with all to a greater or lesser extent. And there is a justification, which lies in the peculiarities of our thinking.

Why do we tear away the deadlines

Maybe you've heard the story of the Sydney Opera House, whose construction is planned to finish in In 1963, spending 7 million Australian dollars, but in the end finished only 10 years later - in 1973 year. In addition, the original design of the theater has undergone many changes, and the building became smaller and was eventually spent 102 million dollars!

Designers have become a victim of widespread common mistakes: they misjudged how long it would take the task. Again and again they had to postpone dates and change the plan of work, because they do not take into account the problems that have affected the speed of project implementation.

Our thinking is arranged in such a way that we build into the plan as much time and money as necessary, if all goes according to the best scenario.

But inevitably there are obstacles in the way, as a result of which the volume of work is growing rapidly. Then we explain the failure of terms that unforeseen circumstances and not the fact that we could not account for the possibility of their occurrence in the planning stage.

Why do we still need deadlines

Strict deadlines are not only constantly frustrated, but also bring a lot of stress to the project participants, so maybe better to abandon them? Not. Often, the presence of the deadline - the only reason that the work at all budge.

Earlier word dead-line called the line around the prison for which the prisoners could not intrude, day or night, under fear of getting shot instantly.

Now deadlines associated exclusively with the work, and their failure does not threaten to shoot the entire department. But the essence remains the same: the deadline - life or death for your productivity or project.

Work fills the time allotted to it.

Parkinson's Law

Any task will take so much time, how much you are allotted to it. That's why sometimes we are surprised how quickly we can do something. For this reason, we are often at the limit of capacity in the last minutes of finishing something that a few days or even weeks was given.

Taking into account the Parkinson's Law, we understand that if we do not set a time limit for which the task to be performed, then we'll do it forever!

How to overcome the persistent failure of terms

How to deal with a mistake planning and the presence of deadlines to pay for their own benefit? It will be very difficult, because will have to fight with the biases in our thinking. But the knowledge of how deadlines change our behavior to help increase productivity.

bright start

When you distribute the workload for a month, a week, even a day ahead, the most densely hammer beginning of the period and the maximum unload the remaining time before the deadline.

First of all, focus on the most complex, important and labor-intensive tasks project. You will still make them longer than expected. Humble. But thanks to your active start you at the end of the period produced a time that you will spend to solve the problems of unplanned and complete the task.

You do not need to be loaded on the eve of the deadline headlong into new challenges, meeting the pitfalls of which you may not suspect.

additional deadline

Personally, for myself mark the deadline for a few days before the real one. So do marketer advises Matthew Guy (Matthew Guay) of Zapier. Ideal if you do not know how much time you have on your personal deadline before the real - a day or three. But this situation is poorly represented. You, of course, will still remember how much time you have left, so you will need willpower to not disrupt their timing.

Come up with some reward for yourself, if you do the work within the specified time period. However, a good promotion will have the satisfaction of completed tasks on time.

public utterance

"I solemnly swear to finish an article to five in the evening" - say it's not in my head, and loud for the entire office. Now the game has entered your self-esteem. It would be more painful for you, force yourself to work actively or disrupt the timing and loudly acknowledge his failure?

Writer Evelyn Waugh, beginning to his new novel "Brideshead Revisited", stated publicly: "I'm starting a new book, and write it in three months." In not resist time and several times again in public, he asked to postpone the deadline. However, he quickly finished a novel, because he knew that readers will remember his promise and await his execution.

Constant reminders of the approaching deadline

If we start to work on a major project, the terms are usually quite large. Deadline becomes a kind of abstraction - somewhere, sometime. The closer, the more clearly we realize how much time we have left, and we can more adequately match the amount and scope of the remaining work.

Set yourself regular reminders that will constantly return you to reality, notifying the approach of the day X:

• term of performance expires in a month;
• week;
• three days;
• day;
• 8 ocloc'k.

Yes, it's stress, it would be annoying. But maybe this is the only way to spur yourself?

Any business always takes longer than expected, even taking into account Hofstadter's Law.

Hofstadter's Law

This comic recursive Law Ph.D. Douglas Hofstadter says about the impossibility of planning periods. Deadlines are literally designed to disrupt them. However, we hope that these tips will help you not to bring the case to a critical point when the constant nevyderzhivanie timing is extremely harmful to your working image and plunges you into a state of continuous stress.

And do you manage not to disrupt the deadlines?