Setting Effective Deadlines

Hi,

Today’s email is about how to set deadlines that help you take action.

In general, deadlines can help overcome procrastination, which is why many procrastinators only manage to get things done right before they’re due. However, for deadlines to work well, they generally need to be:

• Concrete, by specifying an exact point in time, like “Friday at 2pm”.

• Appropriate, by not giving you too much or too little time to do what you need to.

• Meaningful, by involving a strong incentive for abiding by them. This can be an internal commitment, or something external, like a person who will hold you accountable.

In addition, there are two special types of deadlines that you might benefit from using:

• Intermediate deadlines, which correspond to specific steps that you need to complete along the path to your final goal. For example, if you need to write a book, then you can set a deadline for finishing each chapter.

• Ultra-short deadlines, which are measures in seconds or minutes. For example, if you need to make a decision already, then you can set a timer on your phone for 1 minute, at the end of which you have to choose.

I hope you'll find this helpful.

Have a great week,
Itamar