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Today is the last Monday of my single life, and apart from feeling very confused about everything, I also feel an urge to help make sure everything for the wedding is all set before our big day Saturday. On the other hand, my fiancee is also scrambling and really worried about whether or not everything is prepared the right way and to her liking.

All this is normal because my fiancee and I are both pushed to work harder by the fact that we are extra worried as the wedding day (deadline) approaches. This is funny in a way because one would think that we would try to spend more time in the beginning to get everything settled way ahead of time and relax during the last few days.

Translate this theory to our work, and we can see all the similarities. We all have projects, and with project comes schedules. It is often said that schedule is one of the most important aspect of the whole project. With most projects, the last few days (or hours) are usually the busiest and the most important. It is not uncommon to hear that people work really late and even on weekends just to meet the deadline.

Sometimes, knowing that the deadline is approaching becomes the number one motivator for us to work efficiently. No more chatting, no more coffee breaks, and no more staring into space.

Good project managers know this, so most big projects are broken down to major milestones, and further broken them down into tasks. This way, there are always deadlines and people are more efficient from the beginning.

So being smart people that we are, let’s adopt this idea to help motivate ourselves. If deadlines motivate us, then the obvious thing to do is give ourselves mini deadlines. There are actually additional benefits as well. Here are two more.

1. Success of meeting deadlines are easily measured - This means that we can actually feel good about ourselves because we can easily tell that we succeeded. To make us feel even better, we can give ourselves rewards for our accomplishments!
2. Deadline for tasks mean there is an emphasis on completion - Often times, people fail not because the decision to do something is right or wrong. The fact that most people spend too much time deciding on the right route to take is their number one failure. Action is key and giving ourselves a deadline puts us in a position to move forward.

I know most people probably dread the world deadline, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all!

Happy Monday!