Have you ever wished you had a little more time to do a project? Or have you asked for extra days to deliver a job? Despite owning own nose as an entrepreneur, there is not always the luxury of unlimited time on company projects. Frankly speaking, without setting and meeting deadlines, it is difficult to do anything quickly or with focus. Leaving everything to be solved on time and without programming can make everything much less efficient.
Especially for entrepreneurs, who are starting their company and struggling daily to establish themselves in the market. You may have heard this expression: “If you want help, ask someone busy. The unemployed person will always find an excuse”. This is due to the belief that busy people have strategies in place to prioritize and manage all the things they need to do. This usually helps to meet deadlines. Deadlines give structure and form. They create an atmosphere of responsibility and help to avoid negative consequences. Some people love it, others hate it, but if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, it is important to set deadlines and meet the same.
Many people set deadlines without measuring the work that a particular activity requires or the actual delivery capacity. This behavior is unreliable and can ruin your credibility. Hence the need to set deadlines that can be met. It is important to emphasize that the deadline has to be aligned with reality.
For this, it is necessary to take into account some criteria, such as urgency, importance, delivery capacity, effort, and energy necessary to perform the tasks. Only in this way will you be able to deliver on what you promised on the set date.
For success-driven individuals, a deadline often becomes an engaging challenge and an opportunity to generate value. If suddenly the deadline is given for the delivery of the work to a client turns out to be much earlier than expected, or it is decided to present a final result that far exceeds the client's expectations, the successful entrepreneur will use the deadline as a pivot towards the 'excellence.
Well-motivated people use their creativity and best management skills to redesign their workflows and resources to get the job done faster and exceed expectations. Many entrepreneurs have learned to use deadlines as a strategic advantage in business negotiations.
If you are engaged in a large project, then by setting milestones, you can create motivating conditions for the feeling of progress, movement towards the ultimate goal. To visualize the process, create detailed spreadsheets and record in them the stages of work on the project, responsible persons, and their results. Mini-deadlines allow you to use the room for maneuver, even if the overall project does not involve such maneuvers.
Constantly meeting deadlines has the marginal advantage of making you and your team safer in the long run. The security you gain from the final delivery of products, services or your creations allows you not only to have more customers or responsibilities in the future, but also to explore new approaches, new techniques and further advance your business.
The ability to meet deadlines is a reliable metric for evaluating performance, especially in the business world, even more so if you are selling a service. Even in your non-work life, the practice of setting personal deadlines is a key indicator of your personal success.
Always set reasonable deadlines by involving everyone and getting their feedback on how to best plan a business or project, so you can make yourself and your team accountable for meeting deadlines.
