The Time Is Fast Approaching
I’m in a panic, Christmas is Friday, and I’m not ready for it. In fact, I’m so unorganised, I might just cancel Christmas in my house!
Of course I won’t, but if I’d planned things a bit better I wouldn’t be in such a ‘flap’ right now.
It’s very similar when it comes to completing work tasks and projects.
It is always better to set realistic goals and a deadline is just another goal. By having that goal you have something to aim for.
You will be more motivated to finish your project if you know that something is going to happen as a result of your hard work and can look forward to the day after – did it or didn’t it work?
If goals and deadlines are missed there is a threat of consequence. Valuable business could be lost, reprimands could be dished out, and employee engagement and productivity levels could plummet.
So how can you avoid these damaging consequences of failed goals and deadlines?
Breaking It Down
Managing a task or project is much more manageable if broken down into bite-size pieces, a least four if possible. Don’t just mark the final deadline date on the calendar, give yourself mini-deadline dates per piece and meet them, no matter what the cost may be. Failing to meet one of your own mini-deadlines should be regarded as a failure to meet the final deadline.
Plan Ahead
Completing goals and meeting deadlines is comparable to playing a good game of Chess. Good chess players plan five to ten moves ahead. Bad chess players only concentrate on the current move. If you focus on events several days down the road, you’ll be better equipped to handle any potential disasters that pop up. It also allows you to set aside a day or two before the final deadline and completing your goal to polish your project and add the finishing touches. Don’t just focus on today – focus on the whole week.
Reward Yourself
Something to look forward to. A simple way to reinforce meeting your own mini-deadlines is to reward yourself. If you completed the first phase of the project ahead of time, reward yourself with a night out, a nice dinner or a gift for yourself.
Organisation
Organisation is key to getting a project or task completed as it should and on time. In this day and age, with smartphones, tablets and cloud computing, there’s simply no excuse to be unorganised. Simply using your Google Calendar will sync deadlines across all your mobile devices so you can keep aware and up-to-date with all current deadlines. Cloud-based calendars and documents can also be shared and edited with colleagues, which makes working within a team a breeze.
Handling Short Notice Deadlines
Last, but not least, always be ready to meet short-notice deadlines. These occur in every organisation, upsetting employees and managers alike. If you manage your time effectively, meeting a sudden short-notice deadline should not be a problem to you. Smoothly and coolly meeting a last minute deadline makes you look great – especially when your procrastinating co-workers are tearing their hair out.
Experts in the field of employee research, The Survey Initiative pride themselves in the work they do in partnership with their clients – meeting their own deadlines effectively.
If you would like any information on how we could help you and your organisation with anything to do with employee research, then please give us a call on +44 (0)1255 850051 or contact via our website.