Why do we miss deadlines, and how to deal with it

“I love deadlines. I especially like the whistle with which they rush past me. ” - Douglas Adams .



We are obsessed with planning when it comes to a future project. But when we need to seriously approach the task and turn plans into actions, we push them further and further away until the very last minute, or worse, beyond the deadline.



It happens to everyone. But some people have more difficulty with deadlines than everyone else. It is worth considering that this is only partly our fault: the human brain conceals a hidden predisposition, which leads us into this trap.

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Why do we miss deadlines

Construction of the famous Opera House in Sydney was to be completed in 1963, the planned budget of the project was $ 7 million. I bet that you won’t be surprised how it all ended: a smaller version of the building was completed ten years later, in 1973, and the price of construction rose to $ 102 million.



Developers are victims of mistakes in planning: our subconscious propensity for underestimating how much time it will take for us to solve one or another task brings us. It also makes us think that external factors lead to missing deadlines, and not our inability to effectively plan.

When we are initially engaged in planning our work, then the deadlines for the delivery of a project usually seem to be quite distant and abstract, therefore our calculations are initially deceptive. When the deadline gets closer and closer, it becomes more “tangible”, and we finally begin to work on our project.



The fact that we make mistakes in planning over and over again is partly to blame for the fact that we do not take into account failures and work delays. When we calculate the time we need to complete a task or project, we present the best scenario for each stage of our work process. Inevitably, we are faced with difficulties, and the work swells up to huge volumes, making the task of “fitting” into the deadline even more difficult for us.

Why do we still need deadlines

Although the stress of working in an approaching deadline may be confusing, but as Melissa Dahl from Science of Us correctly noted, deadlines “are often the only reason people complete anything at all” .



Historically, the word "deadline" had a literal meaning. That is how (dead - dead, line - line) was called the border around the prison, "for which prisoners should not go in day or night, otherwise they would be shot."

Today, deadlines are associated with jobs, and we are much less afraid of the threat of punishment. But the idea has not changed: deadlines can mean the life or death of your productivity, project or work.



"The work fills all the time allotted for its implementation," - Parkinson's law .



In other words, the work will take as much time as you allocate to it. That is why we sometimes wonder how much we can do in a short period of time. And that's why we often frantically finish something in the last minutes, although we had days and weeks.



Given the Parkinson's law, it can be concluded that the work can hardly be completed without concrete deadlines. If you are given eternity to complete any task, then it will take you so much time.

How to overcome the deadline offset

So how do we deal with errors in planning and stop missing deadlines for the project? It is incredibly difficult to overcome the inclinations embedded in our subconscious, but understanding how deadlines affect our behavior can help us work more productively, despite delays.

1. Download the first half of your week.

When you are creating a work plan for a week, month, or even one day, make the beginning of your workflow the most loaded. First, perform the most difficult, important or urgent tasks, leaving the later period free. Your work will inevitably require more time than you had planned, additional responsibilities may also appear that knock you off course.



Having a reserve in a week or a month, you get the opportunity to flexibly change your workflow when difficulties arise on your way. Then you do not have to deal with new tasks that you previously planned to work around.

2. Make a buffer.

Here's a trick I learned from Matthew Guay, a marketer working for the Zapier project: set the project delivery date a couple of days before the current deadline. In the past, I did just that, and it made me focus on the date I specified in my task manager, even though it was earlier than necessary. I just did not have a record with the actual date of the project. I did not have a rule about how many extra days I give myself as a buffer. So I never knew 100% how distant the actual deadline was from the one that I set myself, so I could not afford to miss the date recorded in my task manager.



If you can not adhere to the deadlines set by you, this method can lead you into a hopeless situation.

3. Publish your deadlines.

"I solemnly swear that I will finish this article by five in the evening."



If you silently promise yourself something, then no one will know whether you keep your promise or not. Therefore, say it out loud, then you can feel the responsibility.



Having publicly declared your goals, you make a timely meeting of the deadline a matter of honor - you have to choose between the desire to postpone work until later and the opportunity to publicly fail.



When Evelyn Waugh (Evelyn Waugh) began writing “ Return to Brideshead ” he set himself the goal of completing the novel within three months. He promulgated his goals, stating: "I created a plan for a new novel, the writing of which will take me about three months."



Evelyn did not complete all the work on the project on time - he repeatedly asked for a postponement of the deadline. But thanks to his public statement, he really wrote quickly, trying to fit in on time, because he knew that other people expected him to finish the book on time.

4. Set automatic reminders.

If none of the above does not help you deliver projects on time, try setting a reminder using the utility for automating the actions of Zapier .



To try out this tactic, use the Google Calendar, marking your deadlines as upcoming events, then use Zapier to receive SMS reminders, Slack messages, email or any other means of communication that suits you. In this way, you will receive the relevant notification 24, 12 or 8 hours before the deadline. Time and messages are configured. Make the messages so motivated by you: include quotes in them or, like Evelyn Waugh, let them be public reminders.



Deadlines are designed to skip them. But with a deeper understanding of the need to establish deadlines for the delivery of projects and how we interact with them, it is possible to gain from them. And if you go to your workplace with more confidence that you are able to complete your projects before the deadline, do not forget about the Hofstadter 's law : "Any business always lasts longer than expected, even if you take into account the Hofstadter's law."