Hot take incoming:
Your goal doesn’t need an ambitious deadline.
There, I said it. In fact, your goal doesn’t have to have a deadline at all.
It’s common advice
Recently I’ve been doing some work on my business plan & business goals, and this one piece of advice keeps cropping up: set a deadline. Ideally, an ambitious deadline.
Respectfully, I couldn’t disagree more.
Ambitious deadlines lead to problems
Humans are adorably consistent in underestimating time required to complete something, so setting ambitious timelines inevitably leads to problems.
Overwork, because you can’t make the deadline without working extra hours. (Remember, after a certain point there’s an inverse relationship between the quantity of hours you work and the quality of your work.)
Stress and burnout.
Neglecting other important areas of life and work, because feeling short on time pushes your brain into a Scarcity mindset, where you become completely blinkered and unable to reprioritise.
Losing motivation to achieve the goal (and possibly giving up) because you feel like a failure if you can’t keep to the timeline.
Those are some pretty big down sides.
So why does anyone use deadlines?
Deadlines are good for several things:
Coordinating multiple people’s actions on the same project.
Future planning, when it’s important to know ahead of time when you’ll hit milestones.
Being ready for events that will happen on a set date.
Giving clients or superiors clear expectations about when to expect work from you.
If any of the above apply to your project, then setting deadlines can be really useful. (Although, I would argue that setting generous deadlines is more likely to allow you to reach your goals without stress than setting ambitious deadlines.)
But I won’t get anything done without deadlines!
Quite often though, people use deadlines for a different reason to any of the above. They use deadlines for motivation, so that they’ll actually get the work done.
In other words, they slap a deadline band-aid over their lack of motivation, hoping that if they set themselves a tight timeline they’ll push through and get things done.
I don’t believe laziness exists. Instead? I believe that if you’re lacking in motivation, it’s time to get curious about why. If you’ll procrastinate without an ambitious deadline, there’s something else going on there.
Maybe the work isn’t suited to your strengths, or you’re tired and overwhelmed thanks to other pressures, or you don’t actually care about achieving the goal, or you just don’t know what your next best step is.
All of these are problems that need to be addressed in their own right.
And, sure, if you have to use deadlines in the meantime to help you get things done, then use them. But be kind to yourself, and consider whether what your brain and body really need right now is less pressure instead of more.
How I’m implementing deadline-free goals
I’ve got some pretty exciting goals in my business right now:
- Sort out my systems so everything’s in tip top shape (especially email, since I’ve been neglecting that for a while)
- Increase the size of my waiting list by 100%
- Get to the point where I can work 9 months of the year (instead of my current 10)
Previously, I would have felt pressure to put definite timelines around these goals, but honestly? Every time I’ve done that with major projects, I just ignored the deadlines and worked at my own pace anyway. Sometimes I felt good about beating the deadline, sometimes I feel bad about missing it, but it didn’t function in any meaningful way.
Now? Instead of deadlines, I’m making roadmaps. I’m clear on the steps and milestones I need to hit along the way. When unexpected detours arise, it’s not stressing me out, because I know I’m still on my way to the destination. When shortcuts present themselves, I’m still excited.
How would it feel to ditch your ambitious deadlines, and make a roadmap instead?
