If you’re anything like me, it can be hard to work on something unless you can see that red line looming in the distance.
Deadlines are a fact of life. Some people love them and some people hate them. But love them or hate them you can’t deny they get things done.
In this blog I’m going to chat about a couple of ways that setting deadlines, even imaginary ones, will improve your business.
- Deadlines force you to avoid perfectionism and motivate you to complete tasks
Having a deadline is definitely a motivation. If you don’t get the task done by X date, there are consequences. Now, when you were in school those consequences were real (detention, marks on a permanent record) but now you run your own business the consequences are less tangible.
But they are real. You disappoint clients, your audience, yourself. You risk financial losses. If you can’t work to a deadline, the consequences can be severe.
Of course there are those that can complete tasks without a deadline and if you’re one of them, good for you! But check out my next point before you sack off deadlines completely.
- Deadlines create urgency for your audience
It’s not just you that can benefit from deadlines. Your audience can actually benefit too. I’m not suggesting pushy, in your face, shouty deadlines. I’m talking about gentle doors are closing nudges. But these must be concrete. No saying you’re going to close and then not because you didn’t get the expected people in, you have to have integrity.
Having a deadline creates a sense of urgency for the buyer. They realise that they have to make a decision and can’t put it off any longer and often it’s the push they need to change their lives.
- Deadlines help you prioritise what really needs to happen
You know the old analogy about juggling balls and some of them being rubber and some of them being china. Well deadlines are like that. They show you exactly which balls are rubber and which are china.
When you know that, you know what to proritise.
So do you set deadlines for yourself?
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