Hello dear friends!

Investing in the deadline for completing a particular task is an indispensable condition both in the working field and in everyday matters.

Have you encountered the problem of not competently arranging the time frame? Or did you manage to complete the planned task on time and bargain for a couple of free minutes from the hands of the clock? Set a deadline means .

Sometimes we get lost in the lists of planned tasks and strive to fulfill them situationally, that is, with the onset of the moment: “It should have been done yesterday!”. Delaying until the last opportunity to do everything on time, after unsuccessful planning, we notice a total lack of strength, hours and energy.

What is a deadline? This is a designated, deadline for the completion of the task - the date and time to which the task is attached by default.

In today's material, I have prepared tips that will help you understand the value of this approach to everyday affairs, simplifying their implementation.

In order for the application of setting deadlines in life to have positive effect , it is necessary to practice such a skill constantly. Goals for each day are a great reason to do it.

Knowing how much time you need to solve everyday tasks and issues, as well as qualitatively distributing work tasks by time frames, you will be able to do everything on time and without much effort.

For example, any assignment of a manager or a higher person in a work field is a must. denote by time. If you need to make a report, then understanding how much time you need to compile it, it is much easier to see the overall picture of the busy day.

Doing a note in your diary about the fact that it must be done before 14.00, you will concentrate all your efforts to bring the matter to its logical conclusion.

If in household matters you have accumulated a lot of cases, then you can organize them in a similar way. For example:

• repair the faucet in the kitchen until 18.06.2016 until 12.00;
• help the child with homework every day from 20.00 to 21.00, etc.

By practicing this skill, you will be able to do not get lost among everyday problems and solve them as they come in, as well as make sure that control what is happening personally and not subject to situations.

Of course, in order to simplify your task, you need to stock up on helpers. They can unload your brain, because you can keep everything in your head. necessary information happens to be extremely difficult. I will suggest that you choose tool or gadget what suits you specifically: diary, organizer, calendar, notepad, notifications on your phone, as well as reminders.

By creating schedule your day in advance and having thought it over logically, the next day can be clearly and pleasantly orderly. Stickers that can be indispensable at home should be prescribed taking into account the ability to meet the deadlines for completing the task.

Similar technique develops discipline and does not allow important, but not urgent, assignments to drift. For example, small, household duties can be formalized as follows and be on a prominent place:

1. For a child:
   • do homework until 20.00;
   • take out the trash before 17.00;
   • walk the dog until 19.00, etc.
2. For the other half:
   • go to Parent meeting at 16.00;
   • wash the car until 21.00;
   • pay for the Internet until 22.00.

In a similar way, when planning tasks for yourself, you build a clear vision what needs to be done, and most importantly - when it should be embodied in reality.
If you don't set a time frame, you run the risk of falling into the trap of the belief: " Oh, yes, somehow later, because it does not burn!».

Organization of work, thinking and lifestyle - important aspect in the making right approach to action.

If a person does not organize himself, then how can you demand this from others? Chaos in the head and the desire to do everything or take care of everything at the same time, has the form of an abbreviation of VKD, which I called as " kind of huge activity».

Sometimes you can get tired from the fact that you make efforts absolutely not on those aspects that require similar approach, during the time when important and urgent task, burns with a blue flame.

Failure to meet deadlines- painful and nervous moment. When this happens, it is important to curb yourself in time and throw all your strength not into lamenting, but save the situation.

First of all, you need calm down and count the time to do an important job. Having set a new time plan, you should pay attention to the most difficult and energy-consuming moments tasks.

Having done a complex layer of work, gradually move on to more simple tasks and make sure that annoying factors next to you was as little as possible.
Limit the areas of perception, in the form of TV, radio, people that simply distract you from concentration.

Manifestation enthusiasm at a critical moment and are able to compensate for the lost time by using maximum potential and hidden opportunities.

The main problem is that people do not use deadlines is desire to get rid of. The familiar habit of postponing for a ghostly tomorrow plays a very malicious and bad role in the perception of a person.

When there is an opportunity do what you want here and now, we often make a choice towards the future.

Compromise with yourself, making every effort to realize your plan within the deadline saves a lot of time and frees it up for more important things such as family, children, loved ones and friends.

Confessing the principle: Business before pleasure", you hold a direct path to becoming yourself, both successful and. The ability to kick yourself in time or refuse entertainment and pleasure has a positive effect on next steps as well as development.

Teaching yourself discipline using the deadline in everyday and work affairs, you will notice positive dynamics your height and improving academic performance.

Friends, that's all. Subscribe to update my blog and recommend it to your friends for reading.

In the comments, tell us about how you apply deadlines in your life? And how effective are they for you?

See you on the blog, bye bye!

It happens to the best of us different reasons. Perhaps you did not receive analytics from your colleagues in time. Or they didn’t calculate the time spent on design. Or maybe a “Giving Thursday” at a taco restaurant turned into a “Rampant Eating Day” that you could never miss! Whatever it was, you already understood that the deadline failed. And neither your boss nor your clients will be happy to know about it. Attention, the question is: what to do? Mashable columnist Adrian Granzella Larssen knows the answer.

As a writer and as an editor, unfortunately, I have been on both sides of these barricades. And learned a few tricks that in such difficult situations will allow you to maintain your relationship with the other side and minimize negativity.

Let us know as soon as possible if you miss the deadline

There is nothing more infuriating (I'm not talking about unprofessionalism) than the phrase: “Oops, I didn’t have time, and today is the deadline. Let's move it to next week."

Of course, there may be extenuating circumstances. For example, you got taco poisoning and couldn't get to work to finish a project. But in any case, you need to let people know as early as possible that you are not doing well with the work they depend on. It will be much easier for them to come to terms with this if you present the dilemma something like this: “I dug into the project and realized that collecting data would take a little longer than I expected. Can I extend the deadline from this Friday to next?”. In addition, often people themselves are happy to push the deadline. If you warn them ahead of time.

Explain yourself. Briefly

If you are a professional, you must explain why you are not meeting deadlines. Of course, deadlines are far from always set fairly - sometimes the client’s contract specifies slightly different deadlines than those that were called in the report of your colleague, which he promised to give you “within the next week” - therefore the explanations may be different. But what remains unchanged is the need to briefly outline why the process has stretched out over time more than originally thought. At the same time, it is important not to blame anyone and not whine about your deceased dog, a broken computer, or an endless list of routine tasks.

It is enough to provide an explanation that is quite typical in such cases: “Unfortunately, I encountered unforeseen nuances in the process in software". That means you're doing yourself a big favor if...

Offer a bonus

One of my favorite authors also offers one of my favorite fail-deadline-and-survive strategies. She offers me a choice: either her bust will turn “out of time” into “on time”, or I will take pity and extend her deadline. “At the equator of the project, I realized that it would take a little more time. If I turn it in tomorrow, will it greatly upset the plans? If yes, then I will break into a cake, but I will hand it over tonight until nightfall. But no, I would be very grateful if you would allow me to finish tomorrow.” As a rule, I am even happy to succumb to her persuasion.

You can use the same trick but in a slightly different way. For example: “I will be happy to hand you pages of the report from one to six today. Or, if the case bears, then I will provide all 10 at once tomorrow.

If you really put someone in difficult situation your lateness, think about what you can offer this person in return to level the negative. I've had writers promise me two stories instead of one if I give them more time. If you have to report to the client, offer him a discount for waiting or a service / product as a gift. You can frame a person, but if you give something in return, you will leave a good impression of yourself.

Show professionalism and respect

If you've ever messed with deadlines, then you probably know how difficult it is to express gratitude in words for giving you a little more time. “I really appreciate it! This will not happen again!” you say, knowing that it will happen again.

Even if you missed the deadline, let people know when they can get the finished work. Instead of “Could you extend the deadline?” say, “Is it okay if I turn in the project by Thursday? It will be in your mailbox by noon." But it is better for you to be sure that it will be so. Unless, of course, you want people not to lose confidence in you as a professional.

Don't get used

Perhaps, best advice for everyone – it’s not a habit to miss deadlines. When my always reliable employee asks to delay the delivery of the material, I have nothing against it. When a person makes such a request regularly, each time it becomes harder for me to fulfill it.

Set yourself achievable deadlines if you do it yourself. In case not, I have a trick that always helps. In my diary, I write a reminder about the delivery of the project for a couple of days. ahead of time. The brain quickly abstracts and remembers this date as a real deadline, so even if I didn’t meet, I have a few days to correct the situation.

Any task, if you do not consider it urgent, is easy to postpone. Indeed, if you still have a whole month before the end of work, you can take your time and do something more enjoyable. But such an approach, as a rule, turns out to be disastrous: time flies by quickly, and this threatens with a sleepless night on the eve of the project's completion.

The advice is simple: move the deadline in your personal work schedule to an earlier date.

Instead of giving yourself a month to complete a project, set aside a week for it. Even if you do not meet seven days, you will have time to refine, improve important little things, which usually pop up in last moment.

2. Set your personal deadline

We are all different. Surely, during the discussions of the project, you heard how colleagues offer a variety of ways to solve problems. Based on your own skills, experience and preferences, you will be able to create for yourself best plan completing a project without looking back at others.

Renowned business coach Carson Tate (Carson Tate) divides people into four categories of productivity:

• organizers - implement projects using attracted employees;
• prioritizers - focused on the main idea;
• visualizers - never lose sight of what is happening;
• planners - they know how to put in order even the little things.

Instead of in once more say, "I have to complete this by such and such a date," just completely focus on the task. You can immerse yourself in the project at once with your head or perform it in parts in parallel with other tasks. Most importantly, determine what is best for you.

3. Set an achievable goal

We all want to get the job done better and faster. But sometimes it is difficult to take the first step, to cope with the feeling that you have to move a mountain. Doubts arise: is it worth starting at all if the task is difficult and, perhaps, impossible?

Try to break the project down into several small but easily manageable steps. Imagine that you have to work in 10-minute increments. You will have to determine what you can do during this time. Perhaps it will be possible to come up with a design, make two or three slides, correct the text written earlier?

This method is good when you do not dare to start work, which means that you are pushing the project deadline further and further. Start with a small 10 minute task. If you enjoy splitting a task into chunks, stick to this strategy until the very end.

4. Set a reasonable time frame

What happens if you break? Will you tell yourself that this is not so important, or will you worry?

If you do not feel responsible for not meeting the deadline, there is no incentive for you to meet it. Need motivation.

Tell your boss that you will report on Monday instead of just marking it in your diary. Let a colleague know that you will finish your part of the project by the end of the day. External control will allow you to get together and complete the plan on time. You don't want to be a liar, do you?

Deadline - good way improve performance. But it should not result in self-hatred for constantly missed deadlines.

Try to implement these four tips. Perhaps you will learn to keep up with everything, enjoy the work and, over time, do more of it in the same time.

dead line (English) - deadline. Deadline is that line after which it is too late to try to do something, to be in time, decide and fix it. The deadline is the Rubicon, crossing which, it is no longer possible to see what was behind. Numbers - main force deadline. The eighth of March is the deadline for all men. The first of September is the deadline for all students. November 14 is a deadline for an unlucky designer who has been delaying submitting work for a calendar. December 31 is the deadline for the whole year…

Approaching deadline - absolutely special condition familiar to every office worker. Yes, in fact, not only for an office worker, and not only for an employee: for the first time, we meet such a feature of our civilization as a “deadline” at a student or even school bench. Many remember these feelings of inevitable sleepless nights and a state of doomed stress. It seems impossible to do the work, but not to do it is also impossible. And they did! Most likely, 90% of coursework, diplomas and essays are written in the last 1-2 days before the deadline. The deadline is embedded in the basic model of all modern labor processes. Our work is a dull "smoldering" of energy and psychic energy, interrupted by brief bursts of deadlines. Deadline (English dead-line) is a "dead line". Thus, the finality, inevitability and finality of this staged by someone is expressed. deadline. There are people who are pathologically afraid of deadlines for which to cross cherished trait as hard as a "dead zone" on a mined frontline. Others - tend to constantly "run ahead of the engine", and cannot work in the rhythm of most team members. A pathological attitude towards deadlines is extremely common among office workers. HEADHUNTER::Magazine tries to understand some features of the "deadline" psychology.

Origins of Fear of Deadlines

First, a few numbers. According to the candidate psychological sciences Timofey Nestik, about 20% of office workers are chronic pullers, or, scientifically, procrastinators. A procrastinator is a person who tends to artificially delay work and constantly put things off until later. These are the people who usually do all the work on the eve of the deadline. 10% of pullers, estimated American psychologists, - these are the so-called arousal procrastinators, arousal from excitement. These employees put off work until the last moment, because it is easier for them to work in a state of stress as a necessary source of mental energy, as a fuel in their psychosomatic motor. For such people, there is no stress - no work.

The other half of the pullers are distinguished low self-esteem and external locus of control. Such people are internally unsure of their professional suitability for the position they hold and are extremely afraid of low marks from the leader. They have very high level neuroticism, they tend to blame external circumstances for their failures. This type is called avoidant procrastinators. In addition, there are several intermediate types.

All procrastinators are characterized by anxiety, depression, low self-esteem. They are very impulsive. In general, the reason for the “shifted” behavior of a person on the eve of the deadline is not just the inability to organize one’s work and plan time, but deeper, personal characteristics.

Polyactivity and monoactivity

One reason seems to be that some people are polyactive while others are monoactive. Some people tend to do several things at the same time and live, as it were, in several time rhythms. Others can only do one thing effectively. The other two indicators on which most people differ is the degree of orientation towards the future. Some people live for today, others make far-reaching plans for the future. According to these two scales, Timofey Nestik distinguishes 4 types of employees in terms of their attitude to the deadline.

1) Communicators focused on the present, not the future, and on the simultaneous implementation of as much as possible a large number affairs. For them, the success of the entire project, and not a separate task, is important, the process of moving towards the goal, and not the gradual achievement of local results. Such people usually do not follow deadlines very much and may find themselves in a position where all the work will have to be completed in a short time.

2) Visionaries are highly future-oriented. At the same time, they are polyactive and can do many things at the same time. For them, it is not the observance of deadlines that is important, but the ultimate goal. Here, too, there is a danger of forgetting about current affairs under the influence of enthusiasm for the thought of the final result.

3) strategists take deadlines very seriously. They are monoactive and future-oriented. They are constantly checking real movement with a chart. If we compare a project to a train moving towards a goal, we can say that strategists look at the map, not out the window. It is easier for them to navigate approved plans than real events. Strategists cannot quickly adapt to change. It is easy for them to plan a project, but it is difficult to control the implementation of deadlines by all participants.

4) Racers monoactive and focused on the present. Continuing our metaphor, we can say that, unlike strategists, racers just “look out the window of a moving train”, follow real processes. However, they do not see ultimate goal, so they feel like they need to complete the first task as quickly as possible in order to start the second.

The main conflicts in the course of work arise, as a rule, between visionaries and racers, or between communicators and strategists, since these types differ most sharply from each other in key parameters. Interestingly, polyactivity or monoactivity is characteristic not only of individual employees, but also of entire cultures. Yes, Protestant countries Northern Europe usually monoactive and, accordingly, prone to scheduling and punctuality. The extreme polis of polyactivity is the Arabs and Hispanics. It is believed that Russians gravitate towards the polyactive pole, so that some impulsiveness and not too high punctuality are deeply embedded in our cultural, if not biological, “genes”. The way in which the national traditions of education form a certain attitude towards deadlines, I will try to show below with more specific examples.

I would like to make a reservation that all of the above types are normal, but they must play different role in a team. Some perform well in conditions quiet work others under stress. In any project, there always comes a moment when the deadlines begin to “crush”, then the roles change. Employees who are able to work more efficiently under stress come to the fore. Pathology arises if a person is constantly forced to work in a time rhythm unusual for him, or if he is an example of the hypertrophied development of traits of one psychological type.

Types of "timeholics"

American consultant psychologist Steven Berglas came up with special term for a pathological inability to comply deadlines- chronic timeabuse, chronic time dependence. According to Berglas, there are 4 types of timeholics:

1) Hurry-ups are often viewed by management as ideal employees. This type roughly corresponds to the riders of the previous classification. They often complete work ahead of schedule and do not need special control. At the same time, hurryers are usually asocial, working in a team, they quickly complete their part of the project, and then move on to something else. When someone needs their help, hurried people act as if the work of other employees or the group as a whole does not concern them at all. Thus, they not only arouse the ire of less agile individuals by being knocked out of total mass, but also quite pragmatically cannot cope with their duties if we are talking about teamwork.

2) Pleasing people take on other people's work all the time, as a result of which they are constantly late in completing their own tasks.

3) Perfectionists are constantly dissatisfied with the quality of their work, striving to make it perfect. As a rule, these are individuals of a narcissistic warehouse with a pathological fear of someone else's assessment (we already wrote about this psychological type in the article "What to do if your boss is a psychopath?"). They are always striving to delay the moment of evaluation, trying to bring the product of their labor to an impossible perfection.

4) Pullers are the type of employees we have already described with low self-esteem and increased attention to external authorities.

How is it treated?

For different psychological types consultants recommend different ways"treatment". Berglas recommends that pullers, with their pathological fear of low evaluation, say that the result of their work will be evaluated in a fairly distant future. Knowing that the terrible moment is delayed and will not come immediately, the puller will be able to cope with his fear much easier.

For hurryers, it is recommended to use their obsessive desire to receive praise from superiors. Such an employee can be appointed the head of a small group and formally give him leadership authority, but make sure that his work actually requires constant coordination and communication with colleagues. Then he will perceive collective work and socialization as his own. official duty and, seeking to earn superior praise, treat it with the usual zeal.

For lovers of likes, some form of personal training would be useful, which would teach them to better understand the limits of their performance and limit own desire take on more and more. The manager needs to constantly ask such an employee what exactly he does and for whom.

The most sophisticated treatment technique recommended by Berglas is the "correction" method for perfectionists. This method in psychiatry is called "immersion" and is applied to patients with germaphobia, a pathological fear of infection or infection. Psychiatrists deliberately surround such patients with objects that cause them to fear infection, forcing them to understand that they can quite survive in such a “contagious” environment. Similarly, with perfectionists, to help them come to terms with the fact that the result of their work will be evaluated by others, before giving work to management, such employees must be persuaded to show it as well as possible. more colleagues.

Timofey Nestik recommends that all procrastinators use the pleasant-gnawing method: in any task, look for something attractive and strive to do it first. Another way to help is with artificial pacemakers, some form of external signals that would remind you of the time. However, the most important thing is, perhaps, to understand the reason for your fear of the deadline, to take it out of the "gray zone" of the personality. It is known that any irrational fear decreases if someone is near us. Therefore, it is best to seek the support of colleagues or even supervisors. If the puller constantly discusses the progress of work with one of his colleagues, he will never be left alone with the deadline and with own fear in front of him.

Ruslan Ilyasov, director of human resources at Alcoa's Russian division, believes that a good remedy against "time dependence" is an established system of control through reporting. From his own army experience, he recalls that in the army they are punished not only for the fact that the project is not done or done poorly, but also for the fact that the serviceman did not report this to his superiors in a timely manner. From his employees, he requires that they come to him on their own initiative and constantly inform him about the progress of the work in the current mode. This method of control reduces the risk of missing a deadline or completing work at the last moment.

Grigory Trusov, President of the consulting company "Contact-Expert", has native method puller work. As a rule, he artificially shifts the deadlines, setting a fictitious deadline, so that the chronic puller will eventually complete the work by the real deadline. Another method - artificial creation emergency atmosphere, setting intermediate, often fictitious, deadlines. Because pullers are extremely sensitive to external evaluation the importance of their work, it is important to create an exaggerated idea of ​​its significance, to say that the success of the entire project depends on it.

"Pull Nation" - advantage or disadvantage?

According to Grigory Trusov, pullers are more common among Russian employees than in Western countries. Perhaps this is due to our training in school and student years. It is with us that the main evaluation criterion is the session, while in the West it is made up of the results of work throughout the semester. “Students live happily from session to session” - this saying is much more applicable to our education system than, for example, to the American one. At the same time, the willingness and ability of the majority of Russian employees to work under stress is not so much a disadvantage as a virtue. Gregory recalls that best project his company was involved with a Greek company that demanded the impossible: 6 complete marketing projects in one week. Despite the fact that work on each project takes six months, it turned out that this is possible. Thus, under stress, our employees are quite capable of demonstrating the wonders of superproductivity. The task of the manager, obviously, is to direct this colossal energy in the right direction. And here such “tricks” as artificial rush jobs or fictitious deadlines may well help. It is the ability to channel the energy of stress that determines how much the “nation of pullers” will be able to use its stress resistance potential for the next breakthrough in development, which in the past were so characteristic of Russian history.

Deadline is a pure concept business nature, sometimes used in Everyday life. Those who know him because of the nature of his work know how unpleasant and how unnerving it is.

A deadline is a clear time by which a task must be completed. On a subconscious level, a person is afraid of this, since each of us went to school, where it is necessary to do some task clearly by a certain time. Sometimes the deadline is set so that there is very little time to solve problems. In this case, advice will help you on how to allocate time in order to be in time for everything - you can read it in the corresponding article.

How to survive a deadline

Deadline people know how to change it safely or how to achieve good results with limited time. For beginners, it is not so easy, so we will help you with important tips.

Tip one: peak performance is essential, so eat less. The fact is that absolutely any food, when the stomach is full, lowers the efficiency of the brain, because the body switches automatically from one problem to another. This is pure physiology, which cannot be changed. In view of this, no one who deals with deadlines eats during a period of vigorous brain activity.

Tip two: if you work in the morning, drink quality coffee, and best of all, eat an apple. It is in the apple that required amount substances that allow the brain and body to wake up. Strong tea It can also help you cheer up.

Tip three: don't get tired. Do not overload the body and brains - if you feel tired, then rest. Wash your face, or better yet, take a contrast shower. If you're at work, find a way to go out for a walk. Overwork will not help you in any way, and saddles only worse. Read our other article about five ways to quickly get rid of fatigue, to always be on the crest of the wave, ready for victories and hard work.

Tip four: if you realize that you will absolutely not have time to complete the work by the deadline, tell the customer or boss about it in advance, coming up with compensation. Just like that, no one will forgive you for this, so be smart or at least try. The best way is to offer something in return. For the boss, this will not be the most pleasant news, so tell him that you will hand over the project later, but in more, more elaborate. If you are your own boss, then offer the client an additional benefit from your being late so as not to lose him once and for all.

Tip five: if you are postponing a deadline or asking for it to be rescheduled, then repeated error it can not be. Remember - no uncertainty. If you said that you are not on time, then formulate your request as follows: “I will not be able to hand over the project tomorrow at 10-00. It will suit you if it is ready by the same time the day after tomorrow. I will not let you down.". Let the person know that you can be trusted. In most cases, this will upset the customer or boss, but he will trust you more if you are honest with him and keep your promise.

Remember that the only easy way to get everything done on time is to make time for work. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. This rule really works, so don't neglect it. Set your priorities right and don't forget to rest.

Deadlines teach us to always finish what we start on time. This is responsibility. In the business world, it's no different. Another article of ours will teach you responsibility - you will learn how to complete what you started in order to always work in accordance with the deadline. Good luck and don't forget to press the buttons and