Deadlines - Setting Them, Following Through On Them and Crying Wolf
February 27, 2007
Michael Port, one of my clients, did a great video blog entry on deadlines. (Kudos to him for doing this style of blog entry - I think it’s fabulous!) In his blog entry, he makes many valid points about deadlines and commitment making. You have to get yourself into a routine of making and fulfilling commitments so that you (a) don’t harm your reputation and (b) stay in integrity with the type of business-person you want to be.
Rob, over at Business Pundit, posted a link to The Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal where Jared Sandberg wrote an article entitled “Rise of False Deadline Means the Truly Urgent May Be Late.” You HAVE to read this article.
One of the things that stood out for me the most in Jared’s article was this paragraph:
But like false fire alarms, high-priority emails (!) and “Urgent” voicemails, false deadlines can dilute a sense of urgency, making everything seem like a top priority so nothing really is. “Over and over again, people say that urgencies crowd out the important stuff on a daily basis,” says time-management consultant Julie Morgenstern. “You need an intervention because they can wreak havoc on an organization.”
So, how do you go about your day determining which deadlines are true and most urgent and which are false and imposed? It is very simple to hit the high-priority button to ensure that task makes it to the top of the to-do list of the person on the other end but what if he / she received five, ten or fifteen other high-priority items where at least 1/2 were false high-priorities.
I think the main difference between Michael’s post and Jared’s article is this: when you’re setting your own deadlines and commitments, fulfill them. When you receive an imposed deadline from somebody else, determine whether you are able to fulfill their request immediately and open the lines of communication with that person. If you can’t meet their high-priority label, ask them when they REALLY need it by and work with them to achieve mutual satisfaction.
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