Most of us are familiar with procrastinating on a task until the last minute and then racing to finish before a deadline. Distant deadlines often encourage procrastination in the early stages of a task. Smart deadlines however, can boost motivation and reduce procrastination. They can also help ensure that we finish tasks in good time.

The most motivating deadlines are concrete, short, realistic and consequential.

Concrete Deadlines

• Allocate a specific date and time for completion.
• Assign a specific action that amounts to completion, for example:
  • publishing a blog post; or
  • posting a letter.
• The deadline should be unchangeable. Being able to change the time will markedly reduce the motivation a deadline provides.

Short Deadlines

• Distant deadlines increase the likelihood of procrastination. Our brains are attuned to focus on our present needs, so distant deadlines seem less critical and can be ignored.
• If you are working on a long-term project, break the project down into smaller stages and set deadlines for each stage. The shorter, the better. This is especially helpful if you have a distant deadline set by someone else.

Realistic Deadlines

• Humans are mostly hopeful by nature. When setting deadlines at the start of a project, it is common to overestimate our capacity and achieve unreasonable or impossible deadlines.
• When setting deadlines, it can help to be conservative. Allocate 25% more time than you think it will take.
• When pursuing short-term goals or small stages in larger goals, it can help to start with easier goals rather than challenging ones. Small wins are encouraging and motivating, while failure is often discouraging.
• If the goal ends up too easy, you can raise the difficulty next time.

Consequential Deadlines

• It’s easy to ignore a deadline with no consequence.
• Deadlines like those set at school or work promote action because the consequences of missing them are significant. A poor grade or disapproval from your boss or client can have real consequences.
• If you are setting your own deadlines, make them consequential, either by setting rewards for success or penalties for failure:
  • First, write down and consider the natural penalties inherent in failing the task. For example:
    • You don’t achieve your goal.
    • You negatively affect your self-esteem.
    • You reduce your success.
    • You decrease your chance of future success.
    • You waste time.
  • Consider how to keep these natural consequences in the front of your mind when you are working on your goal.
• Establish a system that automatically punishes you for failure, for example: set up an automatic payment from your bank account to a person or charity immediately after the deadline expires. Commit to only stopping the payment if you have completed the task by the deadline.
• Bring in another person to hold you to account.
  • Sometimes explaining your goal and the deadline to a friend or family member can motivate you to beat the deadline to impress that person or avoid the consequences of visibly failing.
  • Ask someone you trust to be the judge of whether you complete the task by the deadline or not. Let them apply a predetermined punishment for failure or reward for success.