I find out that I get much more done when I have a clear deadline.

I’m not saying that I let everyone else schedule my work – I don’t. But I do look for useful deadlines and then link my thinking to those.

I’m presenting at a conference coming up in a few weeks. My experience tells me that the last week should focus on practicing and coordinating with my co-presenter. So that means all the content needs to be created before that, which means the structure should be in place by … this Wednesday.

So now I just created this Wednesday deadline, and another a week before the conference. I included plenty of time to do the work involved, especially thinking through the best ways to connect with my audience.

I find this very helpful, reducing all the stress of trying to pull all-nighters. I haven’t done that for decades.

Notice that some deadlines were created by others, while the rest I created myself. If I happen to have a big change of plans come up, this gives me more control over what I can adjust – and what I can’t.

I have to confess that this doesn’t always work well. I have a task on my to-do list which was created from a conversation with my Financial Planner over a year ago. I feel guilty about that, of course, but the truth is that there’s no particular deadline, no impact for me slacking off and doing it later. If it were more important, I’d just go ahead and create a deadline for myself, but if I’m honest there’s nothing pushing me to do it.

Stuff that’s important to get done? I love that, and I’ll create plans and deadlines, then knock it out.

Because I know it’s important.