Reasons Why You Should Stop Hating Deadlines
Deadlines get a bad rap.
They can stress you out, make you feel rushed, and take over your work life if you’re constantly running behind and fighting the clock against deadlines.
Deadlines aren’t all bad, though. In fact, they’re beneficial for freelancers and full-time employees, whether you’re a photographer, writer, marketer, or student.
We love to hate deadlines, but here are some reasons why we should actually be singing their praises.
They provide much-needed structure
If you work from home, for yourself, or are constantly balancing multiple projects, then you need structure. Without it, you will bounce around from project to project and never finish. Luckily, deadlines provide much-needed structure.
With deadlines, you will have to prioritize your work to make sure you’re getting done with each project by its due date. In that way, it adds structure because deadlines let you know what needs to be done first and what can be handled later. Not to mention, without deadlines, you might never finish because you might be a perfectionist who thinks you can always improve something.
Deadlines can make you look good
If you meet your deadlines, then you will show accountability and trust, as well as be in good graces with your boss or a client. So while many people might stress out about deadlines, they can actually make you look good and even lead to promotions and raises if you’re turning in quality work on time.
It’s hard to hate something that can actually benefit you, which deadlines can. Deadlines lead to things getting finished, goals being achieved, and you looking good when these things are happening by deadline.
They can make you feel accomplished
It feels good to achieve a goal. Likewise, it feels good to hit a deadline. At the very least, reaching a deadline should take some of the pressure off because you accomplished the task at hand and turned it in.
As a friendly reminder, goals have deadlines attached to them. Without these deadlines, goals could carry on forever. In other words, people would never achieve them because there’s no specific time they need to achieve them and more time-based projects would take precedent.
Call it a goal, deadline, or whatever you want, but once achieved, deadlines can make you feel accomplished.
Deadlines force action
Without a deadline, some people would never start. They would continue to push things off until a more convenient time that likely doesn’t exist. Therefore, deadlines force action because they force you to take action. If you don’t start, then you won’t hit your deadline.
Unfortunately, many students struggle with deadlines for a number of different reasons, from overestimating how much time and effort they can put toward a school assignment at a later date to underestimating how long the project will actually take. As an example, that’s why it’s important to review your deadline for your online liberal arts associates degree, create a reasonable plan that allows you to chip away at your project, and then take action. Deadlines, when analyzed properly, can be a driving force to your getting things done and can help to eliminate procrastination during your studies.
Even though many people procrastinate on big assignments, students turn in papers and workers finish projects because a deadline is in place. Without a deadline, they might never start and especially not finish.
Deadlines aren’t the enemy
While not every deadline is reasonable, many are. Deadlines aren’t the enemy. Procrastination, on the other hand, is.
Deadlines help to keep you on the right track and give you an idea of how long something should take. Perfectionism and fear of starting are the enemies. Bad habits and a poor routine are also the enemies. These are the things that are actually halting your progress, while ensuring something takes longer than it should.
Deadlines are there to keep you on pace and actually lead to your starting and finishing. They are, believe it or not, a great motivator.
While deadlines get plenty of dirty looks, they’re actually beneficial for many reasons, whether you work from home and make your own schedule or report to an office.