What Makes Effective Deadlines

I'm working on something that is a little outside my normal genre, but it is rewarding, nevertheless, and it fits in interestingly with some things I have been listening to or reading lately (like Seth Harwood's A Long Way From Disney stories).  Granted, this piece is non-fiction, which makes it even more outside my comfort zone, but still gives me an opportunity to practice up on some narrative.  That said, I have worked a little bit with the editor to generate a realistic timeline and also make sure that I have deadlines in place that help both of us have enough time to complete what we need to.


Given my experience with NaNoWriMo, I know deadlines can be powerful, but I also know (from this past year) that they are only effective under certain circumstances.  So I thought I would jot down a few deadline-setting tips that make this time a little more effective than it might otherwise be.

• Make them realistic - Before setting the deadline, make sure that you can realistically accomplish what you need to by that time.  Don't set a deadline of completing 40,000 words by tomorrow if you can't realistically stay up all night writing.
• Pad it - Things come up.  Always.  So, once you've got a realistic deadline set, come to grips with the fact that it is not realistic and move it out, or reduce the size of what you are trying to accomplish in the timeframe.  Your eyes are bigger than your stomach, or in this case your available time, and you need to pad your time to give you enough buffer for the unexpected.  How much to pad may vary, but you might take one and a half or two times as long as you think you need initially, and then adjust the more work you do with deadlines.
• Become externally accountable - Self-driven deadlines can be great, but they also have few consequences if you don't make them.  When someone else is depending on you, it makes you more likely to finish on time.  Even for deadlines with no dependencies, telling an external source or having a friend keeping your accountability in line helps with motivation.
• Try to finish early - You might not want to "turn in" the work early as that may level-set expectations for future work that you can always accomplish things faster than you say, but to maximize your time, you should make efforts to finish your work early, just in case "life" pops up and stalls your progress.  Waiting until the last minute means that any last minute emergencies will risk the success of the entire project.  If you're already far ahead, then last minute emergencies can mean minor delays or small schedule adjustments.

Do you have any additional tips and tricks for making deadlines stick?  If so, feel free to leave them in the comments or send to me with the contact me page.