Do you have an important assignment that needs to be completed or a work thing that needs to be finished, but are failing to find the motivation to get started? Do you also ask yourself what is the purpose of setting a deadline for a goal?
If this is you, then you have come to the right place because today we will be discussing a well-known and relevant tip through which you can achieve your goals.
The simple answer is when you set realistic deadlines, the chances are that you will follow your milestones and get work done from the fear of missing deadlines.
However, to make it completely clear for you, how deadlines help in achieving goals, let’s begin from the basics.
What Is A Deadline?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary has defined a deadline as a day, time or date by which something must be done.
So meeting deadlines involves the submission or completion of a task by a certain time limit.
Each and every goal can have a deadline, depending on the type of project or progress you want, the deadlines can change in nature.
Why Are Deadlines Important?
Now that we are clear on what a deadline even is, we can begin to understand what is the purpose of setting a deadline for a goal?
Essentially, when you set deadlines, it gets you motivated to complete tasks within the specified time, making setting deadlines extremely important.
The way it works is that important deadlines act as a psychological stressor, pushing you to achieve the tasks at hand.
This motivation further keeps you organized, prepared and gives you time to plan ahead in achieving New Year’s Resolutions and meeting set goals.
But Why Is The Deadline Important?
So far, we know that a clear deadline can add stress and make you committed to achieve a task within the timeframe. However, there is more to it than it seems
In a research conducted by professors at UCL, it was found that without deadlines, what people presume time to be is called Time Perspective.
However, when a deadline is involved to achieve your goals, then it leads to another perspective known as Time Urgency.
This time urgency can motivate you, help you gain confidence and keep you in focus to achieve the impossible.
In another research, it was also found that setting deadlines is key to achieving clarity. What it essentially means is that deadlines are important because they add a structure to your goal or dream.
For example, you have a goal to start a project of house renovation and spend a certain amount of money.
It will be left undone until you have a deciding factor of a deadline that the house needs to be renovated before the upcoming holidays.
When it comes to achieving goals on setting realistic deadlines, the advantages can be grouped into four main groups, given below:
They Make You Clearly Define Your Goals
When you have a deadline, it is inevitable that you start planning ahead towards completing your project.
When you think of completion, you then plan on what needs to be done, what is important, and what can be avoided.
As you plan through all the tasks that need to be completed to achieve your goals, it forces you to ask questions like what is the dream goal, what assignments need to be done, or decide what the business venture will look like.
Deadlines Give Your Brain A Framework For Solving Problems
Once you have a deadline and a clearly defined goal, the next advantage from here is the moment your brain realizes exactly what needs to be done.
A set deadline gives you clarity and gives structure to your goals and tasks.
To better explain this, the example of a baseball player can be given, who wants to achieve better progress on the field and knows what to do, but has a deadline that makes it clear that he needs to exercise a certain amount of time per week to become better by the beginning of the next season in 3 months.
Now the baseball player knows that he should be spending 4 hours every day training to become better at the end of 3 months.
They Motivate You To Achieve Your Goals
The connection between clear deadlines and motivation is highly intrinsic and crucial in achieving our goals.
Deadline takes an interest in working and planning towards the desired goal, making it feasible that you are engulfed in achievement of the goal.
A Deadline Will Help You Create A Clear Action Plan With Milestones
Let us assume that you have a savings goal and want to spend less on shopping.
However, if you add a deadline to this goal, then it means that you have to reach a certain amount, say 10k in your savings account within 6 months.
This makes the matter much simpler because you know that now you have to put away a certain amount every month to reach your point of 10k.
Why Are Due Dates Important in School?
The same neurological processes are also applicable on students when establishing New Year’s resolutions and creating a timeframe for a great goals.
However, a differentiating factor is that students are more prone to lose their focus, feel overwhelmed and confused, when they are not given a deadline
To give an example, reflect on your completion of a task given by your teacher when a deadline is given and when no timeframe is allotted.
Isn’t it easier to get work done when the teacher demands to get it done by next week? The fear of failing and motivation to accomplish tasks gets you going.
How to Set Deadlines and Achieve Your Goals ?
Now that we know ‘what is the purpose of setting a deadline for a goal’, the next step is to go through ways in which to determine deadlines for achievement of great goals.
All you have to do is follow these three steps and you can hope of dealing with your life in a productive and creative manner.
Taking Steps to Start Goal Setting
In order to meet deadlines, you must first begin by setting goals. These goals have to be creative ideas and ensure that you develop skills.
Your goal setting can be highly personalized, based on the needs of your team, your personal environment and within your available resources.
The more personalized a goal is, the chances of positive achievement will increase as well or else you may lose in your efforts.
Set a Realistic Timeframe
The key to a completed goal is to establish a timeframe that is realistic and relevant to your case. Once you have a goal in mind and a personalized goal, your next step is to establish milestones.
An effective way of dealing with your reality and still meeting your goals is to plan by being creative.
Create a schedule that is according to your daily routine and then take out every day to work on your goal.
The affect that this will have on achieving goals is that your schedule will allow you to work a little by little and progress sufficiently.
Have Clearly Defined Rewards and Penalties for Meeting or Failing to Meet a Deadline
Sometimes, having clear goals, milestones and a timeframe can all be present, yet we still manage to not find the motivation to be able to meet all the deadlines.
To overcome this concern, you can develop a system that positively works with your personality, through a system of rewards and penalties.
For instance, a reward can be as little as a chocolate or that bag you’ve been wanting to buy.
Whereas, a penalty can be extra time you spend on completing the same task or shutting away social media for more focus on your tasks and milestones.
With this article, we hope you have found an answer to ‘What is the purpose of setting a deadline for a goal?’ As you set your own goals and deadlines, make sure you are motivated and not putting on too much pressure.
As long as you follow a perfect milestone and deadline timeframe, you can be sure of finally succeeding in sitting down to finish that assignment or complete that presentation that the manager asked for.
