How to stop suffering from approaching deadlines

1. Set multiple dates instead of one

Economists Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch conducted research trying to find out how people manage their task planning and avoid procrastination. The subjects were divided into three groups, given all of them work, divided into three tasks, and set different time frames:

The first group was instructed to complete one task per week and report progress every 7 days.
The second group was given three weeks for all assignments.
The third group set deadlines at their own discretion.

As a result, the first group, which was forced to report on assignments on a weekly basis, did a much better job - people made fewer mistakes and met deadlines more accurately.

Research shows that the best way to set the most realistic and least stressful deadlines is to break large projects into smaller tasks, with a different deadline for each.

For example, the task of “submitting a project to the customer by August 15th” can be quite stressful for you - it looks too daunting. But the options "make a sketch by July 1", "make a layout by July 15", "create a prototype by July 31" look much simpler and more accessible - you have specific deadlines and specific actions to be taken.

In addition, evenly scheduling timelines allows you to feel progress, which further motivates you. An example from the animal kingdom: Psychologist Clark Hull investigated how rats navigate mazes in search of food. He found that the animals that had already found one reward put more effort into continuing the search. Hull called this behavior the goal gradient hypothesis.

If you visually observe progress in work, then you get an additional incentive not to relax your efforts. Simply put, as you cross out more and more items as you move down your to-do list, it motivates you to finish work sooner. There are a huge number of task managers that allow you to track progress - choose any.

2. Find your ideal stress level

We are used to thinking that stress is something unambiguously bad and, ideally, should be avoided in every possible way. But it is not so. In small amounts, stress can motivate us.

The Yerkes-Dodson law, formulated by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson back in 1908, states that the more a person is mentally stressed, the more efficiently he works. But after reaching a certain threshold of this state, productivity declines and the person gives up.

When we are stressed, adrenaline rises in the body, which makes us more alert, sharpens our senses and gives us strength. Stress is a kind of doping that gives us a temporary boost to both physical and mental energy.

How to Choose Your Ideal Stress Level?

Complex projects require a low level of tension. They themselves cause excitement, you do not need to wind yourself up beyond that.
Problems of moderate difficulty require a moderate level of stress.
A high level is great for simple tasks to motivate you to get it right.

Set short deadlines for simple tasks, do not postpone them for later. Getting closer to your deadline will increase your stress levels - it will spur you on.

3. Cut back on deadlines in advance

If you are struggling to meet the deadline but have motivation issues, setting shorter deadlines can help.

In a study published in the journal Consumer Research in 2018, experimenters asked several people to complete a survey. One group was given a week for this, the other two weeks.

Guess which group completed the survey on time? The one with less time.

In another experiment, the same researchers gave a group of students a choice: either to complete a more urgent task and receive three chocolates, or to do a less burning job and receive five chocolates as a reward. And most of the students preferred the first option, although the reward there was less.

The researchers concluded that there is a so-called urgency effect: we are interested in completing tasks soon, even if we get less benefit from it. Urgent matters, as the experimenters write, have great appeal.

Taking on a task with a long deadline is not easy, because we feel that such tasks are more difficult because they take more time. We tend to postpone things that we consider time-consuming, but setting shorter deadlines motivates us to get the job done as quickly as possible.

4. Share your goals and progress with colleagues

In 2015, the American Talent Development Association (ATD) conducted a study and found that if you report your progress at work to another person (boss, colleague, or just a friend), your chances of completing what you started increase by 65%. They also increase by 95% if you conduct regular reports on your achievements to the team.

These findings are consistent with the research by Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch, whom we mentioned earlier. They found that employees who were assigned deadlines by other people completed tasks faster and more efficiently than those who planned their own time.

Let someone else set the deadlines for you, and you follow them and report on progress. If you do not have a leader, find yourself a partner who will control you.

5. Make meeting deadlines a game

In his TED talk, psychologist Mihai Csikszentmihalyi described flow as the secret of happiness. Flow is a state where you are so focused and passionate about your work that you don't even notice how time flies.

When we are in a state of flux (it is also called the period of maximum cognitive efficiency), even our brain activity changes. In the prefrontal cortex, the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin increases, and the efficiency of the brain increases. When we are bored, this does not happen and it is more difficult for us to concentrate on the task at hand.

Therefore, it is worth applying the principle of gamification, especially to those cases that seem uninteresting to you. Boring tasks are not conducive to meeting deadlines. By turning your work into a game, you will make it more fun and increase your motivation to finish everything on time.

There are many ways to gamify boring tasks. For example, you can compete with your peers to awaken the spirit of excitement. Or install some specialized application (for example, Habitica) that will give you an achievement for every completed task.

Try all these methods, and the approaching deadline will no longer cause you to panic.