How do you handle deadlines?

[Raurtom]

As the topic says, how do you handle school/work/whatever related deadlines? Do you stress out? do you plan everything or do you do everything at the last moment?

Personally I tend to put things off untill I get close and then I start to stress and work on it very hard, it's bad I know but I can't help being lazy. Although it depends on the severity of the deadline (if it's serious work related stuff I plan it out), so sometimes I plan it, sometimes I don't.. so many distractions.

What do you do to plan deadlines, and how do you execute it.. what are your thoughts?

 

[Malamis]

For academicals; 1 hour (no more, no less) a day, every day from when it's out until it's done. Records keeping and meta actions not included. Thats the ideal; when Horrible Things inevitably happen, nights become elastic...

For practical things, I tend to just keep going until i'm likely to do more harm than good, or am forced out of continuing due to my lack of consideration/foresight for other people's schedules :/

 

[Kinsao]

I try not to leave everything to the last minute!

In a work situation, if I just *know* a deadline is going to be impossible right from the minute it's given, I just say so from the get-go and then no one is disappointed.

Or if it transpires later on that there's going to be a problem with it I let everyone involved know as soon as possible, and the reason (ie. something else that is higher priority came up, or whatever).

 

[Glenski]

Just my style, but here goes.

I prioritize. What tasks do I have to multi-task to meet upcoming deadlines? This is #1 in my book.

Then, I multi-task whenever possible to get things done little by little so there isn't such a huge influx and stress near the end of the deadline.

I also have things written on a calendar that is plainly visible, and I keep a list of "things to do" generally written in order, sometimes with dates on them (because it's hard to see some things coming on a calendar when you have to turn the page and realize it's due in the first week).

But, that's just me.

 

[Frontman]

I prefer to finish my tasks immediately rather than to wait until the last minute. At one time it was quite the opposite, but I changed my habits after learning the hard way what can happen if you don't finish your work on-time.

Prioritizing is important, but how I apportion tasks depends on their relevance rather than their importance. It's hard to describe the process, its something you pick up after time and experience. You learn to sort tasks and put them in order, which streamlines the process and speeds it up.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I keep my to-do list in my e-mail inbox and work generally from the bottom up. Every morning I scan through all messages and get rid of anything urgent, before going to back to bottom up. If anything doesn't get done on time, tough. I do the best I can. I don't worry about deadlines because (in my line of work at least), no-one will drop dead if I don't get it done on time.

 

[Kinsao]

Yeah, prioritisation is important. I usually prioritise by thinking, 'If I don't get this done in time, what are the likely consequences?' (and also 'what are the possible consequences?', because sometimes the unlikely happens!) and then prioritise depending on the potential seriousness of not getting something done in time. E.g. in my line of work no one will drop dead (phew there's a relief!) (well I shouldn't say that; two of my team members have died while I've been working here so perhaps I speak too soon!) but the 'worst' consequences would be to make the organisation look bad to 'outsiders', with the most important being funders and so on down the line... or anything which loses us money, basically, followed by reputation (and the two are interlinked...)

I use my email inbox as a 'task list', always keeping it above the bottom line and flagging up red things 'to do'. Anything that doesn't come into my inbox gets written down on a piece of paper. I use my outlook diary and try and be sensible when setting alert flags so that they really are useful to alert me to upcoming deadlines in, say, a week, a month, six weeks or whatever rather than being those annoying default '15-minute-before' pings.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I use my email inbox as a 'task list', always keeping it above the bottom line and flagging up red things 'to do'. Anything that doesn't come into my inbox gets written down on a piece of paper.

I used to that but someone kept eating the pieces of paper (so it seemed), so now I send myself e-mails

 

[maushan3]

I am the same as you! Even though I don't have any 'real' responsibilities besides school. At my high school we barely have homework and when we do we just copy it form each other the next morning in class or on recess so I don't stress anything out.

Mauricio

 

[Kinsao]

I used to that but someone kept eating the pieces of paper (so it seemed), so now I send myself e-mails

Oh Gawd, I do that too!