Every company, large or small, faces the time pressure of deadlines. Whether it concerns delivering a product, achieving a sales target or providing important documentation. All remain activities with an end date and a goal to be determined in advance. Yet things all too often go wrong when the deadline approaches. Stress and ultimately inefficiency arise, making overtime necessary and every effort has to be made. If manager you must prevent this and that is why we have drawn up 5 tips for meeting deadlines. 

Soft deadlines

You always prefer to plan deadlines as tightly as possible, so that your efficiency time management is as high as possible. However, tight planning with little flexibility entails a number of dangers. First of all, you can overestimate the performance and especially the work pace of your employees, which will cause problems with your planning. Secondly, there are always factors that can completely disrupt your planning, such as the crash of your computer's hard drive. Finally, tight deadlines cause a lot of stress. A solution to this is to work with soft deadlines, so that you create a buffer for these unforeseen time management killers. Choose a date between 2 and 5 days before the actual deadlines and thus create space in the planning and peace of mind.

Splitting the project

The bigger the project, the further away the deadline seems to be. Try to divide large projects into mini-projects. This way, each mini-project can be demarcated with its own tasks and the soft deadlines mentioned above. Each soft deadline will provide a sense of satisfaction and give your team the energy and strength to embark on the next stage of the project. By working in this structural way, the project is less likely to get stuck and the “big” deadline will ultimately be achieved more easily.

Learning to say “no”.

Some assigned deadlines are ambitious, but simply not practically feasible. In that case, it is better to say 'no' and come up with an alternative, than to say 'yes' completely and ultimately come up with your best excuse as to why the deadline was not met. Be honest and set fair expectations. The employer will not judge you on the originality of your excuse, but what will stick is the failure to achieve a result.

Reward

Deadlines cause stress and, due to the high pressure, this does not always go hand in hand with the internal working atmosphere. It is therefore advisable to take this pressure away from your team. Go out for dinner or give a a drink, where you have the choice to use this as a reward mechanism or as a surprise.

And a final tip: Got a new assignment? Start today! Not tomorrow, not next week. A good start is half the battle and that also applies to meeting deadlines.