This post was most recently updated on July 8th, 2023

[A collaboration post – all thoughts are my own.]

Mistakes You Make When Setting Deadlines

Personally, setting deadlines for writing an article for my blog is much more difficult than the translation job. I mean, my clients are the ones who set deadlines when they offer me a subtitling project or translating documents. But, somehow it’s difficult when it comes to my blog because I like to procrastinate. I guess it is also because I’m the one who manages my blog and I think it’s okay to not write down the deadline.

I used to find myself pulling an all-nighter to finish a job. Everyone has been there at least once in their lives, right? Some people might have been lucky to have finished the work on time, but that is not always the case. Setting deadlines is something you can learn with practice and patience. And common mistakes happen when it comes to setting deadlines. Here are some mistakes that you (and I) need to fix in order to make a big difference in meeting your deadlines.

Setting unrealistic deadlines

Setting realistic goals is one thing, but you’re bound to stress yourself if you’re setting unrealistic deadlines. For example, if you have plenty of time to complete a task, then you don’t need to rush it. If you have to learn a new skill for your job or learn a new language for self-improvement, give yourself a lot of time instead of feeling pressured to master it in a month. If you think you need two months or more, then go for it!

Having too many deadlines

You’re not Ms. Marvel, so you don’t always have to be efficient. We live in a society where people expect us to do amazing things and that puts a lot of pressure on people to perform better. If you’re having too many deadlines because of this, take a look at each one and pick a different deadline for each task or see if you can delegate it elsewhere. For example, if you have to go to the bank on a Thursday, then you can move your schedule to have your car repaired to the day before or the day after. Keep your goal setting balanced and it will save you a lot of time.

Lack of research

When my client asks how long I can complete translating 5,000 words of healthcare documents, I will check it first to find out the difficulty before finalizing the deadline. The more difficult it is, the more time I will spend researching some of the health terms used. If you have to have a presentation for your job, be sure that do your research before you tell your boss when you’ll be ready to make the presentation. You might think it will take days to finish a certain task, but after researching, you might find out that it will take less or more days to complete it.

Lack of steps toward the deadline

When I was 22 years old, it took me 3-4 months to learn how to drive a manual car. I took a course for a month to learn the basics and with the help of my mom’s friend, I continue to drive on the road and also park at home. When you have a big project, chuck it into steps and then mark each step until the final project is done. Tacking your project in small size is much more achievable and keeps your momentum going.

You just need patience

The last mistake when setting deadlines is when you don’t realize you just need patience for that. Most people feel they don’t have enough time because they’re too focused on being fast. You can get frustrated if you don’t hit the deadline on something that really just needs patience. For example, when you try to hit 3,000 monthly views on your blog in the first 6 months of blogging. It’s better to focus on being consistent to produce valuable content, promote your works, and engage with the blogging community, rather than stressing yourself out with a specific view deadline.

Without setting deadlines, we tend to procrastinate. Keeping that in mind, understand that setting deadlines and hitting them with the least stress possible requires a bit of knowledge of what to avoid. Take these tips into consideration as you go about setting out your deadlines.

How about you? Do you have trouble setting deadlines for yourself? Or are you unsure as to whether you’ve actually given yourself enough time to do your work? Leave a comment below!