Purple Wren
A friend and business associate recently asked my advice on giving her new assistant deadlines because the young assistant “doesn’t know about time management yet.” Once we established that the outcomes were clear, we went on to define some basic time management tips that can be helpful.
My first reaction to asking whether to give the assistant deadlines was “not unless she needs the deadlines to get things done.” Knowing how people are motivated gives us clues about how to support them into getting tasks done. I’m sure you recognize that some people are pressure prompted and use deadlines to create the pressure while others are early starters who don’t need the pressure from external sources to get going.
It’s a funny thing, if you give a pressure prompted person longer deadlines they become “fluid” and fill the available time until the pressure hits their internal level that triggers them into action — so giving longer deadlines can actually slow down pressure prompted folks! If you give people unreasonably short deadlines, however, you run the risk of discouragement at “missing” those deadlines.
Purple Wren