Are you tired of trying but can’t seem to be meeting deadlines?
We understand, and we’re here to help!
The feeling of not providing work on time is generally perplexing, which often leads to an unsatisfactory outcome. The clock feels like a time bomb, and that becomes your nightmare.
So, whether you’re a project manager or business owner, you ought to meet the deadlines effectively. Otherwise, the work goes in vain regardless of how much hard work you have put into it.
So how can you meet deadlines easily and effectively?
Let’s look at the 10 ways to do that.
Hint: #3 is our all-time favorite and the most effective one!
Table of Contents
1. Prioritize Your Deadlines
Setting your priorities for meeting deadlines is a crucial step. Many project managers are likely to skip this step and get into a pile of work without any arrangements.
Think of it as your roadmap to success. When you pin-point the important tasks and prioritize your task list, it can help you focus on maintaining order. In this manner, you get rewarded for meeting deadlines in the workplace and have the inner satisfaction of fulfilling your priorities.
2. Set A Checklist
No matter how much concentration project managers put into their working life, there’s always a chance of some last-moment plans and uncertainties.
That’s because an active project manager juggles work-life activities and often in charge of several projects at the same time. Therefore, most of the time, you can miss an important aspect of the task, leading to delays.
So to ensure that you never miss out on the important things, set a checklist.
Moreover, you can also leverage project management tools to help you stay on track and organize your projects.
Check out the best 100+ Project Management Tools.
3. Use GoVisually for Online Proofing
If you’re looking for faster approvals on creative assets so that you can meet your proofing deadline, GoVisually has your back.
With over 1 million proofs completed, GoVisually is your ultimate and fastest online proofing tool. It even supports video and GIF reviews that help streamline the approval process for remote teams.
GoVisually offers a lot of features that can help a team in the proofing process. Here are a few important ones.
- Management of Documents
- Due Date Tracking
- Various Markup Tools
- Files Sharing
- Project and Task Management
- Collaboration Tools
- Status and Time Tracking
- Role-based permissions
4. Time Management
Managing time integrates concepts, techniques, abilities, methods, and processes that assist project managers in getting more benefit out of their time to increase work performance, creativity, and productivity while not compromising daily life activities.
So what you need to do is manage your time according to the pending tasks. You can set a priority list and complete them in that order.
Another way of time management includes timing your activities. This way, you’ll know what takes more time, and you can use that to your advantage for the next project.
5. Interact with Your Peers
Engaging with your peers sets a clear vision of your project. Most of the time, due to a lack of interaction with peers, projects get botched and fail in meeting deadlines. In this manner, you put your project’s quality at risk.
So to avoid this, we’ll recommend proper coordination with peers. When you interact with the involved stakeholders, you stay updated with responsibilities that make it easier to set the project completion date.
6. Set a Backup
This is something that we can’t emphasize enough – always keep a backup of all project files.
This way, even if you lose a file (for numerous reasons), you can always recover the work. And it would percent an unnecessary delay in meeting deadlines.
After all, it’s better to have something than nothing at all!
7. Keep In Touch With Your Customers
We understand that many of us often find ourselves on pins and needles in the workplace. Still, you must always keep in touch with your customers to keep their preferences in your mind.
In fact, according to a study conducted by the Project Management Institute, communication with customers aids 80% more in meeting deadlines effectively.
That’s because customer satisfaction lies at the heart of most businesses, and it can often become a reason for the delay in meeting deadlines. That’s because if your project doesn’t align with your customer demands, it would likely have to be revised.
So to avoid the hassle and re-doing, it’s always a great idea to stay in touch with them.
8. Don’t Go Overboard
It does sound enthusiastic to hear “Go big or go home,” but practically implementing it as a project manager is highly risky. Many keen project managers and business owners often find challenging opportunities very appealing, but they often overshoot the mark by setting unrealistic goals.
This can lead to the team members neglecting work quality which can become counter-intuitive.
Remember, the preeminent objective should be prioritizing quality over quantity.
Before you start a project, you must know your ability to avoid taking on a hefty load. At the same time, as a business owner, you should also consider not overburdening the project managers.
9. Learn From Your Past Mistakes
This is by far the most effective element that can help you consistently meet deadlines.
It’s because when you track the fault in previous projects, you can prevent them from occurring in the next ones.
Remember, each project contains at least one helpful lesson for project managers to develop their project planning abilities. If you have overpassed a deadline in the past, then it might be a constructive experience for you to be leery in the future.
10. Keep disruptions to a minimum
Disruptions are likely to occur, especially when you’re overloaded with work. That’s because, as humans, most of us feel like evading responsibility if it becomes too overwhelming.
However, project managers should ensure that working hours don’t get disrupted. You can achieve that by ensuring a friendly working environment.
Sometimes, you might feel the need to go a bit overboard and accommodate your team members even more, to ensure they’re not distracted. This can include providing concise and direct feedback so miscommunication can be avoided. You can also offer refreshments on the house, so they feel energetic and up for the work.
If you’re working remotely, you can set achievable targets for the day and discuss them over a quick meeting at the end of the day. This would keep your team members focused on completing the tasks on time.
The Bottom Line
Meeting deadlines is not rocket science. It merely requires concentration, planning, execution, communication, and time management.
Remember, you’re more likely to miss deadlines if your stakeholders are not on board with the proposal. Therefore, you must communicate and collaborate with your clients and team members. To do that effectively, we’d recommend using tools to enhance collaboration.
