Decreasing Timeframes

"A goal without a due date is just a good intention."

On something you know you should do, but don't follow through, a good way to help insure that you do it is to always set due dates for the next step. You can't manage anything without a due date.

One way to escalate the pressure on yourself is by adjusting the due dates you set in line with how much resistance you encounter.

Use the Decreasing Timeframes tool, where if you don't get a thing done by a time you said you would, recommit and reduce the time. If you still haven't gotten it done, cut the time you set yourself to get it done down to half of that. And keep cutting the timeframe until you get to the level where you succeed at getting going on it. Deadlines or due dates are the things that put teeth in agreements; decreasing timeframes put fangs in them.

One way that some people tend to be unfair to us is by promising something and then not doing it. The same as in managing ourself, if escalation against someone else is needed because that person continues to not keep their word, one way to escalate pressure on them is to keep decreasing the timeframes, by setting ever-shorter due dates for the next step. Eventually, the person will get to the point where the only fair timeframe would be to do it immediately.


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