September 7, 2020

And then there are deadlines

Hole

There are deadlines and then there are deadlines.

Most deadlines are wishes, conveniences, designed to generate some kind of focus and just enough urgency to get the work done in what passes for a timely fashion. Most times too, these kind of deadlines have no relationship with the work. They’re often a statement of intent, giving plenty of time for a task that no one cares about, or too little time for something that matters. This is where smart teams learn.

Some deadlines though are actual deadlines, where thing with meaning must happen before a date that will never shift. When the date is set, you better be practiced at building a relationship between the date and work – because if they don’t fit there are only two available options: adding resources or lowering the scope.

Skippy strategy: Use wish based deadlines to learn how to make meaningful deadlines happen.

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Skippiness