Nowadays many people want to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is a buzzword. Much is discussed regarding the subject of entrepreneurship. There seem to be widespread debates on what entrepreneurship is. No wonder it is commonplace for conflation and mislabelling. For instance, many people call themselves entrepreneurs who are not entrepreneurs. A business person, a hustler, and an entrepreneur are not interchangeable titles; they mean different things. You can kindly check out an article on the differentiation of those 3 terms. Anyways, let us look at why deadlines are important for an entrepreneur.
Priming You To Pursue Only What Is Important – Prioritization
What is important in the context of entrepreneurship can be many things. One such thing is goals or general to-do tasks; it can be anything. Deadlines place a clear timeline of when whatever it is needs to get done. It is to be expected that several other things may draw your attention. This is particularly so in entrepreneurship. Deadlines will prime you to only pursue that which matters. Deadlines get you in line by making you ignore non-essentials. Thus deadlines will discipline you to focus on what is important.
Effective Motivation Mechanism – Inspired To Act
Motivation and discipline are interesting elements. Motivation is great but it is often fleeting; it is only temporary. That is why you often hear the emphasis being placed on discipline. However, discipline is not particularly easy to cultivate in and of itself. That is why it can be an effective hack to find ways to get you motivated. Deadlines have that motivating element. Yes, it can be unsettling but the deadlines do get you motivated. The result is that you end up in a state of blending motivation and discipline. The desire to meet a deadline is enough motivation to get something done. This is so even when the task is not fun to do.
Ignites Creative And Innovative Thinking – Critical Thinking
Deadlines are interesting in that they give someone time to complete or do something. This means you enjoy the liberty of getting to carry it out however you want. You can choose to spread it out across the duration leading up to the deadline. You can choose to complete it well before the deadline. You could also choose to complete towards the tail end of the deadline. All these possibilities imply that approaches to carrying out a task will vary. As such you get to be triggered to think creatively and innovatively. After all, people generally want to do things easier and faster. Thus deadlines enhance that desire even more and ultimately that ignites creative and innovative thinking.
Effective Decision-Making – In What You Can Or Cannot Do
Just because something has deadlines does not automatically mean you can or should do it. Deadlines serve as a means to decide whether or not you should. Tight deadlines may mean being subjected to extreme pressure. Tight deadlines may also mean failing to complete what you are tasked to do. All these results can be consequential in dire ways. Deadlines are essential in helping an entrepreneur decide on what to take on or not. Deadlines may also be a factor one can use to charge more e.g. for a gig or service. As in, something with a tighter deadline would cost more given the pressure and intensity of work to be done. All in all, though, deadlines help measure the worthiness (or lack of it) of taking up something. Entrepreneurship is a fast-paced and rapidly changing domain and deadlines are paramount in such decisions.
Completing Tasks And Moving On To Other Tasks – Consistent Progress
In entrepreneurship, if you are not careful you can end up locked in destructive or disruptive cycles or loops. For instance, the pursuit of perfectionism can cause you to keep working on the same task. You can reach a point of completion but still feel you have to work on it more. The extra effort may not be worth it. Being stuck in that loop will deprive other tasks of their time. That is where deadlines come in.
Once you assign deadlines to tasks it means you break free of such destructive or disruptive cycles or loops. Whether you have completed the task or not a deadline will order your focus rightly. If you complete then great, you move on to the next task. If uncompleted you reschedule it and assign a new deadline. You see, just by assigning deadlines your workflow becomes orderly and productive.
Confidence Booster In Your Capacity And Capabilities
When you set deadlines and you meet them this does something to you psychologically. The more you meet deadlines the more you gain confidence in your capacity and capabilities. This may seem like nothing but that confidence is vital in streamlining your work. Pursuing deadlines helps you know yourself better. As in, you get to know all the finer details of how best you work. You end up with a repeatable approach that you can apply to anything you do. Entrepreneurship is so growth-focused and confidence is necessary. Adhering to deadlines will perpetually drive your capacity and capabilities – both feed into your much-needed confidence.
Now you know why deadlines are important in entrepreneurship. If you have not been working with deadlines it is high time you start taking this seriously. In setting deadlines remember to apply the SMART approach. This refers to setting deadlines that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. It is also important to have a reward system for when you successfully meet deadlines. Equally as important, you must have a disciplinary system for when you fail to meet deadlines. This will condition you to adhere to deadlines.
