Deadlines on the calendar?

W

wmeyers

0
Hey all,

I've been wondering about whether I should put deadlines on the calendar. They are basically part of the 'hard landscape' as they are commitments I have made with other people. Usually there can also be a physical action associated with the deadline (i.e. email document to X).

How do you deal with these kind of things?

Cheers,

Wouter
 
Deadlines on the calendar?

wmeyers;100722 said:
Hey all,

I've been wondering about whether I should put deadlines on the calendar. They are basically part of the 'hard landscape' as they are commitments I have made with other people. Usually there can also be a physical action associated with the deadline (i.e. email document to X).

How do you deal with these kind of things?

Cheers,

Wouter
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I would say yes to placing a deadline on a calendar. I put due dates for library books on my calendar.
I guess using a tickler file to handle this would work also.
 
I wonder about that, too.

I want to notice the deadline ahead of time. It makes more sense to me to put it in the tickle file for an earlier date, when I can do the stuff to be able to meet the deadline. I might put one reminder 3 weeks before the deadline and another one 1 week before. Or move the same reminder to a later date in the tickle file.

I guess the idea with putting it on the calendar is that you hope that a few days before you'll look ahead in the calendar and notice it and be able to do something about it.

The main thing, I think, is to go ahead and do the stuff, so that hopefully it's done way ahead of the deadline.

It could just be in project support material. The project could be named like "Do X by date Y."

That said, I have started marking library due dates in my calendar -- or I'll mark them on the calendar for a few days before the due date on a day I'm likely to be able to conveniently go to the library.
 
Deadlines on the calendar?

I might put one reminder 3 weeks before the deadline and another one 1 week before. Or move the same reminder to a later date in the tickle file.

Several reminders ahead of the actual due date is a great safety net.

cwoodgold;100728 said:
I wonder about that, too.

I want to notice the deadline ahead of time. It makes more sense to me to put it in the tickle file for an earlier date, when I can do the stuff to be able to meet the deadline. I might put one reminder 3 weeks before the deadline and another one 1 week before. Or move the same reminder to a later date in the tickle file.

I guess the idea with putting it on the calendar is that you hope that a few days before you'll look ahead in the calendar and notice it and be able to do something about it.

The main thing, I think, is to go ahead and do the stuff, so that hopefully it's done way ahead of the deadline.

It could just be in project support material. The project could be named like "Do X by date Y."

That said, I have started marking library due dates in my calendar -- or I'll mark them on the calendar for a few days before the due date on a day I'm likely to be able to conveniently go to the library.
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curtis;100730 said:
Several reminders ahead of the actual due date is a great safety net.
Click to expand...

If it's merely a safety net, then what's the usual way of getting the work done? I guess normally one puts the next actions on one's lists right away and just does them, so that usually or often they get completed before the deadline. Perhaps there's also a reminder about the deadline at each weekly review.

I was thinking of it as more like the usual way of recording a deadline, not just a safety net.
 
As I understand it, anything attached to a specific date and/or time should go on the calendar. But the calendar is only a trustworthy spot for deadlines if you consistently go through it each week along with the rest of the weekly review.
 
Deadlines on the calendar?

cwoodgold;100738 said:
If it's merely a safety net, then what's the usual way of getting the work done? I guess normally one puts the next actions on one's lists right away and just does them, so that usually or often they get completed before the deadline. Perhaps there's also a reminder about the deadline at each weekly review.

I was thinking of it as more like the usual way of recording a deadline, not just a safety net.
Click to expand...

That's a better way of approaching it. Thanks! :)
 
I keep deadlines next to my project titles and next action titles. I need to see deadlines when I am scanning my lists to choose where to spend my time.

This system works well for me because:

  1. A distant deadline may be more urgent than a closer one. For example, the deadline for my thesis is months away but I need to make progress every day. My bike insurance is due in a couple of days but it's far less urgent because I can renew it in five minutes on the day it's due. Viewing these on a calendar gives the opposite impression.
  2. A deadline is rarely a day-specific action. Most actions could be done any time before the deadline. You could argue that they are day specific information but that leads us to my next point.
  3. Once a task is done, its deadline is irrelevant. I'm not good at remembering to remove the deadline from the calendar when I check off an action. Unfortunately, I am good at panicking (only for a second) when I see a deadline I had forgotten about in my calendar.
  4. Keeping the deadline in my action list keeps all the information about the action together. Splitting some of it onto the calendar causes me problems.
 
Deadlines on the calendar?

cfoley;100749 said:
I keep deadlines next to my project titles and next action titles. I need to see deadlines when I am scanning my lists to choose where to spend my time.

This system works well for me because:

  1. A distant deadline may be more urgent than a closer one. For example, the deadline for my thesis is months away but I need to make progress every day. My bike insurance is due in a couple of days but it's far less urgent because I can renew it in five minutes on the day it's due. Viewing these on a calendar gives the opposite impression.
  2. A deadline is rarely a day-specific action. Most actions could be done any time before the deadline. You could argue that they are day specific information but that leads us to my next point.
  3. Once a task is done, its deadline is irrelevant. I'm not good at remembering to remove the deadline from the calendar when I check off an action. Unfortunately, I am good at panicking (only for a second) when I see a deadline I had forgotten about in my calendar.
  4. Keeping the deadline in my action list keeps all the information about the action together. Splitting some of it onto the calendar causes me problems.
Click to expand...

Very interesting. I've never thought of it that way before.
 
IMHO for deadlines in a calendar

IMHO and my own experience this is where digital implementation of GTD comes handy for me. For specific events/tasks that have dates I put them in calendar and set the specific date of the event/tasks of when it should be done or attended to. This is useful for me since usually digital implementations have alarm notifications that set off so I wouldn't forget. I also usually add another alarm for that event/task usually a day before the event/task is scheduled to be done. Or I put an alarm 1-2 hours before.

For deadlines in a Calendar (probably it's a continuing process/actions for a specific project that has a deadline) I also put deadlines for it. And then usually I set a recurring alarm like once a day so that I'm continuously reminded of it. Another advantage for me with putting deadlines in a calendar is I can "search" for tasks that have deadlines in it. That way, I can compare those tasks with deadlines and decide on what I'll be doing next. Or maybe see and realize if I have 3 tasks that have all the same deadlines or if they are all in 3 consecutive days and from that I can gauge how busy I'll be for those 3 tasks.

I hope this makes sense and helps. Thanks.
 
Calender as a WE tool

Anything that involves just ME is an action item.

I use the Calender as a WE tool, as a tool that involves ME + someone/thing else.
Since it is also a multi step, it is a Project as well.
So if it's in the calender, it is also on my Project List.
 
Thanks for the helpful discussion!

For now I think I will stick with the deadlines in my calendar. I do find some of the arguments for putting this information on the projects list appealing. What I've done in the past is use these deadlines for saying when I would like to have something finished. Creating a lot of items that had to roll over everytime. It didn't make my system more workable. I'll try it out though, but only for items that really have a deadline!
 
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