Does It Take A Deadline To Get You Into Action?
You knew this was an important project. However, when this was discussed you volunteered to take it on. Maybe it was the challenge of something new to get involved in.
Or possibly you figured the exposure to be the one who completed it would help your career advancement. The fact that you would interact with senior executives across the company on this project was definitely a positive.
Whatever the reason you haven’t done one lick of work on it for the last month and now people are asking for an update and yes it was going to be due in six months – now the buzz is 120 days – from 30 days ago!
Now look many of us during our school years waited until finals week or mid-term week to really crack the books.
Everything seemed to have worked out – right?
Well not exactly.
This is now the real world and slacking off and waiting for a looming deadline is not the way to impress anyone.
It definitely isn’t the way to create good work habits. Plus if you think other people don’t notice your working style you are certainly mistaken.
It’s great that you stepped up and volunteered for this project. Now it’s 30 days later and look at the reality. You have done nothing towards it’s completion.
Let’s take a few minutes and turn this around.
A Plan of Action will help guide you through the steps you need to take.
Start with the names of the critical people you must speak with about this project. Next get on their calendars now.
List the must do items and rate the importance of each one and note if one depends upon another one being completed first. List any aspects of this projects such as specific research or legal aspects where you may be able to enlist others in the organization to provide some assistance.
Do your best to keep this to one or two pages and use specifics and dates for completion for each item.
By taking the few minutes right now to create your own Plan of Action will save you a lot of time and missteps as move ahead. Update the POA as you move along.
Best of all – by following this method you will have created a new habit for yourself to use in the future.
Now get going on that project!
Wenkroy International LLC is a Professional Advisory company with a main purpose of helping entrepreneurs and business people create the strategy, the plan and the steps necessary to achieve that person’s vision for their business and often their life, while navigating the obstacles which may be blocking them from reaching their goals. The process may involve one on one coaching, advising, laser focus days, personal growth workshops and more. The methods utilized are determined together. The results and value positively impact individuals, teams, divisions and across entire companies. People are now able to focus on what matters most to them, because, they have clarity on where they are heading.
As always share the information in this article with people you know.
