Emergency Tools You Need.
Emergency tools, as I call them. Some tips and tricks for you to buy yourself some time if you are unable to finish your work by the deadline. Some old, some new. Not even a collection.
Deadline is tomorrow
First, to refresh your memory, what exactly is a deadline? According to The Free Dictionary the word has different meanings. one of them is:
A boundary line in a prison that prisoners can cross only at the risk of being shot.
In normal working situations the chance you’re being shot are slim, unless you work in a post office that get regular visits by fired employees. There are two kind of deadlines. The non – negotiable deadline and the negotiable deadline. In reality there is just one. If the deadline is negotiable it’s not a deadline to start with. You’ll risk a slap on the wrist when you won’t finish your work in time. So in reality you do not have to worry about those to much.
Emergency tools
Your Tools! You are your first tool. You could try to persuade your boss the deadline can’t be made.
You have to much to do, you are running multiple projects with separate deadlines. Just say ‘NO‘ if you need to. Negotiate if you have to. You can try to – just before the deadline ends – to mail a bunch of people with last minute questions about the project. If asked if you are going to be able to make it, tell ‘them’ you are waiting on input from others. Let your boss know you will email the results of your work the night before the deadline ends. When your boss gets the email and tries to open the attached report in MS Word format he can’t open it. No way. How? Suppose you are working on a MS Word file named ‘My_Final_Report.docx’.
- Find the file on your drive. Look at the properties of the file (Right – Click).
- Find the size of the file (Let’s say 500 Kilobytes).
- Find another file (preferably an image file, JPG, JPEG, BMP or another format you can find.
- Rename the image file to the name of your original MS Word file (My_Final_Report.docx)
- Attach the renamed file to the mail you are about to send your boss.
- Hit ‘Send’ and pray your boss can’t read binary…
JPeg file opened in Word
On the left is a sample of a JPEG – renamed to MS Word file, opened in MS Word. Jibberish. Period. Buys you one day. Tops.
But, Uhm Seriously?
Like I said before, this will only work once and only if your boss does not know much about computers. Let’s keep it real, shall we?
- Plan SMART. It’s an old technique, but still works like a charm. There are many articles written on the SMART planning technique.
- Using that technique, add a 10 to 15 percent ‘unforeseen’ time, just in case. It’s better to finish a project early, than late.
- Prioritize the different projects you work on. Focus on that.
- Doing more than one task at the same time is counter productive. Unless you’re a woman. (Sorry, had to slip that one in).
- Re-plan if needed and be flexible in how you spend your time. If you get the feeling you are not going to be able to make it in time, communicate that as soon as possible with other people that are involved in the same project(s).
- Try to see the dependencies in your project with other running projects. That way you will not end up waiting on someone else’s work to be done.
“Tickle yourself once in a while, no one will do it for you”
Happy Deadline’ing // Jan
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First of all, I wish your boss not reading this Jan
If he reads… I don’t know, fired? 
The trick works well most time as my friends were used to do such things when deadline is not possible. No… it’s not work, but assignments. Unfortunately, they have got another alternative which is much harder than one before 
Anyway nice tips on time management Jan
Prioritizing and Multi-tasking are my favorites. However sometimes eventhough multi-tasking is not possible, some tasks can be done simultaneously. On planning, setting our own deadline before the actual deadline can work out too. But it works only if we are serious enough 
Cheers…
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True, Mayura.
Good planning is important. I like the idea of setting up your own deadlines before the actual deadline. That way you can see if you’re going in the right direction with the project.
It’s also important to tell ‘superiors’ well in advance that you are probably not going to finish things in time. If he/she does not take action then, you can always confront them later: “I told you four weeks ago I was not going to make it, and now you’re pissed off because I didn’t finish it in time?”
Tactics: In a situation like that it’s the challenge to make your problem someone else’s problem. I don’t like to do it in that way, but sometimes things are what they are.
And yes, I hope he’s not reading this…
lmao. these excuses i’ve heard when i was an employee/manager.
and someone did try to send me a photoshop file once thinking that since i requested a png for review that i didn’t have photoshop, and then she went home for the day. silly silly freelancer. both when i was an employee and now that i’m self employed, i set my deadline two days later when i estimate turnaround time. shit happens. i try to over compensate.
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It should read something like “Don’t try this at home or at a work situation”… I have never tried to cheat my way out, well not in that way anyways. lol. I tend to work with intermediate plannings for myself. that seems to work better!
Hey Jan, one great point you mentioned was that fact that it’s a MUST to add in ‘unforeseen’ time! I have to do it because it never fails, there will always be something that comes up.
Even if I know a task will only take 5 minutes, I say 10 just in case. As a matter of fact, the minimum time I put on tasks is 10 mins and that just helps me plan better.
Kesha, The Uncommon Chick recently posted: A Week of New York City Awesomeness including BlogHer12!
Hi Kesha! Welcome aboard!
Depends on the amount of time you need to finish one task. If you would be working on a project that takes 3 weeks, reserving double the amount of time you can spend on it is a little bit to much. My boss would probably kill me. lol. Oh and plan time in for little ‘rewards’ on completon, it does not have to be a 4 week vacation to the Bahamas.
Right, we don’t want you to get fired! LOL
Oh, and who WOULDN’T like a 4 week vaca to the Bahamas (or for me, I’ll take a trip to several places in that timespan)
Kesha, The Uncommon Chick recently posted: A Week of New York City Awesomeness including BlogHer12!
I would take *any* vacation right now.
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