Stop Working According to Due Dates

Many people assign due dates to all their tasks and then spend their whole work day completing the tasks that are due. This common habit would seem to lead to productivity, but in fact it leads to more stress and less productivity!
The alternative method of scheduling work is via the incremental time planning method, which brings you more productivity as well as more happiness.

1. Problems of Scheduling Work by Due Dates

The problem with due dates is that there is a difference between:
Getting things done by a certain date (deadline date), and
Getting things done on a certain date (executiation date).

When people assign due dates they want to know when they need to work on a task, meaning the execution date. However, they commonly assign the last day they have to deliver a task, meaning the deadline date. This practise of assigning due dates as the deadline date instead of execution date leads to:

• Wrong time planning
• Lack of flexibility
• Stress
• Lack of deep work
• Missed deadlines

1.1. Wrong time planning

When you are setting due dates within a project management software, the task will pop up again on the due date. The problem with this is that many people set due dates as the deadline date and when the task pops up on the final day, it is too late to get it executed.
Being aware of this problem, many people have learned to set the due date earlier than the final deadline. But then they might set it too early.
The real problem is that at the time of writing down the due dates you do not have all the information to know which is the best date to execute a task.

1.2. Lack of flexibility

People that assign due dates to all or most of their tasks, will find themselves working almost exclusively according to due dates; they have to keep up every day with tasks that have the due date “Today”.
This does not permit them the flexibility to choose tasks that might be more appropriate for the moment. For example, if you just have a brilliant idea at work, you might want to divert some attention to that idea, and push back on other tasks. But this might not be possible if you have many tasks with due dates “Today”.

1.3. Stress

Working with many upcoming due dates can become very stressful. Even if you are a creative person or an entrepreneur and you have thus chosen to be your own boss, it can easily feel like you are a slave to due dates. So you get stressed.

1.4. Lack of deep work

When you have many upcoming due dates it is hard to get into a state of flow or a state of deep work, a state where you have the maximum level of productivity. That is why many people feel that they are best able to get into this productive state when they get rid of their to-do list that tells them what they HAVE TO DO, and instead just write down in the morning what they WANT to work on.

1.5. Missed deadlines

When you have many due dates it would seem that you would be less likely to miss deadlines but in fact the opposite is true. You are more likely to miss deadlines for two reasons: One, people often set due dates as deadline dates, which leads them to be incapable of getting all tasks done on the last day of the deadline.
Second, when you have your fixed time tasks, such as meetings, mixed with your flexible time tasks, you are more likely to lose sight of the tasks that really have fixed time.

For all of the above reasons, we strongly recommend not working according to a schedule based on due dates.

2. Benefits of Not Scheduling Work by Due Dates

There are many benefits of not working according to due dates, most of which follow from the above discussion of the drawbacks of due dates:

• Freedom
• Flexibility
• Deep work and
• Less stress

2.1. Freedom

When you do not set due dates for tasks that are not time bound, you will have much less tasks pop up every day with the “Today” due date.
That means that you have much more time for yourself. But in fact it is also the best time to be productive and happy at the same time.

2.2. Flexibility

When you leave the execution date open, you are able to decide spontaneously, either in the morning or just before the task execution, what you want to work on. That gives you flexibility to take into account factors like work load, work environment, external factors, your own concentration as well as what you most feel like working on.

2.3. Deep work and less stress

A nice side effect of having less tasks with a due date “Today” is that you feel less stressed. While you might think that this leads to doing less work, it is my experience that this often leads to the deepest and most productive work.

3. Problem of No Work Scheduling

Above we have seen the many benefits of not assigning the work according to due dates. However, what happens if you just do not do any scheduling whatsoever? You just leave all your tasks unclassified according to time, and leave yourself the flexibility to get any tasks done at any time.
This maximum flexibility is very problematic as well! The main problems are:

• Not knowing what to work on next
• Procrastination
• Stress
• Lack of structure

3.1. Not knowing what to work on next

The obvious problem in not doing any work scheduling is that you do not know what to work on next. And if you want to determine what to work on next each time you are about to start a new task, it can be time consuming just to find out what are the most valuable things to work on.

3.2. Procrastination

Related to the above, is that for many people not having the work scheduled in advance leads to procrastination. This is because they look at their huge task list and get demotivated by the sheer size of it and then decide to do nothing.

3.3. Stress

While some people start procrastinating without a work schedule, many others feel stress. They see their huge task list and get a sense that they need to do everything as soon as possible, and this makes them stressed.

3.4. Lack of structure

Finally, not determining work schedules ahead of time means that you are missing structure. Structure is the opposite of flexibility. While it is great to have the flexibility to determine your own tasks and projects and when exactly to work on them, this lack of structure is also negative and leads to less productivity, procrastination and unhappiness.
This is especially true for people that are not bound by an external structure, like creative people or entrepreneurs.
Nowadays, even more and more employees are working from home without any direct supervisor and thus lack the external structure. With less external structure it is even more important to have some internal structure coming from a work schedule. So it is important to balance flexibility with structure.
For all these reasons, while we recommend not to work according to a schedule set by due dates, we also strongly encourage you to make a work schedule.

4. The Incremental Time Planning Method

We have seen that you schedule your work but you should not do so by using due dates. So how should you schedule your work?
The answer is the Incremental Time Planning Method. This method is based on Focus Cycles.
Focus cycles are short time periods that are preceded by a work planning session and ended by a work review session. During the focus cycle you only focus on the execution of the work that you have preplanned.
You have different lengths of focus cycles:

• Month
• Week
• Day
• Hour or work session (also called Pomodoro session)

All of these are important and should be used in combination for your work scheduling.
Work scheduling by focus cycles combines all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of both not scheduling work at all as well as scheduling according to due dates.

4.1. Scheduling work with Incremental Time Planning Method

This is how scheduling using the Incremental Time Planning Method works:

• Create all the tasks. Do this by looking at your big goals, splitting them into projects, splitting projects into tasks and tasks into actionable subtasks. This first step creates a well structured but extremely large list of tasks containing everything that you want to accomplish.
• Next you want to split the overall task list into different focus cycles:
  • First, select which task you want to get done this month, and which ones will stay in the list of tasks to be done in the future. (monthly plan)
  • Second, every week at the beginning of the week look at the remaining tasks in the monthly task list and select tasks for this particular week. (weekly plan)
  • Third, everyday look at the remaining tasks in the weekly task list and select tasks to be done on this day. (daily plan)
  • Finally, rearrange daily tasks in the order of execution and then only focus on execution. (execution plan)

4.2. Why is the Incremental Time Planning Method so powerful?

I have been using work scheduling in different levels of focus cycles as explained above for a long time and have been advising others to do the same. Me and others have seen enormous benefits of being more focused, more organized, more productive and happier.

4.2.1. Focus

One of the main benefits of working with focus cycles is the increased focus. This comes because on the one hand you do not have too many “Today” due dates interrupting your work flow and on the other hand you constantly know what to work on next.

• During the day you are only focused on your daily tasks, and you can forget everything else.
• During the week you are only focused on the weekly tasks, and you can forget everything else.
• During the month you are only focused on the monthly tasks, and you can forget everything else.
• This way you can achieve the highest level of focus. That is why the time intervals are called focus cycles.

4.2.2. Planning in stages

The problem with due dates is not so much assigning them, but planning your work schedule around them. Especially if due dates are deadlines that are not supposed to be execution dates.
But even if people assign due dates independent of deadlines, as a kind of execution date, they do not work, for the main reason that they are set too early, when it is still not possible to determine the right execution time.
Even worse is the work scheduling with a calendar and thus assigning not only a date but also a fixed time to tasks that by nature are time flexible tasks. We have written about the danger of this in this article:

	Planning with a Calendar? This Advice Will Skyrocket your Productivity!

Setting an execution date or even a time in advance at the point the tasks comes in, is too early, as you do not have all the information about the perfect scheduling yet.
Focus cycles based work scheduling determines the perfect work schedule in an incremental way, the more information you have the more precise you will schedule.

• Beginning month: only determine the work for the next 30 days at a general level, without specifying the week.
• Beginning week: only determine the work for the next 7 days at a general level, without specifying the day.
• Beginning day: only determine work for the next 24 hours at a general level without specifying the time.
• Pomodoro session: determine the specific task to work on next.

So focus cycles planning allows you to plan exactly the right time horizon from very broad to very precise, in several incremental steps.

4.2.3. Summary of Benefits

In summary there are these enormous benefits of scheduling work by using focus cycles:

• Ideal balance between flexibility and structure
• Less stress
• More focus
• More productivity

4.2.4. Workiamo Work Management Software

The challenge of scheduling work according to different levels of focus cycles is that it is quite complicated and time consuming to do the monthly, weekly, and daily work schedule, especially if you are working on several projects simultaneously as for every cycle you have to transfer tasks from the more general to the more specific cycle: monthly -> weekly -> daily -> execution schedule.
Existing task and project management tools allow to set due dates, but have no easy way to integrate focus cycles. For that reason we developed a specific tool for work scheduling by focus cycles, called Workiamo.

Workiamo is a Work Management Software that is based on the Focus Cycles Productivity System and is extremely simple. It is ideal for anybody that wants to be less stressed and more productive. As you are reading this, you have earned free, lifetime access! Register at www.workiamo.com by entering this code: ILOVEWORK.