No, I haven’t gone mad!

My belief is that working with time-bound deadlines alone is one of the most soul-destroying habits we have.

We’re told time and time again that we need SMART Objectives (which I totally agree with), but my experience is that we should drop the T – Time-bound.

What is far more effective is to have milestones:

“A significant stage or event in the development of something.”

Milestones serve as markers to move your business forward; you still need a goal and relevant alerts set up to measure each milestone.

If you’re launching a new product it’s likely that you’ll need to obtain Patent approvals to protect the name, design, process etc.  It’s impossible to put a time-bound deadline on this because it depends on so many factors (and people) from searches, applications and listings in journals, through to objections and dealing with disputes.

If you put a deadline to this part of the Project then all you’ll be doing is seeing that you’ve missed the date, changing it to a new date, and repeating this the following week…and the next…and the next…

Imagine you’re doing this for lots of activities; pretty soul destroying, isn’t it?

Worst still, if you’ve delegated this then imagine the impact of frustration, worry and de-motivation on the wider team.

If it’s a milestone, then you keep an eye on this via your Alerts, and simply mark it off once completed.

I’m not saying to drop the timeframes altogether because you need some indication and have to work towards a desired end date. Plus, many day-to-day activities within your business need a deadline.

This week have a think about what currently works well when it comes to project management in your business, but even better if….

You may find that introducing a few milestones may be your answer.

BW,

Martin

Martin Norbury

The Scalability Coach | Britain’s Top 10 Adviser 2018 | Author of #1 bestseller I don’t work Fridays  | Ex-CEO of a PLC

Image source: Thomas Mühl from Pixabay