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Dealing with deadlines
Deadlines aren’t going anywhere,
especially when you’re an EA, but how
you deal with them can define your
success and reputation. John Cole, a
productivity and work/life balance
expert, says researchers have shown
that the more complex the task, the
sooner the deadline feels, so he shares
his top techniques on meeting that
target, every time:
w Clarify expectations – your boss
will expect something done in a
certain way, whilst you have your own
expectations – identify both to create
a realistic schedule then prioritise
and evaluate to put the deadline into
realistic context.
w Get equipped – deadlines often
come without warning, making
it tempting to leap straight in. But
without the resources to fulfil the task,
a project will suffer from interruptions,
inconsistencies and gaps. If you’re
given the tools you need before you get
stuck in, everyone will benefit.
w Create deadlines within deadlines – a
deadline with no subdivisions is pretty
meaningless, so create a ‘critical path
10 Chief of Staff | April/May 2018
analysis diagram,’ which assigns each
element of your workflow its own
expected duration – it’s basically a
time-map of everything that you need
to do to reach the final deadline.
w Be realistic – factor in every
possibility and don’t over-estimate
– how many hours you can work for
without the quality dipping? What
impact will your other responsibilities
have? Factor in a contingency period
while you’re cooking up your
schedule and balance it against the
known variables in your routine and
environment.
w Eliminate distractions – the key is to
protect large enough chunks of time
to achieve and maintain your flow, so
delegate where possible, have a word
with your superior if you need a bit
more space to focus, and deal with
distractions within your control, like
reducing e-mail access for certain
time periods.
w Don’t over-commit – if you take
on more work than you can handle,
your results will start to suffer and
everybody loses – s