The farther away a deadline, the more unrealistic and abstracted our planning becomes. The closer a deadline, the more focussed and productive we become.

Planning Fallacy

A <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1ace/a08d84d042b2d9802ca3432ee803da698d03.pdf">study</a> on procrastination and deadlines found that some people may be able to set their own deadlines and stick to them, but when deadlines are set externally, we are often better at keeping them.

Self-Imposed Vs External

... based on importance, not time. Prioritize your projects based on importance first, and your employees will use Parkinson’s Law and urgency bias to their best advantage. If a project has low importance, set it a bit farther out.

Prioritize deadlines

Mention the impact and positive results of completing the assignment. Employees will have more meaning and purpose to overcome procrastination.

Communicate consequences and payoffs

When we are facing multiple deadlines, we often tend to focus on the tasks in front of us rather than the ones that seem far off, regardless of how important they might be.

Urgency Bias

The more time we are given to complete a task, the longer we will take to do it. This is similar to Parkinson’s Law, which states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” We often procrastinate if we do not set deadlines, especially if the expectations of difficulty and importance are unclear.

Procrastination Paradox

Employees will be more motivated into staying on top of deadlines if managers set a good example by being consistent, supportive and trustworthy.

Cultivate trust

When things get busy at work, we can sometimes get lazy about deadlines. We neglect to set them at all. We are vague about them. Or we cut to the chase by saying we need things "right away," "soon," or "ASAP."

Cultivate trust

Similar ideas to Cultivate trust

Solving Leaveism

Becoming trustworthy

The Benefits of a Calling