Procrastination is universal.
鈥淚t鈥檚 as fundamental as the shape of time,鈥� said Christopher Cox, a journalist and former chief editor of Harper鈥檚 Magazine and executive editor of GQ.
The author of 鈥溾�� says up to 20% of us are chronic procrastinators, but he offers simple tips so that your procrastination doesn鈥檛 translate into missed deadlines.
For example, don鈥檛 beat yourself up. Set up external supports you can rely upon to help yourself out.
鈥淭here are people out there who are able to wake up at 6 a.m. all on their own but the rest of us need alarm clocks and we shouldn鈥檛 despair if you need an alarm clock,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a personal failure if you need some bit of help waking up. And it鈥檚 not a personal failure if you need help meeting deadlines.鈥�
Cox said to beware of something called 鈥渙ptimism bias,鈥� where you think things will be easier to do than they actually are.
鈥淚f you want to accurately budget your time for a big project, think about the most similar project you鈥檝e done before and how long that took,鈥� Cox said. 鈥淪imply asking that question to yourself, which sounds like, 鈥榦h, of course, that should be step one for everyone,鈥� but most people skip that step.鈥�
And while meeting deadlines is the goal, there are cases when they are missed. Cox鈥檚 advice: Don鈥檛 panic.
鈥淭he less time you spend feeling anguish and anxiety about that part of it, the sooner you can move on to getting things done.鈥�
So, does meeting deadlines get easier with practice? Cox said it鈥檚 a matter of reframing the problem.
鈥淓mbracing deadlines leads to happiness, leads you to be productive, and despite their somber name and the bad connotations we have with the word, they鈥檙e wonderful things. And if we embrace them, our lives will be better.鈥�
To hear more best practices for meeting deadlines, head to , where you can download and subscribe to the show鈥檚 podcast.
