Beating tight deadlines

If your company has many clients or projects, deadlines can quickly pile up. In an effort to meet everyone's demands, companies sometimes promise more than they can deliver. Is it possible to get everything done well and on time?

First, it's important to make sure your deadlines are realistic. If you're missing deadlines because of procrastination or inefficiency, these issues can be essily dealt with, but make sure you have the resources and time before promising something you can't deliver. It's better to overestimate that underestimate how long something will take.

Once you have deadlines laid out, evaluate the work that needs to be done in order to meet each one and break it up into smaller milestones. If you have several projects with deadlines to meet at the same time, allocate a certain amount of time and resources to each one weekly.

Plan for potential problems in advance. Many people fail to meet deadlines because unforeseen problems crop up. Try to imagine all the possible scenarios in which something could go wrong and plan for how to deal with those issues. It's also helpful to plan to finish a few days before the actual deadline to allow extra time for anything you can't predict.

Pay attention to past experiences, whether successes or failures. This helps you plan for potential issues and better estimate how long something will take realistically. If something has worked well in the past, keep doing it. If you underestimated something or encountered a problem, factor that into your plans.

Use all resources wisely; for example, if you know you won't get certain supplies until a set date, focus on a different project before then. Figure out the most efficient use of your time, team and resources to work smoothly towards meeting all of your deadlines.