Deadlines are the curse of life and also the thing that gets the s**t done.
You may be lured into various types of philosophy that tell you that if you can only work to a deadline, it's a sense that your life is lived in panic and that you've developed psychologically in the wrong direction.
I don't really believe that's true.
We were generally, as hunter-gatherers driven by deadlines, it seems, and I think the same is true now.
The thing for us, though, is that who owns the deadline?
It's easy to see that if we work for a boss, the boss may push towards those deadlines which are a result of the anxieties or the stress or the productivity targets that they are under.
It's also true that it might come from a client (a patient who has a deadline that they wish to meet for their treatment and therefore pass it on to you).
In these circumstances, it's difficult to see how to avoid the deadlines, but often you have more of a choice than you think.
In the first instance, ask yourself, who owns this deadline?
And then ask yourself, why is it my responsibility to meet it?
And then ask yourself, is this the most valuable and/or productive and/or effective use of my time right now, or can I push the deadline back to do something that creates greater change right this minute?
Looking at the world like that is a much better way to scan your emails than answering them in chronological order, because you want your inbox to be empty.
Blog Post Number - 4679
Chicco is coming to Nottingham
This October, we’ll be welcoming Dr Chicco from Tanzania to The Campbell Clinic for his first visit to the UK.
To celebrate, we’ve launched Buy a Mile, asking our community to buy as many miles of his 4,745-mile journey as they can. Every £1 donated represents one mile, with every penny raised going directly to Bridge2Aid and its dental education work in Tanzania.
Buy a Mile and support Bridge2Aid here
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